Tampa Steal 7 Bases to Shock Snell and Ohtani to Beat Dodgers 8-2

The Los Angeles Dodgers seemed to be cruising toward a fifth Statis-Pro Baseball championship with eight straight wins heading into our three-team World Series. Then Kyle Schwarber's ninth-inning, game-winning homer handed them their first loss, and Tampa Bay followed by stealing seven bases to shock the Dodgers 8-2.

The Dodgers went 4-0 in the first two pools — preliminary and semifinal — but are now 0-2 in the Championship Pool. If a team loses three games during the initial four-game, home-and-home pool play, it is eliminated. That means the Dodgers must win their rematches against both Philadelphia and Tampa Bay to stay alive for their fifth Statis-Pro World Series championship.

You can play the free Statis-Pro Baseball game here: https://tinyurl.com/3y8ckrv7.

The Dodgers had outscored their first eight opponents 54-18 before their 2-1 loss to Philadelphia, but this game was trouble almost from the moment Shohei Ohtani took the mound.

Wander Franco opened by hitting a grounder to the normally sure-handed Freddie Freeman, who won Game 7 of our 2025 Statis-Pro World Series with a 13th-inning home run. Freeman bobbled it for an error, and Franco promptly stole second and third while the next two batters were retired. Those were the first two of Franco's four steals in the game and seven stolen bases for Tampa Bay.

The scrappy Rays have only the 23rd-highest payroll in baseball at $107 million, but actually have a better record in real MLB play than the Dodgers, who are neck-and-neck with the Mets for the largest payroll at $336 million.

With two outs and Franco on third, Jake Fraley walked and stole second. Gavin Lux then had a chance for a Clutch Batting (BD) play, which occurs occasionally when a batter comes to the plate with runners on base.

In our version, the BD play produces one of three results: any Random Number that would normally be a single on the batter's card (11-21 for Lux) becomes a bases-clearing double; any number that would normally be an extra-base hit or deep drive (22-33) becomes a home run; and any higher number becomes a foul ball, with the batter remaining at the plate.

Lux drew a 17, turning what normally would have been a single into a two-run double and giving Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead.

The Dodgers came back to tie the game 2-2 in the top of the fifth, but Franco walked in the bottom half, stole two more bases and scored on a Yandy Díaz single to make it 3-2. That proved to be the winning run.

Junior Caminero later scored on a Jake Fraley sacrifice fly to extend the lead, and Drew Rasmussen earned the win with five innings of work.

Tampa Bay eventually pulled away for the 8-2 victory, dropping the previously unbeaten Dodgers to 0-2 in Championship Pool play.

We are now halfway through pool play, with Philadelphia at 2-0, Tampa Bay at 1-1 and the Dodgers at 0-2. Each team still has a rematch against the other two teams to complete pool play.

Below is the box score, followed by a photo of the scoresheet.

Pos	1st inning	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	Final
LAD	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2
TBR	2	0	0	0	2	2	0	2	x	8
Pos	LAD	AB	R	H	RBI	Extra	Bats	Home Run!	SP	OPS
DH	Shohei Ohtani	2	1	0	0		LP	23 to 32	A	0.958
RF	Kyle Tucker	4	0	1	1		LP	25 to 28	A	0.827
3b	Max Muncy	3	0	1	1	2b	RP	18 to 26	D	0.861
1b	Freddie Freeman	4	0	0	0		LP	28 to 33	C	0.832
CF	Andy Pages	4	1	1	0	2b	RP	27 to 34	C	0.839
C	Will Smith	3	0	2	0		RP	25 to 28	D	0.790
SS	Mookie Betts	4	0	0	0		RP	28 to 32	C	0.783
LF	Teoscar Hernández	4	0	0	0		RP	26 to 32	C	0.771
2b	Tommy Edman	4	1	1	0	sb	SN	27 to 31	B	0.706
		32	3	6	2
PB-	LAD	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Strikeout!	Th	ERA
2'-9	Shohei Ohtani (L)	4.1	3	4	2	4	9	22 to 55	Right	3.46
2'-8	Blake Snell	1.1	4	2	2	0	2	21 to 56	Left	3.54
2'-7	Brock Stewart	1.1	0	0	0	0	0	22 to 55	Right	3.62
2'-7	Blake Treinen	0.2	3	2	2	0	1	23 to 52	Right	3.79
2'-7	Edgardo Henriquez	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	27 to 45	Right	3.80
		8	10	8	6	4	13
Pos	TBR	AB	R	H	RBI	Extra	Bats	Home Run!	SP	OPS
SS	Wander Franco	4	3	1	0	4sb,2b	SP	27 to 32	A	0.785
3b	Junior Caminero	4	0	2	2		RP	26 to 34	D	0.850
1b	Yandy Díaz	5	0	1	0		RN	32 to 33	D	0.780
RF	Jake Fraley	2	1	0	1	sb,sf	LN	27 to 28	A	0.714
LF	Gavin Lux	4	0	2	2		LN	28 to 28	D	0.694
1B	Liam Hicks	3	0	0	0		LN	27 to 27	D	0.700
CF	Cedric Mullins	4	2	2	0	2sb	SN	24 to 26	A	0.683
C	Nick Fortes	3	1	1	0		RN	26 to 27	D	0.660
2b	Richie Palacios	4	0	1	1		LN	26 to 26	B	0.680
BatAv	0.303	33	7	10	6	7sb
PB-	TBR	IP	H	R	ER	W	K	Strikeout!	Th	ERA
2'-8	Drew Rasmussen (W)	5	4	2	2	3	1	25 to 46	Right	3.72
2'-7	Edwin Uceta	1.2	1	0	0	1	1	22 to 54	Right	3.63
2'-8	Garrett Cleavinger	1.1	0	0	0	0	3	21 to 54	Left	3.22
4'-7	Jesse Scholtens	1	1	0	0	0	1	25 to 44	Right	3.92

Below is the photo of the scoresheet.