PHOENIX — For most of the night, it looked like finally playing catch during the pregame workout might be the most exciting thing Shohei Ohtani did all day.
Instead, it was his 72.7-mph ground ball, smothered but not corralled by first baseman Tim Tawa, in the 10th inning that drove in the go-ahead run as the Dodgers finally won again, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-1, in 10 innings on Saturday night.
The win snapped the Dodgers’ losing streak at seven games.
“Man, that was a tough one. We’ll take it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think it comes down to the pitchers competed all night. Some of them were sharp. Some of them weren’t.
“It wasn’t pretty. Offensively, we’ve just got to get going. It’s just hard to win games when your margin for winning is a razor’s edge. It’s not like guys aren’t trying, but it’s a tough way to pitch and have to be perfect.”
It didn’t look like this one would be the slump buster.
The Dodgers sent the minimum 18 batters to the plate in the first six innings against Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt. Their two baserunners – Andy Pages walked in the first inning and beat out an infield single in the fourth – were immediately followed by Freddie Freeman hitting into a double play (on a ground ball in the first, a liner in the fourth).
Pages was the extent of the Dodgers’ offense against Pfaadt. He had a second infield single in the seventh, stole second base before Max Muncy walked with two outs and then was stranded there when Mookie Betts bounced into a force out.
“He pitched a nice game. The guy last night pitched a nice game,” Roberts said, referring to Merrill Kelly who held the Dodgers hitless for the first five innings on Friday night. “But the bottom line is we’ve seen these guys and we’ve got to be productive. You’ve got to get it done. I think right now we’re just scuffling. We’ve got to put together good at-bats when we get opportunities.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto had to work harder to keep his half of the scoreless duel intact.
Recovering from a brief illness, Yamamoto did not make the trip to Chicago with the team this week. Instead, he stayed in Los Angeles, working out and regaining strength.
He rejoined the Dodgers in Arizona and found them looking ill. Yamamoto did what he could to turn things around, holding the Diamondbacks scoreless into the sixth.
He had to work out of first-and-second situations in the first inning (with two outs) and again in the fifth (with one out) by striking out Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll.
He had to do it again in the sixth inning when Gabriel Moreno led off with a single and Ketel Marte walked. Yamamoto got Lars Nootbaar to line out and Nolan Arenado to pop out to shallow left field. But that took Yamamoto’s pitch count to 107 and Roberts went to the bullpen. It was only the third time in 21 starts this season that Yamamoto failed to complete at least six innings.
“Because I had a good feel from before the game started. … I carried that into the game, and I was trying to attack the zone,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter. “It would have been better (if) I could go a little deeper into the game, but their lineup was good.”
After the Dodgers’ lifeless seven innings against Pfaadt, Kyle Tucker gave them a jolt, hitting the second pitch from right-handed reliever Jonathan Loaisiga over the wall in right field for a 1-0 lead in the eighth.
“Just ended up leaving a changeup up a little bit. Went ahead and put a good swing on it,” Tucker said. “They pitched pretty well today. Hid the ball pretty well and mixed it up a decent amount, and it was a little tough.”
With a one-run lead to protect, Kyle Hurt loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth but Tanner Scott got out of the jam and the one-run lead went into the ninth. For the second night in a row, Roberts called on Edwin Diaz to protect it. He was not rewarded for his loyalty.
A night after giving up a walk-off home run, Diaz gave up back-to-back triples to Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll to tie the game. With the winning run on third, Diaz got Gabriel Moreno to line out to third and Ketel Marte to pop out on the infield, then struck out Ildemaro Vargas to escape the inning.
“I think for me it was just the intensity,” Roberts said of Diaz. “You saw once they scored the run, man on third base, nobody out, you saw the intensity pick up, the stuff picked up. The fastball got better. The slider got better. Even talking to him after the game, that’s how we have to be from the first pitch. That was the first game I saw this year where he had some real intensity.
“I don’t know if it’s just you want to be perfect. You’re trying to get your feet under you. You’ve been in rehab mode a lot. But this is something I think can be a springboard for outings to come.”
The Dodgers got the free runner to third base with two outs in the 10th. Ohtani hit a ground ball to the right of Tawa, who went sprawling to smother it but couldn’t recover to get Ohtani at first. Tucker scored the go-ahead run.
Roberts handed this one-run lead to Jack Dreyer. He stranded runners at the corners when he got Friday night’s walk-off hero, Ryan Waldschmidt, to bounce a ball back to him. Dreyer started a game-ending double play and let out an uncharacteristic scream to celebrate the end of the losing streak.
“I’m typically not an emotional guy. I think that was the most emotion I’ve ever showed,” Dreyer said. “It was nice because I knew I wouldn’t go back out for the next inning, something like that. The game was over. So kind of let the emotions take over for a little bit.
“Obviously a big swing from Tuck and the RBI from Shohei in the 10th. It was a team effort, even though it was a low-scoring game. I think the team just understands that we can turn the corner and close the book on that part now.”