Rich Hill took the mound on regular rest Thursday night for the first time since being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. While he was sharp early, the Arizona Diamondbacks managed to find early success.
Chase Utley opened the game with a leadoff single, only for Archie Bradley to strike out the side. Hill picked up where he left off — seven perfect innings — and bookended a scoreless bottom of the first with strikeouts.
The Dodgers again had their leadoff man reach, as Yasmani Grandal beat the shift with an opposite-field base hit. Josh Reddick walked on four pitches, but Bradley again proceeded to strike out the side.
Kyle Jensen hit a solo home run to straightaway center field with two outs in the bottom of the first. It marked the first run and extra-base hit Hill allowed during his time with the Dodgers.
Jensen’s home run also snapped Hill’s streak of 27 consecutive batters retired, which spanned across three starts. Utley, who entered play 1-for-his-last-25, led off the third inning with his second base hit of the night.
Corey Seager followed with a single of his own, but any traction gained came to a halt on Justin Turner’s double play and Adrian Gonzalez’s line out. Tuffy Gosewisch led off the bottom half of the inning with a base hit, and later scored on Chris Owings’ single.
Andre Ethier snapped an 0-for-9 start to his 2016 season with a two-out base hit in the fourth. But Joc Pederson grounded into the shift, and the Diamondbacks’ lead remained 2-0. There were fireworks in the fifth when Hill squared around to bunt and did so on a pitch inside.
Seemingly taking issue with a pitch thrown at his knees, Hill yelled in Bradley’s direction as he went up the first-base line. The two continued to exchange words and both dugouts and bullpens emptied onto the field.
Utley drew a walk once play resumed. Two batters later, Turner shot a drive to the right-center field gap that Yasmany Tomas was unable to cut off, allowing it to roll to the wall for an RBI double.
Bradley hit third in the bottom of the fifth without issue, going down on strikes to end the inning. Hill ran into trouble in the sixth after walking Jean Segura to start the inning. He advanced to second base on a passed ball and scored on Paul Goldschmidt’s base hit.
Louis Coleman replaced Hill and allowed an RBI single and three-run homer before getting out of the inning. Pederson and pinch-hitter Andrew Toles combined for back-to-back hits in the seventh, with a double and single putting two on with nobody out.
Pederson scored on a wild pitch, and Utley followed with an RBI double to trim the Diamondbacks’ lead to 7-3 and chase Bradley. Patrick Corbin entered and needed all of eight pitches to retire Seager, Turner and Gonzalez.
While Josh Ravin turned in a pair of perfect innings out of the bullpen, Corbin remained in the game and retired all nine batters faced to complete a three-inning save in the Diamondbacks’ 7-3 victory.
