Carson Kelly hit a pair of home runs in his last two at-bats of the night and it propelled the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 3-2 comeback win against the Los Angeles Dodgers, snapping their five-game winning streak.
L.A. went into the ninth inning with a 2-0 lead but quickly saw it erased as Kenley Jansen allowed a bloop single followed by a game-tying, two-run home run to Carson Kelly. It was the first homer Jansen allowed since July 3, which Kelly also hit.
Kelly then tagged Julio Urias for a leadoff home run in the 11th inning, which held up for the Diamondbacks. A momentum play then swung in favor of the Diamondbacks as it appeared A.J. Pollock was hit in the left wrist.
However, the home-plate umpire ruled it a foul ball that Kelly caught for an out, and it was upheld after replay. Archie Bradley then retired the next two batters to close out the game but didn’t get off the field without issue as he ignited a benches-clearing altercation.
Robbie Ray and four relief pitchers combined to retire 22 batters in a row before Bradley started the bottom of the 11th with a leadoff walk.
Ray was dominant, as he had seven strikeouts and was perfect in six of seven innings pitched. Corey Seager broke up his perfect game in the third with a leadoff double to right field.
After Tyler White drew a walk and Buehler’s sacrifice bunt advanced both runners, Pollock’s sacrifice fly gave the Dodgers a lead. Pollock went 0-for-4 in his first start since Sunday.
Justin Turner extending the inning paid off as Will Smith followed with an RBI double. Smith was batting third for the first time in his career, though Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hardly had any qualms putting him there.
“I have a lot of confidence in Will,” Roberts said before the game. “I think it’s more of stretching out our lineup, I trust his at-bat. Robbie is going to be tough on anyone but I still think the at-bat quality Will is going to give us, I can bet on that.”
Walker Buehler lacked the pinpoint command he showed in a complete game last week, but he turned in another scoreless outing in what was somewhat of a laborious six innings. Buehler had eight strikeouts but uncharacteristically issued three walks and hit a batter.
The Diamondbacks had two on with two outs in the second inning, only for Ray to bat and strike out. Back-to-back singles put runners at the corners with nobody out in the third, though Buehler managed to wiggle out of the jam with strikeouts sandwiching a lineout.
That was part of a stretch that saw Buehler retire seven batters in a row. The streak was snapped by Jarrod Dyson’s one-out walk in the fifth, and two more wound up reaching in the sixth on consecutive singles with one out.
Because of some trouble with efficiency, that wound up being Buehler’s final inning of work. He exited with a lead and despite not factoring into the decision, remained undefeated at Dodger Stadium this season.
