The Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers play game two of their series Saturday night. Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yasmani Grandal pumps his fist after hitting an RBI single during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Friday, July 29, 2016, in Los Angeles.
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The bottom of the seventh was a rather abrupt turnaround from the top of the inning, one that began with a 3-0 Dodgers lead.
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong).
While the Los Angeles Dodgers chase down the San Francisco Giants for the top spot in the National League West, the Arizona Diamondbacks are sinking farther into the cellar. It gave the Los Angeles Dodgers’ offense the opportunity for its most memorable outburst yet.
In the other clubhouse, the Dodgers were relishing this one which finally turned on Yasmani Grandal’s RBI single to cap the Dodgers’ decisive five-run rally. “My memory might be short, but, yeah, we are resilient”.
In a flash, the high of erasing a 3-0 deficit was replaced by the disappointment of letting a 7-3 lead get away.
“It was exciting for sure”.
“We fought. We hit them”. “It shows the guys aren’t giving up”. It took five Dodgers pitchers just to get out of that one inning. Nonetheless, a run scored on Bourn’s single and set up Paul Goldschmidt what looked like the kill shot – a three-run double that made it 7-3.
Curtis didn’t have much going either as he also gave up a two-run home run and watched the once four-run D-backs lead quickly disappear. “Earlier in the year, that probably would never have happened”.
“They were hot for a second there, but it’s not how you start it’s how you finish”, said Pederson. “We’re just going to come out (Saturday) and fight”.
Holding a four-run lead going into stretch time, manager Chip Hale chose to put in Daniel Hudson, who had been struggling of late. “They battled their hearts out. We continued to score runs”.
A single by Paul Goldschmidt off the glove of Seager at shortstop and a one-out double by Welington Castillo changed that, pulling the Diamondbacks to within 3-1 and ended Maeda’s night after five strikeouts, no walks and 93 pitches. The Arizona Diamondbacks have an ERA of 4.85 and have lost nine of their last 11 games when allowing more than three runs. Los Angeles has won 14 of its last 22 games heading into Saturday’s contest against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks, who have dropped eight of their last 10 and figure to be active sellers before the August 1 trade deadline.The Dodgers’ offense continued to lead the way in Friday’s 9-7 series-opening victory as Joc Pederson homered and drove in four runs while Corey Seager raised his average to.307 with two doubles among his three hits.
In the fourth, Toles lined an run-scoring double down the right-field line to bring home Howie Kendrick, who reached on a walk and advanced to third on two Godley wild pitches, for a 3-0 advantage.
Seager then scored the tiebreaking run later in the inning and added an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth for the final margin.
Kenley Jansen was asked to record the final four outs, and after getting the first out on just one pitch to end the eighth inning, he pitched a ideal ninth to record his 31st save.
The Diamondback’s seventh-inning explosion squashed Kenta Maeda’s bid to become the first rookie to win 10 games this year. He struck five and did not walk a batter. The 28-year-old Japan native has yielded two or fewer runs in 12 of 20 starts and boasts 115 strikeouts in 113 2/3 innings. If he pitches and recovers without incident, Greinke would be on an 80-pitch limit in his next start. Right fielder Yasiel Puig has been held out of the starting lineup for the last six games due to a strained hamstring but might avoid the disabled list after appearing as a pinch hitter on Friday. The Dodgers are off again Monday, their third off day in eight days, which has allowed them to go with four starters and keep from deciding whether Puig should go on the disabled list.
Diamondbacks: Braden Shipley (0-1, 10.13 ERA) makes his second career start. The Milwaukee Brewers tagged Shipley for six runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings in his major league debut and a 7-2 romp on July 25.
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Kazmir hasn’t faced the Diamondbacks since June 22, 2007 when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays.
