Dodgers 3 Diamondbacks 7: Hill is Human

The Dodgers dropped game one behind a laborous sixth inning.

The Dodgers lost the series opener in Arizona and opened the door for the Giants to creep back in the NL West race. The pitching wasn’t good, the offense wasn’t good.

Dodgers Starter

Rich Hill has his worst outing of his Dodger career on Thursday. That’s not really saying much, as his previous three starts were all exceptional. While he wasn’t awful today, he looked human, which was enough to doom the struggling offense.

Arizona struck first with two outs in the second, when Hill allowed a homer to Kyle Jensen. This was the first run Hill allowed in 20 innings as a Dodger, and it was a no-doubter on a pitch down the middle.

Hill allowed another run in the third, which began with a leadoff single. A sac bunt moved Tuffy Gosewisch to second, and he scored on a two-out single by Chris Owings.

Hill looked to be turning it around, but he got chased in the sixth. After a leadoff walk to Jean Segura, a passed ball put a runner on second with one out. Paul Goldschmidt singled Segura in to force Hill out of the game.

Goldy ended up scoring in that dreadful sixth (more on that in the bullpen segment), so Hill was charged with four earned runs. 5.1 innings of four run ball isn’t great, but Hill’s rare mistakes were finally punished today. He wasn’t very efficient, as he made 93 pitches in those 5.1 innings. That’s the most he’s made as a Dodger (four more than the 89 he made last time out, when he was pulled with a perfect game).

Dodgers Offense

Hill’s struggles were exacerbated by the Dodgers offense showing up late to the stadium. They got runners on base, but Archie Bradley escaped most of his jams.

Chase Utley led off the game with a single, but Bradley struck out the side to end the first. They had two on with no outs in the second and third innings, but failed to bring a run home.

They finally struck in the fifth, which began with a bench-clearing bunt. Hill tried to bunt to lead off the inning, and Bradley threw in on the hands. Hill wasn’t happy and yelled some words that would get me fired from this site if I repeated them, benches cleared, nothing happened.

After the incident, Utley singled and scored on a double by Justin Turner.

After the lead ballooned in the sixth, the Dodgers’ offense finally woke up against Bradley. Joc Pederson led off with a single and Andrew Toles pinch hit and doubled him to third. Pederson scored on a wild pitch, and Toles scored on an Utley double.

The Dodgers had momentum, and then the Diamondbacks brought in a lefty. Patrick Corbin came into the game with no outs in the seventh. He got the final nine outs of the game without allowing a baserunner. He needed 31 pitches to get those nine outs and a fun three-inning save.

Dodgers Bullpen

The reason the Dodgers were in such a hole was their bullpen, mainly Louis Coleman. Coleman inherited the a runner on first and one out and a 3-1 deficit. He got a quick out on a deep fly ball to left, and Goldschmidt tagged and advanced to second. Chris Drury singled him in and moved to second on a wild pitch.

Coleman walked the next hitter and then gave up a dagger three-run blast to Mitch Haniger. The 7-1 deficit shrunk to 7-3, but that was the ballgame.

Josh Ravin was the only other reliever used, and he needed 21 pitches to get the final six outs for the Dodgers. He struck out three and didn’t allow a baserunner, so he could be another guy pitching for a playoff roster spot.

Other Stuff

The loss puts the Dodgers 4.5 games up on the Giants. The Giants are currently beating the Cardinals, so the magic number could stay at 13 and the lead could be down to four.

Next: Breaking Down the Potential Playoff Roster

The Dodgers played badly, and I sorta expected them to come out flat after yesterday’s long day. Their road won’t get much easier in theory, as Zack Greinke starts for Arizona tomorrow. The Dodgers did beat up on him last time they saw him, but he’s talented enough to shut down any team.

Kenta Maeda will start for the Dodgers, and it’s his first start on normal rest since July 10th. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares.