Ohtani's heroics foiled as bullpen again falters when Angels rally in ninth and 10th innings

This should've been it.

- BY JACK HARRIS

THE ANGELS get all wet and wild on 10th-inning hero Jo Adell, who drove in the winning run with a single to left field, sealing a 7-6 win over the free-falling Dodgers.

A storybook ending. A cathartic late-game breakthrough. The kind of dramatic, momentum-shifting triumph to finally give the Dodgers some much-needed life.

In the top of the ninth inning at Angel Stadium on Tuesday night, Shohei Ohtani lifted the team to the verge of a narrative-changing victory, breaking a tie with the kind of swing that could have catapulted them into the season's closing stretch.

With former Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen on the mound, and a split crowd in Anaheim rising to its feet, Ohtani blasted a go-ahead home run deep to right field. He flipped his bat and emphatically smacked his hands together. He screamed toward a euphoric Dodgers dugout that was going raucously wild.

So often in recent weeks, the team had been on the other end of scenes like this. Blowing late leads. Squandering comeback chances. And watching their division lead dwindle amid one of the worst extended stretches in the club's recent history.

Now, at long last, they had their own breakthrough moment.

Three more outs, and their mounting frustrations might finally subside.

"Big hit right there," manager Dave Roberts said. "Obviously, you felt it in the dugout."

What the Dodgers felt next, however, might last much longer.

On a night they could have resuscitated their season, they instead found a new way to crumble. In the kind of collapse that has become all too common of late, they let yet another winnable game go meekly by the wayside.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Dodgers blew their one-run lead after Alex Vesia gave up a leadoff single, a walk and an eventual Nolan Schanuel sacrifice fly.