Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
On one hand, the Dodgers finally stopped alternating wins and losses with the Diamondbacks after six games just like I wanted. On the other hand, it was because the D-backs embarrassed the Dodgers pitching staff in a 12-8 romp that consisted of them getting 17 hits.
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The Dodgers didn’t have a repeat of last time against Zach Davies, as they got to him early. A Freddie Freeman single was followed by a Will Smith walk, and a Max Muncy single drove in the game’s first run four batters in.
With the runners now cornered, J.D. Martinez lifted a sacrifice fly to right to plate another run. However, it was James Outman who did the loudest damage yet again, smashing his third homer of the year to left for a 4-0 lead.
Unfortunately, Noah Syndergaard was pretty terrible, as the command of his pitches were all over the place and his stuff was
It started in the 1st, with back-to-back doubles from Ketel Marte and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to cut things to 4-1. The 2nd actually got off to a great start with two quick outs on three pitches, but a triple to right was followed by a Geraldo Perdomo homer, and then a single was quickly followed by a Marte homer to put up four runs in four batters and make it 6-4 to the Diamondbacks.
They extended that lead by one in the 3rd after a Corbin Carroll hit by pitch led to a stolen base and a Gabriel Moreno single to make it 6-4. While Syndergaard would give up another single, he’d escape the trouble. The 4th would be the only scoreless inning he had in the outing.
A bit of batting practice, really: 4 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 72 Pitches.
Meanwhile, Davies had faced the minimum in the 2nd and 3rd, having a single in the latter erased by a double play. That was not the case in the 4th, when he gave up a double to Martinez, got two outs, and then completely lost the zone. Back-to-back-to-back walks from Jason Heyward, Chris Taylor, and Mookie Betts forced a run in and cut the deficit to 6-5. Davies then got behind Freddie Freeman 3-0 as well, but got a close strike and then gave up a missile to center that was caught to escape.
Davies came out for the 5th and got an out, but during an at-bat against Max Muncy he went down with an oblique injury and had to be removed. Against the pen, the Dodgers tried for a two-out rally after a double and a walk, but again came up short.
Alex Vesia took over for Syndergaard in the 5th and gave up a run using a familiar formula, with a Carroll single and steal, but this time Alek Thomas singled him home to make it 7-5.
The Dodgers tried to keep it interesting in the 6th, getting the run back behind a two-out double from Mookie Betts and a double high off the wall to Freddie Freeman that got things to 7-6.
Things didn’t get better for the pen either. Brusdar Graterol gave the run back and then some in the 6th after a double, triple, and sacrifice fly plated two to make it 9-6. Andre Jackson followed in the 7th by giving up a single, double, single, and single, all with two outs, to push the D-backs lead to 12-6. At least he got a scoreless 8th, I guess. Woo.
Ugly work to say the least.
The offense didn’t take full advantage of chances, but they did their part today at least. After going down in order in the 7th, Jason Heyward continued his revival by blasting his third homer of the year to cut things to 12-7.
The bats tried their best to rally back in the 9th, starting with a Freeman double and a Will Smith single to score him, but things ended there and left the score at a 12-8 final.
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5-4 is mildly worrying given the things that have broken right for the Dodgers so far.
The series finale of the four-game set is early on a getaway day at 10:10 AM HT/1:10 PM PT/4:10 PM ET with Michael Grove against Ryne Nelson.
