PHOENIX — He hasn’t tormented them quite as much as Paul Goldschmidt, whose 36 career home runs against the Dodgers are the most among active players, or with the frequency of Christian Walker, whose 30 home runs against the Dodgers have come in nearly 300 fewer at-bats – or with the emotional baggage of Manny Machado (25 career homers against his brief employer).
But Nolan Arenado is on the list.
Arenado’s 33rd career home run against the Dodgers came in the seventh inning Monday night, bringing an outstanding start by Emmet Sheehan to a crashing halt and breaking a 1-1 tie. The Arizona Diamondbacks went on to beat the Dodgers, 4-1, in the opener of a four-game series at Chase Field.
“I thought he was really good, certainly deserved better,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Sheehan who gave up just three hits and didn’t walk a batter in 6 1/3 innings. “The fastball was good, slider was good, used the curveball, minimized hits. Unfortunately (Tommy) Troy got him for a homer, and then Arenado in that last inning with this breaking ball. But again I thought he pitched really well.”
The loss was just the fourth in the past 18 games for the Dodgers – a stretch that has seen the offense come to life. But the foundation has been consistently excellent starting pitching.
Over those 18 games, Dodgers starters (including Will Klein as an ‘opener’ in a bullpen game) have an ERA of 2.29 and a WHIP of 0.96. They’ve gone six innings or more 11 times, including Sheehan on Monday, and allowed one run or none 11 times.
Sheehan seemed headed to another one of those. He retired 16 of the first 17 batters he faced Monday night, giving up a one-out double to Corbin Carroll in the first inning then retiring the next 15 in order.
The Dodgers’ offense didn’t give him any margin for error, though.
They put runners at the corners with one out in the second inning against Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez. But Mookie Betts was out at home, trying to score from third on Max Muncy’s ground ball to first and the rally fizzled.
An inning later, Shohei Ohtani led off with a double but could only go to third when Andy Pages followed with a bloop double of his own. Ohtani scored on Freddie Freeman’s ground out.
The Dodgers hit five balls off Rodriguez with exit velocities of 100 mph or higher. Only one of those was a hit — Ohtani’s double. Diamondbacks centerfielder Jorge Barrosa ran down five fly balls by Dodgers hitters. Two plays in particular — Will Smith’s deep drive in the second inning and Andy Pages sinking liner in the fifth — kept the Dodgers from doing more damage to Rodriguez.
“He made some nice plays out there for them,” said Kyle Tucker whose 104.9 mph ground ball in the third inning was hit right at first baseman Ildemaro Vargas. “We did all we could really do. Once the ball leaves the bat, it’s out of our hands. So we had some good swings, good at-bats, it just didn’t go our way sometimes.”
The Diamondbacks didn’t have the same problem with their fly balls. They hit just three balls with exit velocities over 100 mph — two home runs and a double.
Sheehan’s fastball continued to show the regained velocity of his previous start, averaging 95.9 mph (up from a season average of 94.2 mph). But he left one of them up to the Diamondbacks’ No. 9 hitter Tommy Troy in the sixth inning. Troy lined it into the left field seats to tie the score.
An inning later, Arenado jumped on a first-pitch slider from Sheehan and sent it on a similar journey.
“I showed him a lot of sliders a couple of at-bats before that,” Sheehan said. “He can adjust, but I thought slider was a good pitch there. Didn’t really get it to the spot I wanted, for sure, to get him more glove side and maybe a little more down, but yeah, he put a good swing on it.”
Ketel Marte put another good swing on a slider from Jack Dreyer with two outs in the eighth and hit the Diamondbacks’ third home run of the game, a two-run shot that went 409 feet into the seats.
“(Marte) is just really good versus left-handed pitching,” Roberts said of Dreyer’s first outing since being activated from the Injured List Sunday. “He got ahead 0-1 and then just didn’t get the slider low enough, or breaking ball, whatever it was. He’s pretty dangerous at the plate.”
The Dodgers weren’t so much. Half of their’ six hits in the game came from Ohtani, who has gone 25 for 61 (.410) with eight multi-hit games in 16 games since he was given the day off following his pitching start against the San Francisco Giants on May 13.
“I thought Rodriguez threw the baseball well,” Roberts said. “Shohei had some hits. I thought the center fielder made a difference tonight, Barrosa. I thought he made some really nice plays on some hard-hit balls at him. But outside of that, (Rodriguez) pitched a nice game.”