LOS ANGELES — Ryan Waldschmidt greets Tim Tawa at the plate after Tawa’s ninth-inning homer sealed a series sweep of the Dodgers. Credit: @dbacks
LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers walked into this series as the last team in baseball still unswept this season. They walk out of it having lost that distinction in the ugliest way possible. Emmet Sheehan gave Los Angeles exactly the start it needed, Shohei Ohtani provided the early thunder, and for three innings this looked like the response to two straight losses. Then the bullpen and the defense combined to hand Arizona a run they didn’t earn, Tim Tawa put an exclamation point on it with a ninth inning homer, and the Diamondbacks completed the sweep with a 5-3 win at Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium, sending the Dodgers into the All-Star break on a sour note.
Sheehan cruises, then the sixth gets messy
Sheehan was sharp for most of his outing, working five and a third innings and striking out seven while allowing just three hits. It was the kind of outing the Dodgers needed after Yamamoto’s meltdown a night earlier, and for a while it looked like it might be enough. Then the top of the sixth turned into a mess that had nothing to do with quality pitching. Geraldo Perdomo walked to open the inning and came around to score on a fielder’s choice that Max Muncy couldn’t cleanly handle at third, a throwing error that let the tying run cross.
Two batters later, Ildemaro Vargas lined a single to right that brought home Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and put Arizona ahead, 4-3. Edgardo Henriquez, who relieved Sheehan mid-inning, took the loss for a frame that unraveled more through sloppiness than stuff. It was the same story that had plagued the Dodgers all series, a clean game turning careless at the worst possible moment.
Ohtani provides the spark, then the lineup goes cold
Ohtani was the best version of himself for three innings, and it wasn’t close. He opened the scoring with a solo homer in the first, his 22nd of the season, then added a double in the third that he turned into a run when Tommy Edman lined a two-run single the other way. That early burst staked Los Angeles to a 3-0 lead and had Dodger Stadium believing in a series-salvaging finale.
But once Arizona chipped away in the fifth on doubles from Vargas and Nolan Arenado, and an Andy Pagès fielding error opened the door further, the Dodgers’ bats never found that same rhythm again. Freeman, Betts and Tucker combined to go hitless the rest of the way, and a walk from pinch hitter Dalton Rushing in the seventh was as close as Los Angeles came to another rally. Andy Pagès drew a walk in the eighth, but Freeman grounded into a double play two batters later to snuff it out.
Tawa’s ninth inning homer seals the sweep
With the Dodgers already trailing by a run entering the ninth, Tawa made sure there was no doubt left. Facing Evan Phillips, he drove a fly ball to center for his third homer of the season, pushing the lead to 5-3 and effectively ending any hope of a late rally. Paul Sewald closed it out in order in the bottom of the ninth, and Arizona walked away with a series sweep that snapped the Dodgers’ streak as the league’s last unbeaten-by-sweep team.
It was a fitting final image for a series defined by the same pattern: Los Angeles competitive for stretches, undone by a handful of costly innings each night.
Six Dodgers head to Philadelphia
The sting of the sweep comes with a silver lining. The Dodgers will send an MLB-high six players to next week’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia. Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Andy Pagès were elected starters, Ohtani was voted in at DH but won’t play while he continues knee treatment, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was selected to the pitching staff but won’t take the mound, and Justin Wrobleski earned a well-deserved nod as a replacement player off the strength of his season.
Dave Roberts will manage the National League squad, adding another layer to a break that arrives at an awkward time for a team that just got swept for the first time all year.
Up next
The Dodgers head into the All-Star break at 61-36 with plenty to sort out. They’ll pick the season back up on the other side of the break at home against the Yankees, looking to shake off a series that exposed exactly the kind of sloppy, self-inflicted innings that can’t keep happening if October baseball is the goal.