Dodgers go quietly in lopsided loss to Diamondbacks

LOS ANGELES — Like students staring out the window and dreaming of summer fun on the last days of the school year, the Dodgers already seem to be on their break.

They rolled over quietly for right-hander Brandon Pfaadt and the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday, managing just six hits (four in one inning) in a 9-2 loss.

The loss is their third in the past four games with one more game left before they actually reach the All-Star break. They have been outscored 25-12 in the four-game interlude.

“Obviously, with the hitting – when you don’t hit, it seems like it’s lackluster, no energy,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But it was a clunker. I think that we just haven’t played the last – what three out of five, four out of five, something like that games. It just hasn’t been clean baseball.

“When you give teams free bases, extra outs, it’s hard to win a game, regardless of opponent. We’ve got to piece it together. Emmet (Sheehan, Sunday’s starter) needs to go out there and throw the baseball well tomorrow. We have to find a way to win a game tomorrow to feel somewhat better about going into the break.”

Saturday wasn’t the only “clunker” this week. But Roberts wasn’t ready to join in a diagnosis of break-itis.

“I hope that’s not the case,” Roberts said. “It’s certainly an easy kind of answer or thought. But these games all matter. They still matter. But I don’t know. I hope that’s not the case.”

Pfaadt barely touched the Dodger Stadium mound in the first three innings. He retired the first nine Dodgers in order and threw just 27 pitches to do it. He held the Dodgers scoreless on one hit (and 59 pitches) over the first five innings.

“Quick innings, quick outs. That’s advantage to him. We should be better,” Teoscar Hernandez said.

“It wasn’t good,” Roberts said. “We’ve seen him plenty, and for us to take the at-bats that we took – very unfortunate. We didn’t really give ourselves a chance on either side of the baseball tonight.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be one of five Dodgers heading to Philadelphia for the All-Star festivities after Sunday’s game (Shohei Ohtani was selected for the team but will not attend). The first half lasted one start too long for him.

Yamamoto came into Saturday with a 1.48 ERA over his previous eight starts, having allowed one run or none in six of those games.

Saturday looked like another from that line for five innings. He allowed just one run in the fourth inning when the Diamondbacks cobbled together a walk, single and run-scoring ground out.

But Yamamoto walked Geraldo Perdomo to start the sixth inning. He struck out Corbin Carroll – then everything went south.

Gabriel Moreno’s hit-and-run single put runners at the corners. Max Kepler drove in one run with a sacrifice fly and another scored on Tim Tawa’s double. After intentionally walking Nolan Arenado, Yamamoto threw a 1-and-0 sinker to James McCann that stayed up and drifted inside. McCann swatted it into the left-field pavilion for his first home run of the season.

The five-run inning featured as much scoring as Yamamoto had allowed in his previous three starts combined and more than he had allowed in a start since May 12. The six runs total matched the most he has allowed in any of his 65 MLB starts. The Angels also hung six on him last August 11.

The sight of ultra-reliable Yamamoto having such a rough inning was enough to rouse the Dodgers briefly to life. They scored twice in the bottom of the sixth and drove Pfaadt from the game.

Tommy Edman led off with a double into the right field corner. After Ohtani popped out, Andy Pages, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts had consecutive singles to push across the two runs.

That was all the fight the Dodgers had in them Saturday. By the eighth inning, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had substituted for Freeman and Betts and pinch-hit for Ohtani. Reliever Landon Knack (making his season debut) was left to absorb the final three innings. He allowed three runs, including back-to-back home runs to Arenado and McCann in the eighth.

“Not really. That’s just baseball,” Hernandez said of the possible lack of focus as the All-Star break approaches. “We’re not doing what we’re supposed to do. We’re not hitting when we need to hit, especially with men in scoring position.”