Dodgers 8, D’Backs 6: Getting Late Early For Arizona

Depending on how you look at it, Dan Haren was great — he pitched into the eighth inning! He’s the first Dodger pitcher to do that this year, and struck out five without walking any — or lousy, because he fell behind 4-0 and gave up five runs, and only Hyun-jin Ryu gave up more in a start this year. I prefer to think of it as “good,” because only two of those runs were earned, thanks to a Hanley Ramirez error. Only twice did Haren even get to a three-ball count; outside of that messy third inning, only one Diamondback even reached second base against him. As we’ve been focusing on pretty much every other area of this team except for him, that probably says a lot: the less you talk about your supposed No. 4 starter, the better. The Dodgers have won each of his four starts. He’s been everything you could have hoped for so far.

It helped, of course, that the Dodgers actually managed to put up some run support for once, scoring three in the fourth when Andre Ethier‘s three-run shot brought home Adrian Gonzalez and Matt Kemp, then five times in the fifth as rookie starter Michael Bolsinger fell apart, allowing three consecutive singles to start the inning. (Not that he was helped; Martin Prado made an error on Ramirez’ grounder, then Oliver Perez came in to allow two-run hits to Gonzalez (single) and Kemp (double).

All of this would have been smooth sailing if not for Brian Wilson, who threw only 11 of his 23 pitches for strikes, allowed two hits and a walk, brought the tying run to the plate, and refused to throw inside. Ever. Fortunately, he got through it and handed it off to Kenley Jansen, who quietly got through the ninth.

The Diamondbacks are 5-15. Six of those losses are to the Dodgers. They’re already seven games out. I cannot say this displeases me.