Pedro Baez failed to protect a lead in the eighth inning, Scott Alexander faltered in the 11th, and the Los Angeles Dodgers had their season-best seven-game winning streak snapped in a 3-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Kenta Maeda was dominant through much of the afternoon, limiting the Diamondbacks to just one run on two hits. Though, he curiously only went five innings despite throwing just 70 pitches. He began the start by striking out five of the first six batters faced to get through two perfect frames.
Maeda set the Diamondbacks down in order again in the third inning and didn’t allow a baserunner until Jarrod Dyson’s leadoff single in the fourth. Dyson advanced to second base a deep fly ball to center field and later scored on David Peralta’s two-out base hit.
A walk and stolen base put the tying run in scoring position with one out in the fifth inning. The walk was the first Maeda issued in his past four starts. Nick Ahmed reached third base on a groundout but was stranded by Corey Seager snagging a line drive on a leaping catch.
Even with Maeda’s short outing, Dodgers starting pitchers combined to allow just two earned runs over 20 innings (0.90 ERA) during the three-game series. Their lead Wednesday slipped away when Pedro Baez hit Tim Locastro and allowed a game-tying, two-out RBI double to Jarrod Dyson.
After Ross Stripling worked a scoreless ninth inning and escaped a jam in the 10th, Alexander took over in the 11th and immediately gave up a leadoff triple. Peralta followed with an RBI single to prevent the Dodgers from completing a sweep.
Offensively, the Dodgers struggled to get much of anything going against rookie Jon Duplantier in just his second career start and seventh game overall. He got through two perfect innings before walking Alex Verdugo to begin the third.
That led to Will Smith’s two-run home run that held up as the difference for the Dodgers. Duplantier stranded Seager’s two-out double in the fourth inning and a Maeda infield single in his fifth and final inning of work.
Justin Turner twice flied out to deep center field and Chris Taylor’s drive was caught at the wall in left. They served as further reminder of the Diamondbacks installing a humidor at Chase Field last season.
Cody Bellinger extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a two-out single off Andrew Chafin in the sixth inning. Bellinger has reached base in all but one of his 58 starts this season.
