Dodger Stadium is Christian Walker’s now, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are just playing in it.
The Dodgers continued to learn that the hard way this series as the Arizona Diamondbacks’ first baseman powered them to a series win with a 7-3 victory on Thursday, just one day after doing the same thing on Wednesday.
Walker once again blasted two home runs on Thursday before he was intentionally walked in his third at-bat. He hit five homers in the series, including one on Tuesday and two each game the following two days.
Over his first nine games against the Dodgers this year, Walker has nine home runs, and his seven homers in his last give games at Dodger Stadium are tied with Todd Helton and Willie Mays for the most all-time in the same span.
He has 19 homers in his first 42 career games at Dodger Stadium, which is four more than Cody Bellinger and Dave Kingman, who are tied for the second spot on that list. In addition, he has eight more homers than any other visiting player at Dodger Stadium since 2018.
In addition to Walker hitting two homers, Joc Pederson added one, and Ketel Marte also drove in a run with an RBI single.
Landon Knack made the start for the Dodgers and threw 4.1 innings, giving up four runs on four hits with six strikeouts and one walk. He was beaten by the long ball, allowing all three homers in the game.
While it wasn’t an ideal outing for Knack, he was mostly good outside of the mistake pitches to Pederson and Walker, who has outperformed Barry Bonds in his prime.
Anthony Banda allowed the RBI from Marte, but managed to give the club 1.2 innings to help take some pressure off the rest of the bullpen.
In the ninth inning, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled with the bases loaded to drive in two more against Nick Ramirez, who was recalled earlier in the day to provide the bullpen with a fresh arm.
Two more runs scored when Gabriel Moreno doubled against Ramirez. He was charged with four runs in two innings pitched.
Offensively, it was another poor showing for the Dodgers. They scored all three of their runs in the fourth inning, which came on a ground out from Kiké Hernández with the bases loaded, and a bloop single from Austin Barnes.
Dodgers bring out the best in Christian Walker
The Dodgers have been unable to contain Walker for a while now, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts isn’t sure what the solution to get him out is.
“Gosh, yeah, I don’t know,” Roberts said. “Yeah, the numbers are like better than Shohei’s here at Dodger Stadium. It’s a division rival, I do think that we bring out the best in him.
“He actually plays really well at home against us, as well. But at this ballpark, it’s otherworldly. He doesn’t give anything away, he really doesn’t. I’ve said it, he’s one of the guys I really enjoy watching play.
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