LOS ANGELES — Arizona celebrates on the field after piling on six runs in the sixth to bury the Dodgers, 9-2. Credit: @dbacks
LOS ANGELES — For five innings, this looked like the response the Dodgers needed after Friday’s meltdown. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was cruising, the lineup was scratching out just enough, and Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium was quiet but patient. Then the sixth inning happened, and the same story from a night earlier wrote itself all over again. Arizona hung six runs on the board in a single frame, Landon Knack couldn’t slow the bleeding in relief, and the Diamondbacks walked out of Chavez Ravine with a 9-2 win and a series lead heading into the finale.
One bad inning undoes six good ones
Yamamoto had allowed one run through five, working around a Max Muncy throwing error in the third and a bases-empty solo run in the fourth that came off a Tim Tawa groundout. It was the kind of clean, workmanlike outing the Dodgers have leaned on all year. Then the top of the sixth arrived, and everything came apart at once. Geraldo Perdomo walked to open the inning, Gabriel Moreno singled him to third, and Max Kepler’s sacrifice fly made it 2-0.
Tawa followed with an RBI double, and after an intentional walk to Nolan Arenado loaded the bases, James McCann blew the game open with a three run homer to left. By the time the dust settled, Arizona had sent eight batters to the plate and scored six runs in the frame, turning a taut pitchers’ duel into a laugher in a matter of minutes. Yamamoto’s final line read six innings, six runs, six strikeouts, the kind of outing that looks fine on paper and felt like anything but live at Dodger Stadium.
A brief answer, then it stalls out
Los Angeles didn’t fold immediately. Tommy Edman opened the bottom of the sixth with a double, and Andy Pagès, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts strung together three straight singles to plate two runs and pull the deficit to 6-2.
For a few minutes, Dodger Stadium had a pulse again, and it felt like the kind of rally that could flip a game. Brandyn Garcia came in to relieve Brandon Pfaadt and shut the door, striking out Muncy and getting Kyle Tucker to line out to end the threat, and the Dodgers never threatened again the rest of the night.
Knack and the bullpen keep leaking
Knack took over for Yamamoto in the seventh and immediately ran into trouble, hitting Perdomo with a pitch before watching him steal second, then walking Corbin Carroll and Gabriel Moreno to load the bases. Kepler’s sacrifice fly cashed in another run and pushed the lead back to five, the kind of frame that never should have needed the bullpen’s help in the first place.
The eighth inning was worse. With the Dodgers already shuffling their defense in a game that had long stopped feeling saveable, Arenado and McCann went back to back for solo home runs, McCann’s second of the night, and turned a manageable deficit into a laugher at 9-2. Six walks and a hit batter from the Dodgers pitching staff on the night did nearly as much damage as Arizona’s bats, and for the second straight game, the bullpen simply couldn’t find the outs it needed while the game was still within reach.
Ohtani held in check, Wrobleski gets good news
Shohei Ohtani stayed in the lineup as the DH and went 1 for 3 with a single, a quiet night by his own standard after Friday’s home run, and he was lifted for pinch hitter Alex Call in the eighth once the game had slipped away. Pagès finished with two hits and the sac fly RBI, and Edman’s double kept his recent hot stretch alive, but neither was enough to offset a night where the pitching staff issued six walks and let the Diamondbacks tack on runs in bunches.
The one unambiguous bright spot came before first pitch, when Justin Wrobleski was named to the NL All-Star roster on the strength of a 10-2 record and a 2.69 ERA, a well-earned nod that had nothing to do with how the next nine innings went.
Up next
The Dodgers try to salvage the finale Sunday at 1:10 p.m. PT from Chavez Ravine, sending Emmet Sheehan to the mound against Arizona’s Mitch Bratt. It’s the last game before the All-Star break, and after back to back defeats to open this series, Los Angeles will take any version of a series split it can get before the long weekend off.
LOS ANGELES — Emmet Sheehan will take the mound Sunday as the Dodgers try to salvage the series finale against Arizona. Credit: @Dodgers