After splitting the first two games, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers met for the rubber match at Dodger Stadium. Ross Stripling took the mound for his second career start in the Majors, and he was opposed by Robbie Ray.
Whereas Stripling was the center of a controversial decision in his previous outing, there wouldn’t be any no-hit drama against the Diamondbacks as Jean Segura hit a leadoff single in the first inning. Segura was erased on a 4-3 double play, and Paul Goldschmidt grounded to shortstop for the final out.
Kiké Hernandez drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first, but Ray proceed to strikeout Yasiel Puig, and got Adrian Gonzalez to ground into an inning-ending double play. Stripling walked Jake Lamb with two outs in the second, then ended the inning by striking out Chris Herrmann.
Ray erased a Howie Kendrick leadoff single in the bottom of the second by inducing a double play ball off Corey Seager’s bat. Trayce Thompson and A.J. Ellis extended the inning by drawing walks. Thompson then advanced to third base on Ray’s errant pickoff attempt at second.
Both runners were stranded as Austin Barnes struck out swinging. Stripling opened the third with back-to-back strikeouts of Ray and Nick Ahmed. Segura hit back to the box to close out a quick inning for the rookie right-hander.
CONTINUE READING: Pinch-hitter Justin Turner sparks five-run inning
Ray worked around a Puig two-out single in the bottom of the third to toss another scoreless inning. David Peralta doubled with two outs in the fourth, then was stranded by Drury. The Dodgers didn’t manage any offense in the bottom half of the inning, with Kendrick, Seager and Thompson going down in order.
Herrmann hit a one-out double in the fifth, then scored on Ahmed’s RBI single to right field. The ball was in between for Puig, who threw a strike to home plate that was a few seconds too late. Hernandez singled to center with Barnes standing on first base, putting two on with two outs for the Dodgers.
Ray kept them off the board by getting Puig to fly out. Socrates Brito led off the sixth with a base hit and immediately moved into scoring position by easily stealing second base. Brito later scored on a Peralta RBI groundout that extended the Diamondbacks’ lead to 2-0.
J.P. Howell came on in relief of Stripling in the seventh and struck out two of three batters faced, all of which were left-handed, for a scoreless inning of relief. Ray ran into trouble in the bottom of the inning as he allowed a leadoff single to Thompson and walked Barnes with one out.
Randall Delgado entered to face pinch-hitter Justin Turner, who lined an RBI single to left field. Hernandez followed with a two-run double to left-center field, giving the Dodgers a 3-2 lead. Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale made a second pitching change of the inning, calling on Andrew Chafin.
The southpaw didn’t fare much better than Delgado, as he gave up a pair of RBI singles to Puig and Gonzalez before managing to get out of the inning. Yimi Garcia struck out Goldschmidt looking with a runner on base to end the top of the eighth.
Kenley Jansen entered in the ninth and earned a save on consecutive nights in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win.