PHOENIX — For most of the night, it looked like finally playing catch during the pregame workout might be the most exciting thing Shohei Ohtani did all day.
Instead, it was his 72.7-mph ground ball, smothered but not corralled by first baseman Tim Tawa, in the 10th inning that drove in the go-ahead run as the Dodgers finally won again, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-1 in 10 innings Saturday night.
The win snapped the Dodgers’ losing streak at seven games.
It didn’t look like this one would be the slump buster.
The Dodgers sent the minimum 18 batters to the plate in the first six innings against Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt. Their two baserunners – Andy Pages walked in the first inning and beat out an infield single in the fourth – were immediately followed by Freddie Freeman hitting into a double play (on a ground ball in the first, a liner in the fourth).
Pages was the extent of the Dodgers’ offense against Pfaadt. He had a second infield single in the seventh, stole second base before Max Muncy walked with two outs and then was stranded there when Mookie Betts bounced into a forceout.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto had to work harder to keep his half of the scoreless duel intact.
Recovering from a brief illness, Yamamoto did not make the trip to Chicago with the team this week. Instead, he stayed in Los Angeles, working out and regaining strength.
He rejoined the Dodgers in Arizona and found them looking ill. Yamamoto did what he could to turn things around, holding the Diamondbacks scoreless into the sixth.
He had to work out of first-and-second situations in the first inning (with two outs) and again in the fifth (with one out) by striking out Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll.
He had to do it again in the sixth inning when Gabriel Moreno led off with a single and Ketel Marte walked. Yamamoto got Lars Nootbaar to line out and Nolan Arenado to pop out to shallow left field. But that took Yamamoto’s pitch count to 107 and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts went to the bullpen. It was only the third time in 21 starts this season that Yamamoto failed to complete at least six innings.
After the Dodgers’ lifeless seven innings against Pfaadt, Kyle Tucker gave them a jolt, hitting the second pitch from right-handed reliever Jonathan Loaisiga over the wall in right field for a 1-0 lead in the eighth.
Kyle Hurt loaded the bases with Diamondbacks in the eighth but Tanner Scott got out of the jam and the one-run lead went into the ninth. For the second night in a row, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called on Edwin Diaz to protect it. He was not rewarded for his loyalty.
A night after giving up a walkoff home run, Diaz gave up back-to-back triples to Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll to tie the game. With the winning run on third, Diaz got Gabriel Moreno to line out to third and Ketel Marte to pop out on the infield, then struck out Ildemaro Vargas to escape the inning.
Ohtani’s infield single cashed in the Dodgers’ free runner in the top of the 10th and Roberts handed this one-run lead to Jack Dreyer. He stranded runners at the corners and started a game-ending double play on a bouncer back to the mound.