The Los Angeles Dodgers’ woes against the Arizona Diamondbacks continued on Tuesday with another disappointing loss in the opener of a two-game series at Dodger Stadium.
As has been the case many times this season, the Dodgers immediately dug themselves into an early hole against the Diamondbacks. They trailed 5-2 after four innings but managed to slowly chip away at their deficit.
The Dodgers answered back with two runs in the fifth inning and entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 5-4. Considering the Diamondbacks were the only team this season without a blown save, the game was largely perceived to be all but final.
But that’s when Kiké Hernandez tied it with a solo home run that subsequently forced extra innings — something that seemed improbable earlier in the contest.
Los Angeles had the makings of a potential walk-off win in the 11th inning when Hernandez and Chris Taylor reached base safely with nobody out. Diamondbacks relievers Silvino Bracho and T.J. McFarland successfully got out of the jam to extend the game.
That ultimately paved the way for the Diamondbacks to pull off a hard-fought win behind a Daniel Descalso home run. Despite having plenty of opportunities to reverse the outcome, the Dodgers fell to 15-20 on the year.
Manager Dave Roberts was left puzzled as to why his club hasn’t been able to successfully complete comeback victories this season, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“Games that we found ways to win last year and for the first five weeks of the season we haven’t,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I just don’t have an answer for that. The last couple of years, we’ve won these games. We’ve got to find a way to figure that out.”
As Roberts points out, the Dodgers have struggled to find ways to overcome early deficits this season. That’s unlike last year, when they made it a habit of pulling out come-from-behind victories and seemingly played better while facing adversity.
The Dodgers enter play on Wednesday with a 3-8 showing against the Diamondbacks this season, but can salvage the series with a split before hosting the Cincinnati Reds for four games this weekend.
