Manny Machado walked down the first-base line, his eyes tracking the parabola which just burst off his bat, in the final inning of a 7-4 victory over the Diamondbacks. The baseball soared toward the Chase Field fence, an insurance salvo taking flight. Machado admired the shot until his sense of pride morphed into urgency: The ball wasn’t going to clear the wall.
Machado dropped his bat and started to sprint. He arrived at second base, the owner of an RBI double rather than a home run. At this point, the Dodgers will take it. Can one at-bat be a metaphor for a season?