Diamondbacks Drop Two of Three to Dodgers
By Joshua Frons
The Diamondbacks first road trip of the season couldn’t have come in a more sports crazed time in Los Angeles. Vin Scully had his last home opening day, Kobe culminated his career with a 60 point outing and the Kings started their playoff run against the Sharks.
However, not all of the stars aligned for LA. Zach Greinke didn’t get to pitch against his former team so we’ll have to wait until next time to see what type of reception he receives.
As far as what happened on the field, the D’Backs and their faithful have to be pretty happy. They took just 1 of 3 (games one) from the boys in blue but great pitching and timely hitting were a constant.
The bullpen was especially strong in the first two games, shutting out the Dodgers in six and a third innings of work. Nobody threw more than an inning at a time. Everybody had at least one strikeout and nobody ever looked like they were in trouble.
The starting pitching was solid too. In game 1 Patrick Corbin went six innings, gave up one earned run and was pulled after 74 pitches. Rubby De La Rosa started game two and aside from giving up a solo shot to Adrian Gonzalez in the 4thinning, he looked really good. Then, the 5th inning came along and a lot went wrong that De La Rosa had no control over.
Just so you know what I mean, here are the notes that I took while watching the bottom of the 5th:
“Bottom 5. Owings boots grounder in CF to let Kendrick go 1st to 3rd on single to CF by Pederson. Wood up now. Nobody out. Wood strikes out on 3 bunt attempts. Utley grounder to SS. Ahmed throws it away. Run scores. 2-1 Dodgers. Pederson to 3rd. Utley safe at 1st. Seager hits grounder to 2B. Great turn by Ahmed! Goldy drops ball at 1st. Pederson scores. 3-1 Dodgers. Turner walked. De La Rosa pulled. A-Gon strikes out to end inning.”
I hope you were able to fully comprehend the play-by-play I normally reserve for myself.
Robby Ray took the hill in game 3 for the D’Backs and worked his way through six and a third innings. He allowed just four hits and two runs, but it could have been a lot worse. He walked five Dodgers. Had the ball bounced a little differently, Ray would have been in for a long night and to make matters worse, his early exit in the 7th was the start to the Dodgers five run rally, enough to seal the game and the series.
Offensively the D’Backs were led by two guys. In the 8th and 9th innings on Tuesday, Paul Goldschmidt hit a home run and had two RBI. He was not to be outdone by 9th hole hitter, shortstop Nick Ahmed who homered in each of the first two games and in game 3 got the D’Backs on the board first with an RBI single.
Next: Cardinals First Round Pick Ideas
Winning one out of three in a road series in April isn’t the end of the world and there were enough positives these past few days to make a Phoenician smile. The D’Backs now go down to San Diego for a three game set with the Padres.