Before Wednesday, a lead of six or more runs in the eighth inning of a MLB game had only been overcome once this season, with teams 1-448 in that situation. The Los Angeles Dodgers became the second such team to pull off a crazy comeback Wednesday against the Colorado Rockies, coming back from an 8-2 deficit to win 10-8.
Moreover, the Dodgers did so in style. They had a two-out, top-of-the-ninth, opposite-field grand slam from outfielder Andrew Toles cap the comeback:
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/771192701043650562
The 24-year-old Toles has a remarkable comeback story of his own, as he’s had a rocky road to this point. He was dismissed from the University of Tennessee as a sophomore in 2011 and wound up at Chipola College in Florida, but was still chosen as a third-round pick by Tampa Bay in 2012 and was named the Rays’ minor-league player of the year in 2013 after hitting .326 with 62 stolen bases in Class A. However, things later went south with the Rays; he missed two months of the 2014 season with “personal issues,” and was released in March 2015. He sat out all of last year and even worked at a Kroger’s grocery store in his native Georgia for a few weeks.
Things started to turn around for Toles this year, though. Dodgers’ GM Andrew Friedman, who drafted Toles with the Rays, kept in touch with him and signed him to a minor-league deal late last year. He started off at single-A Rancho Cucamonga, but quickly worked through the ranks to double-A and triple-A, shining at both levels. He was first called up to the majors in July, and hit .316/.395/.395 in 16 appearances before being sent down again, but then was called back up August 21, and he’s been making some waves since then, prompting comment on how unusual his year has been:
He made some history earlier this month, too:
There are a few other things that also stand out here. For one, this helped redeem the day for the Dodgers, as they lost the first game of the doubleheader 7-0. Toles’ performance also overshadowed a remarkable showing from 29-year-old Rockies’ rookie Stephen Cardullo, who became the first MLB player to homer in both games of doubleheader on his birthday since Tony Perez in 1972. This comeback was an unusual one, too; the only other MLB team to pull off such a late comeback this year was Kansas City against Chicago in May. It’s a great story for Toles and for the Dodgers, and it’s important in the division race too. They’re currently just 1.5 games up on the Giants, so this comeback could be quite important in the grand scheme of the season.