Mookie Betts knows that the Dodgers must improve exponentially moving forward if they were to achieve their goals this year.

On a night when Yoshinobu Yamamoto was nearly unhittable and Justin Verlander was in vintage form, the pitchers' duel that made up the first seven innings of Friday night's clash between the Dodgers and Giants was a mere footnote in the end.

Jackson Holliday homered with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to deny Yoshinobu Yamamoto a no-hitter, and the Baltimore Orioles weren’t satisfied with that, rallying for four runs in the inning to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 in a delirious comeback.

The defending World Series champions have struggled for most of the summer, and yet all that matters is how they play in October.

The Orioles were one out away from being no-hit by the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto before igniting a rally for a shocking walk-off win.

With a World Series Trophy in their awards case, announcer Stephen Nelson believes some regular season adversity could help the Dodgers.

This story was excerpted from Sonja Chen’s Dodgers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Defense was highlighted in what was a low-scoring 1-1 pitching duel for most of the game between Yamamoto and Verlander