Trayce Thompson's Three Homer Game Crushes Diamondbacks
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Trayce Thompson wasn't good enough to play in the majors for the Diamondbacks when he was with the organization in 2020 and 2021, but he was good enough to play for the Dodgers last year. After hitting 13 homers in 219 at bats in 2022 he hit a grand slam off Madison Bumgarner in the first inning of his first game of 2023, giving L.A. a 5-0 lead. He later hit a three run shot in the 5th off of Kevin Ginkel, and finished with a solo homer in the 8th against Carlos Vargas. The Dodgers went on to stomp the Diamondbacks 10-1.
It was Thompson's first ever three homer game and he posted a career high eight RBI. That put him in a six way tie for second most single game RBI by a Dodger. (Gil Hodges and James Loney each had 9 RBI games.) An oddity of Thompson's three homer night was highlighted by Jesse Friedman:
The big story of the game for the Diamondbacks side however was yet another disappointing start from Bumgarner. His disastrous five run first inning began with a double by Mookie Betts that would have been a leadoff homer were it not for a fan interference call. An infield hit by Freddie Freeman and a curve ball that plunked Max Muncy in the back loaded the bases. After Betts came home on a sacrifice fly, Bumgarner walked Miguel Vargas to reload the bases setting up Thompson's grand slam. The pitch was a middle middle change up at 84 MPH. Bumgarner had been working with some success in spring training but it didn't work tonight.
Bumgarner's velocity was down almost two miles per hour across the board when compared to last year. His spin rates and ball movement were also down significantly. At one point after the second inning he was seen having a discussion with the trainer, but according to Lovullo there were no major health concerns, "It was just us asking questions, us trying to find out if everything was ok. There was looseness to the breaking ball and things just weren't consistent. He was always around the zone but there were some big misses. Red Flags go up and when we see that our eyes tell us a story but Bum was ok"
Bumgarner did manage to throw three more innings without allowing any runs and offered to go out for a fifth inning to protect the bullpen. But the damage was done and there was no room for moral victories.
Bumgarner's final line was 4 IP, 4 Hits, 5 ER, 4 BB, 1HBP, 2 K, 1 HR
The offense was equally bad. Christian Walker hit a solo homer off of Clayton Kershaw in the second inning. It was the 5th time he's homered off Kershaw in his career and he also had a single up the middle past an obviously miffed Kershaw. It's hard to explain why Walker hits so well against the future Hall of Famer. He's now 10-30, .333 with the five homers and 8 RBI for his career against Kershaw.
The Walker homer was the extent of the D-backs scoring. Gabriel Moreno and Kyle Lewis each had a double, and Nick Ahmed had a single as the D-backs recorded just five hits on the night. Most concerning, they once again failed to draw a walk. In 27 innings they have gotten on via the base on balls just one time while striking out 23 times. Three of those strikeouts were by Lewis in his first three at bats in the leadoff spot tonight. He struck out the first three times up in the leadoff spot of the order on Thursday night as well. He managed a pinch hit game winning homer last night but the strikeouts at the top of the order are certainly not setting the tone Torey Lovullo is after.
The bullpen also gave up five runs tonight. Kevin Ginkel gave up a double and a two out walk prior to the second Thompson homer. Cole Sulser gave up a solo homer to J.D. Martinez in the 7th. Outside of Drey Jameson's four innings last night and Andrew Chafin scoreless save, the Diamondbacks bullpen has been hit hard by the Dodgers in two of the three games.
Listen to Bumgarner and Lovullo down below:
The D-backs will go for the split in series finale tomorrow at 1:10 P.M. PST/MST. Zach Davies will get the ball for Arizona against Noah Syndergaard for the Dodgers.
