Clayton Kershaw had his first clunker since returning from the 60-day injured list and the Los Angeles Dodgers failed to solve Zac Gallen in a 7-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Dodgers dropped to 5-3 on their road trip heading into the rubber match at Chase Field.
While Gallen did allow a base hit to Corey Seager, he recorded six strikeouts through two scoreless innings. Gavin Lux was the Dodgers’ first batter to not strike out when being retired, as he grounded to first base to lead off the third inning.
The Dodgers later started a small rally behind walks from Mookie Betts and Seager, but Trea Turner lined out to end the threat.
While the Dodgers failed to generate much stress against Gallen, Kershaw didn’t retire any leadoff batter faced through his 4.1 innings of work.
Ketel Marte hit Kershaw’s first pitch of the game for a home run, and Carson Kelly led off the second inning with a solo blast.
Kershaw stranded a leadoff single in the third, but Christian Walker starting the fourth with a walk led to an unearned run on Justin Turner’s throwing error with two outs. Gallen’s high chopper went for a leadoff infield single in the fifth and resulted in another run Daulton Varsho’s RBI base hit that chased Kershaw from the game.
Trea Turner’s solo home run in the sixth inning got the Dodgers on the board and he slugged another in the ninth, but they never drew any closer. Turner’s first blast was the lone run Gallen allowed, along with three hits while collecting eight strikeouts over six innings.
Arizona added to their lead for good measure in the eighth behind a two-run single from David Peralta.
Dodgers slipping in NL West
For the time being, the Dodgers fell to 1.5 games back of the San Francisco Giants for first place in the National League West. However, that could grow as the Giants held a late lead over the Colorado Rockies when the game in Arizona went final.
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