PHOENIX — Whatever pressure the Dodgers might be feeling from their season-high losing streak, it is a dry heat.
Andy Pages’ leadoff home run in the eighth inning capped a comeback for the Dodgers and gave them a one-run lead, but closer Edwin Diaz gave up a walk-off two-run homer to Ryan Waldschmidt as the Arizona Diamondbacks handed them a 4-3 defeat on Friday night at Chase Field.
The Dodgers have now lost their past seven games. They haven’t had a longer losing streak since September 2017.
Just about a month ago, the Diamondbacks arrived in Los Angeles for a three-game series against the Dodgers starting on July 10. They were a .500 team (47-47), sitting 14½ games behind the Dodgers in the National League West.
They swept the Dodgers that weekend and have gone 16-8 since then – better than all but two MLB teams in that time (the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves) – and shaved seven games off the Dodgers’ lead while moving into position for one of the National League’s wild-card spots.
The Dodgers, on the other hand, are 8-14 since the start of that series.
Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly went into his start against the Dodgers on Friday night at 0-11 with a 5.56 ERA in 17 career starts against them. The Dodgers had hit a robust .321 with 16 home runs in those regular-season meetings.
But Kelly shape-shifted into a different pitcher Friday. He held the Dodgers hitless for five innings, retiring 11 of the first 13 Dodgers he faced, walking two (both with two outs in the inning). One of those walks was Shohei Ohtani in the third inning, and he was thrown out trying to steal second base.
Ohtani waved his hands demonstratively, indicating he thought he was safe and wanted a replay review. The Dodgers did not challenge and Ohtani had run into an out on the bases for the fifth time since the All-Star break.
The Dodgers couldn’t score against Kelly even when they hit a ball over the fence. Tommy Edman led off the third with a drive to right field that a leaping Corbin Carroll reached over the fence and caught, stealing a home run from Edman.
Teoscar Hernandez couldn’t repeat that feat for the Dodgers. Nolan Arenado’s drive in the second inning cleared his glove for a solo home run, the first run off Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki.
The Diamondbacks got another run off Sasaki in the fifth when he walked Tim Tawa with one out. Tawa stole second then scored on Geraldo Perdomo’s generously scored triple (Pages bobbled the ball after retrieving it on the warning track).
The Dodgers finally got two hits off Kelly in the sixth inning. He walked two more to load the bases, gave up a run on a forceout at second base then waved to the bench and left with cramping in his right leg.
Diamondbacks reliever Juan Morillo struck out Max Muncy to end that inning, but the Dodgers tied the score with four singles in the seventh inning and had Ohtani at the plate with the bases loaded. He bounced into an inning-ending double play.
Pages led off the next inning and crushed a first-pitch cutter from lefty reliever Brandyn Garcia 425 feet into the left-field seats to give the Dodgers the lead. It was just Pages’ second home run in his past 21 games.
With two outs in the bottom of the inning, Gabriel Moreno hit a fly ball over Hernandez’s head in left field for a double off Tanner Scott. The Dodgers intentionally walked Ketel Marte then Scott did the same unintentionally against Ildemaro Vargas to load the bases for Arenado. But Scott got the 12th pitch of the at-bat (the ninth slider of the encounter) past Arenado.
Diaz couldn’t escape his troubles in the ninth inning. He walked the first batter he faced, struck out Tawa but hung a 2-and-2 slider to Waldschmidt.
More to come on this story.
