Nightmare Eighth Inning Dooms Diamondbacks in 6-5 loss
The Diamondbacks went into the eighth inning this afternoon with a 5-1 lead against the Dodgers, and came out of it trailing 6-5. As has so often been the case, the bullpen was unable to hold the lead. This time however it's probably not fair to pin it all on the relievers. They were set up to fail by a short outing from the starting pitcher Zach Davies and poor infield defense at third base from Josh Rojas.
Davies needed 35 pitches and a great defensive play by Cooper Hummel on a Chris Taylor bunt to get out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning. He loaded the bases again in the third inning, but got out of that jam too. He was lifted from the game before the start of the fourth inning however, having thrown only 79 pitches and allowing just the one run. Leaving 18 outs on the table in the first game of this doubleheader proved to be a losing proposition for one of the leagues worst bullpens.
The Diamondbacks offense managed to get to rookie Michael Grove for five runs. They tied the score in the second inning on a two-out ground rule double from Hummel, scoring Ketel Marte, who had led off with a double of his own. Daulton Varsho hit a solo homer in the third inning, his 26th of the year, and had a bloop RBI single in the fourth. Christian Walker also had a solo homer run, his 35th, in a two-run 5th.
Despite the five runs, it felt like it should have been more. Arizona was just 2-16 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.
Meanwhile Taylor Widener and Caleb Smith had thrown two scoreless frames each from the fourth through the seventh, holding on to the 5-1 lead. But manager Torey Lovullo went to the well once too often, sending Smith back out to start the eighth. Up until that point Smith had already thrown 7.1 innings and 124 pitches in the past 7 days. He quickly gave up a base hit to Miguel Vargas and then a two-run homer to Austin Barnes, bringing the Dodgers to within 5-3.
Lovullo brought in Kevin Ginkel, who induced a routine grounder to third off the bat of Hanser Alberto, but Josh Rojas committed his second throwing error of the game, bouncing the ball in front of Walker. Two walks later Ginkel was out and Joe Mantiply was in. Two of the next three batted balls also went to third base. Both were ruled hits, but Rojas had his glove on both of them and was unable to make the plays. When the dust had settled the Dodgers had scored three more runs for the winning 6-5 margin.
This loss may be one of the most crushing of all for the young Diamondbacks. They now fall to 3-13 against the Dodgers this year. Earlier in the month Rojas had spoken earnestly about looking forward to playing the Dodgers and seeing how he and his teammates stack up. But it's been a difficult month for Rojas personally as he's slumped for the fourth year in a row in the final month of the season. As he sat with his head hung low in the dugout after the bottom of the eighth inning one wondered if better conditioning to get through a 162 game season is something he will look to during this off season.
All the team can do now is pick themselves up and dust off for the second game of the doubleheader that starts later tonight at 7:10 P.M. MST
Rookie Drey Jameson, (1-0, 0.00) will face off against Tyler Anderson (15-3, 2.62 ERA)
