LOS ANGELES — In such a fragile state these days, the Dodgers are never more than a cluster of batters away from near disaster.
On the way to a much-needed victory, the Dodgers were reminded again in the eighth inning Sunday that willing themselves down the stretch and into a deep playoff run will take more than just caps on heads and gloves on hands.
Left-hander Tanner Scott ran into a buzzsaw with two outs in the eighth inning while trying to protect a three-run lead when Geraldo Perdomo and Ketel Marte singled. Diamondbacks star Corbin Carroll followed with a game-tying three-run home run to left field.
The Dodgers salvaged the day on Will Smith’s pinch-hit game-ending home run in the bottom of the ninth inning that avoided a total meltdown.
Smith’s game-winning blast came against Arizona right-hander John Curtiss as he threw his bat to the ground in emphatic fashion. It was Smith’s 17th home run of the season.
The victory also came with a reference to Derek Jeter, whose legendary clutch performances are something manager Dave Roberts would not mind if his team emulated.
Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages each brought home early runs Sunday, with the first-inning total topping what the Dodgers had scored over the first two games of the series combined.
Freeman’s early run-scoring hit was the 544th double of his career, tying him for 34th all-time with the former New York Yankee Jeter and Harry Heilmann, who retired in 1932 after playing 15 of his 17 seasons with the Detroit Tigers.
Roberts was mostly in the same mood Sunday morning as he was one week prior, when he called his offense “disjointed.”
“I hate going backward and talking about last year, but when you’re playing a long season, you’re defending champions, people are coming after you, which we know and understand,” Roberts said before the game. “It’s just hard to keep that dialed in focus every single night. That’s just reality. That’s human nature.
“It’s not from lack of preparation or effort. It’s just kind of the human part of it. But there has to be a point where that has to be sharpened. And that’s where I feel the time is now.”
The message seemed to be received when Shohei Ohtani singled to lead off the bottom of the first inning, and Mookie Betts followed with his own single. Freeman’s double over the head of center fielder Alek Thomas made it 1-0. A Pages’ groundout brought home Betts.
The Diamondbacks broke through against Yamamoto on Adrian Del Castillo’s RBI single in the fourth inning before the Dodgers responded immediately on a two-out RBI single from Miguel Rojas in the bottom of the inning.
The Dodgers made it 4-1 in the fifth inning on a Pages RBI single.
Yamamoto continues to hum along, all while tying a career high with his 26th start. He gave up one run on four hits with no walks.
Yamamoto also had 26 starts in 2021 and 2022 with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan. But while he had 193 innings in each of those seasons, he is at 146⅔ innings this season, while tracking toward as many as 30 regular-season starts.
“We’re not going to make any adjustments in September,” Roberts said. “I think that if you look at it in totality, he’s building to this year. I know in Japan, they pushed him more as far as pitches per outing. We don’t do that. I think he’s in a good spot physically. Nothing has shown that he’s fatigued. I think Yoshinobu’s in a good place right now.”