Dalton Rushing helps cap Dodgers wild walk-off

Dalton Rushing was pissed off. He just chased a slider in the grime — again. And this time, the sport was on the road. The Dodgers have been down to their last out. He was down to his last strike.

So he took a second, took a breath, and seemed to the Dodgers dugout.

The first individual he noticed was Mookie Betts, who had just cut the Orioles’ lead to a run with a solo homer. Betts was locked in with Rushing, brimming with confidence, cheering him on.

“For a guy like that, a guy that’s lived in that moment, he’s succeeded in that moment, he’s failed in that moment, he knows what it feels like, it’s pretty special,” Rushing recounted.

Rushing’s eyes traveled along the railing, noting his teammates all on the top step, all relying on him.

He dug into the box, anticipating the slider that Baltimore’s Ryan Helsley threw next — it was high, for a ball. Then Rushing bought a fastball he might drive. And he didn’t miss.

The next moments in the Dodgers’ 6-5 walk-off win Friday have been chaos.

Rushing lined a tying single into proper discipline, giving Alex Call time to rating from second. Call slid across the plate as the throw from Orioles proper fielder Tyler O’Neill took for a long hop to catcher Samuel Basallo.

Basallo misjudged it, taking an unhurried shuffle up the road, before the ball glanced off his glove and rolled toward the Dodgers dugout.

Third base coach Dino Ebel waved home Ryan Ward, who scored standing up.

Manager Dave Roberts, who seemed down at his card when the throw was in the air, was already considering through further innings when the gang erupted again. He heard discipline coordinator Bob Geren shouting one thing like, “The run counts.”

The Dodgers (49-27) ran onto the sector and swarmed Rushing, who had just reached second. They jumped and yelled as the Dodgers Stadium lights flashed around them.

“It was good to get Freddie [Freeman] a night off for being the guy in the middle for a change, you know?” Rushing said with a grin. “No, it’s a great feeling, and I think it honestly just feels great that we won that baseball game.”

For a number of innings, it seemed like they wouldn’t.

Dalton Rushing celebrates after hitting a run-scoring single in the ninth to help carry the Dodgers to a 6-5 walk-off win over the Baltimore Orioles at Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers had jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, on a two-run single from Max Muncy in the first inning and an RBI double from Andy Pages in the second. Then their scoring dried up.

Rushing was having as irritating of a evening as anybody, with a line out and three strikeouts.

His first strikeout was half of a brutal sequence. The Dodgers loaded the bases with no outs in the third. Then Ward, Rushing and Alex Freeland, all went down swinging.

Rushing struck out on a slider in the grime. And Orioles starter Trey Gibson bought him to chunk on the same putaway pitch in the fifth.

Rushing’s reactions steadily grew more animated, on the sector and in the dugout.

Mookie Betts celebrates as he runs the bases after hitting a solo home run in the ninth inning Friday against the Orioles.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Alex Freeland alerts secure after sliding past Baltimore catcher Samuel Basallo to rating on a double by Andy Pages in the second inning Friday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“He plays with a fire under his ass,” Freeland said. “He gets after it. He expects nothing but the best for himself day in and day out, and that comes with it.”

Said Roberts: “After he … vents, he does a good job of collecting himself to get back into the next play, the next at-bat, catching.”

On Friday, he was catching Roki Sasaki, who confronted just one batter over the minimal through 5 innings. But during the third time through the order, the Orioles finally figured him out and hit back-to-back home runs.

With two outs and a runner on, Sasaki yanked a splitter to the inside edge of the strike zone to Gunnar Henderson, who lifted it over the wall in proper discipline. Pete Alonso then homered to left-center discipline on an inside fastball about belt high to tie the rating.

“I thought he threw the baseball really well,” Roberts said. “I liked the way he competed. The fastball command was good. He was fantastic tonight.”

The Orioles (35-42) pulled forward against the Dodgers bullpen. Will Klein surrendered a seventh-inning single to Jackson that despatched two baserunners, including one inherited from Dodgers left-hander Jack Dreyer, across the plate.

Kyle Hurt and Blake Treinen threw clean eighth and ninth innings.

Finally, in the underside of the ninth, Betts ended the Dodgers’ scoring drought. Then Muncy — later changed by the pinch-running Call — and Ward drew walks.

With two outs, Rushing stepped up to the plate, fell behind in the rely 0-2 and reset.

“I look in the dugout, and all those guys care about is that next pitch, and the next pitch after that, and the next pitch after that,” Rushing said. “They just want you to win one pitch at a time.”

So, that’s what he did.