Dodgers bullpen holds it together as Freddie Freeman walks it off in the 11th over White Sox

A 5-4 Dodgers victory over the Chicago White Sox that was made possible by Chris Taylor’s sixth-inning grand slam and Freddie Freeman’s 11th-inning walk-off RBI single Thursday night served as one giant cleansing breath for their beleaguered bullpen.

The Dodgers entered the game with a 4.90 bullpen ERA, the second-worst mark in baseball ahead of only the Oakland Athletics, but four relievers combined to blank the White Sox on one hit and strike out nine over the final six innings before a crowd of 48,655 in Chavez Ravine on Thursday night.

Shelby Miller, in his first game back off the bereavement list, threw two scoreless innings in relief of starter Michael Grove. Yency Almonte struck out Eloy Jimenez and Jake Burger in a one-two-three eighth.

Jimenez doubled and Burger followed with a homer off Almonte on Wednesday.

Evan Phillips struck out two of three batters in a clean ninth and returned for a 10th inning in which the right-hander escaped a first-and-third, one-out jam by striking out No. 3 batter Luis Robert Jr. with an 85-mph sweeper and cleanup man Jimenez with an 86-mph sweeper.

Left-hander Caleb Ferguson kept the score tied in the top of the 11th by striking out Burger, getting Andrew Vaughn to fly to center and Yasmani Grandal to ground to third.

The Dodgers then won it in the 11th after Taylor, the automatic runner at second, took third on Grandal’s passed ball, Miguel Rojas walked and Mookie Betts capped a 12-pitch at-bat in which he fouled off six two-strike pitches against left-hander Garrett Crochet with a walk to load the bases.

Freeman, with the infield and outfield in, lofted a fly ball that bounced near the warning track in center for the win.

The Dodgers advanced only one runner to second base in the first five innings against White Sox starter Dylan Cease, and they trailed 4-0 after Grove gave up back-to-back solo homers to Robert and Jimenez in the first inning and Burger and Vaughn in the fourth.

Dodgers’ Chris Taylor gestures after hitting a grand slam during the sixth inning against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

But Will Smith led off the bottom of the sixth with a single to center field, and David Peralta hit a one-out, broken-bat single to center. White Sox manager Pedro Grifol summoned hard-throwing right-hander Reynoldo Lopez, who got Vargas to fly to right for the second out.

James Outman, who had two hits and 11 strikeouts in 17 at-bats over 10 games, lined a hard single to center, but normally aggressive third-base coach Dino Ebel held Smith at third, a wise choice considering Robert’s one-hop throw to the plate from center would have probably nailed Smith.

Taylor then ignited the crowd by driving a 98-mph fastball into the left-field pavilion for his 100th career home run, his fifth grand slam and a 4-4 tie.

Taylor, starting at third base in place of the injured Max Muncy, helped preserve the tie with a clutch defensive play in the top of the seventh.

Miller retired the side in order in the sixth but got into trouble in the seventh when Elvis Andrus led off with a double and took third on Gavin Sheets’ one-out grounder to second, where Vargas made a nice diving stop toward the hole and threw to first.

Robert walked, putting runners on first and third with two outs.

As Robert headed for second on a stolen-base attempt, Smith, the Dodgers catcher, pump-faked a throw to second that caught Andrus too far off the bag at third.

Smith threw to Taylor, who chased Andrus toward home and applied a diving tag on his leg to end the inning.