D’backs 6, Dodgers 3: Jake Lamb’s two dingers do in Dodgers

Justin Turner had a great night at the plate, delivering his 14th and 15th home runs of the year. Unfortunately for the DodgersJake Lamb also hit two home runs, and one of them was a grand slam, which capped off the rare Los Angeles bullpen implosion.

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Despite the fact that Kenta Maeda — gasp — struck out for the first time this season (after 32 plate appearances), he had a decent outing, delivering five innings of one-run ball. Maeda struggled through a tense first inning, needing 25 pitches to get through it, but working around a leadoff double and then a walk to keep it scoreless — no small feat, as he got Paul Goldschmidt to pop out and struck out J.D. Martinez.

Zack Godley looked pretty nearly untouchable after Chris Taylor‘s leadoff base hit was erased on a double play. The only other base runner he allowed in the first three innings was Logan Forsythe, who reached via a walk.

Justin Turner had no interest in being shut out, though. With one out in the top of the fourth, he delivered his longest home run of the year (per Statcast).

Cody Bellinger followed up with a double, and came home to score on a two-out base hit by Forsythe:

In the bottom of the fourth, Yasiel Puig made a nice catch to retire Goldschmidt:

RIP water bottles.

Maeda ran into trouble in the fifth inning, as Chris Iannetta led off with a home run. Ketel Marte followed with a base hit and made it all the way to third on an errant pickoff throw that happened due to a miscommunication between Maeda and Bellinger. Marte ended up stranded there, though, as Maeda worked his way out of the jam with a strikeout, a groundout that he handled himself, and a flyout.

Turner wasted no time getting that run back, as he opened the top of the sixth with his second solo shot of the day:

Pedro Báez took over for Maeda in the bottom of the sixth, and he quickly gave that run back, allowing Lamb’s first dinger of the night. He very nearly gave up another one, but Puig saved him with a beautiful catch to rob Martinez:

Brandon Morrow started the bottom of the seventh, and gave up a base hit to Iannetta. After striking out Marte, Morrow was replaced by Tony Watson. Watson hit Adam Rosales with a pitch, then helped make a nice play at first to retire David Peralta.

Watson intentionally walked A.J. Pollock to face the left-handed Lamb with the bases loaded. For the second consecutive inning, Lamb hit a home run. This one gave the D’backs a three-run lead.

My goodness.

Ross Stripling pitched a clean eighth inning, but Archie Bradley and Fernando Rodney held the Dodgers scoreless to bring their winning streak to an end at just four games this time.

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The Dodgers (now 79-33) will take another shot at win #80 tomorrow night, when they face the Diamondbacks (now 64-48) once again, at 6:40 PM Pacific. It’ll be Alex Wood (2.33 ERA, 2.57 FIP, 3.11 DRA) against old friend Zack Greinke (3.10 ERA, 3.24 FIP, 2.55 DRA). Should be a good one.

About Sarah Wexler

Sarah Wexler is a native Angeleno and longtime Dodger fan. She began blogging about baseball in 2012 on her Tumblr, New Grass On The Field, where she covered an array of topics but especially enjoyed exploring baseball history. She is now a reporter/producer for MLB.com. She earned her master's degree in Sports Management from Cal State Long Beach. She graduated from New York University in 2014 with a bachelor's in History and a minor in American Studies. She's an avid Springsteen fan, which is a big boost to her baseball writer cred.