D-backs 7, Dodgers 3: Rich Hill is unfortunately human

The Dodgers struggling the game after playing a contest with two rain delays and then flying across the country shouldn’t exactly come as a shock, but losing with Rich Hill on the mound against Archie Bradley has to count as a depressing loss. Hill finally scuffled a bit and looked human, while a rally from the offense proved too little too late in a 7-3 loss.

Rich Hill had his streak of 19 scoreless innings to start his Dodgers career ended, and he also saw his ERA skyrocket to 1.48. Hill surrendered four runs on four hits and a walk in 5.1 innings, which is mediocre for a normal pitcher, but pretty much a disaster start for him. That’s not to say Hill wasn’t dominant at times, since he did strike out eight batters, including doing cool stuff like this.

Still, I doubt anybody was pleased with Hill’s start, least of all himself. Louis Coleman then entered to provide relief and instead had an even worse outing, surrendering three runs of his own (and one of Hill’s) on two hits and two walks before getting out of the frame.

An odd moment came in the fifth inning, when Hill squared around to bunt and was laid one down but was hit on the hand because Archie Bradley’s pitch missed inside. Hill, for whatever reason, started yelling at Bradley as he was running down the line.

I guess he was pissed cause he got hit on the hand and thought Bradley did it intentionally? Well, whatever, both benches cleared and did their macho posturing and that was it.

The Dodgers finally got on the board later in that inning, as Chase Utley walked and then Justin Turner hit a two-out double to right-center to score Utley. In the seventh, the Dodgers rallied behind three consecutive hits. Joc Pederson started things with a single, then Andrew Toles doubled to left, and after Joc scored on a wild pitch, Utley doubled to left center to score Toles. Unfortunately, the D-backs then brought in Patrick Corbin (a lefty), who got the next three outs on eight pitches, because of course.

Josh Ravin was tasked with getting the seventh and eighth, and he did so in perfect fashion while striking out three batters. Unfortunately, Corbin remained in the game and got a 1-2-3 eighth inning, and then did the same in the ninth for the save and to presumably humiliate the Dodgers.

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The loss drops the Dodgers to 82-64 on the year overall and 35-37 away from home, because they will never get back to .500 on the road. The Giants, meanwhile, are still playing Cardinals, so the Dodgers lead in the NL West has temporarily been cut to 4.5 games with it probably dropping to 4 games soon.

Dodgers and Diamondbacks do it again tomorrow night at 3:40 PM HST/6:40 PM PST/9:40 PM EST on SportsNet LA. The good guys will send Kenta Maeda (3.28 ERA/3.55 FIP/3.50 DRA) to the hill against the bad guys and Zack Greinke (4.54 ERA/4.10 FIP/3.38 DRA).

About Chad Moriyama

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"A highly rational Internet troll." - Los Angeles Times