In the first of what will be several meetings this year, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers squared off on Saturday afternoon. The matchup featured Kenta Maeda and Shelby Miller as the starting pitchers, with both right-handers making their respective debuts with their new club.
Maeda retired the first two batters faced, picking up his first strikeout along the way as Jake Lamb went down swinging. Phil Gosselin went down and got a pitch low and inside to pull a two-out double by Elian Herrera down the third-base line.
Gosselin attempted to take advantage of the Dodgers’ shift by stealing third base, but was thrown out by Yasmani Grandal with Corey Seager hustling over to cover the bag.
Howie Kendrick and Andre Ethier connected on back-to-back singles to give the Dodgers runners on the corners with no outs in the bottom of the first.
Yasiel Puig’s sacrifice fly to deep center field gave Los Angeles an early 1-0 lead. After walking Adrian Gonzalez, Shelby Miller escaped the jam by getting Grandal to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Maeda continued to look sharp in the second as he retired the side in order. His afternoon of work finished with 28 pitches thrown over the two frames, with a pair of strikeouts.
Miller again found himself in trouble as Shawn Zarraga and Elian Herrera combined for consecutive one-out singles in the bottom of the second. Corey Brown’s RBI single extended the Dodgers’ lead to 2-0, but also resulted in a second out as Brown attempted to take second base on the throw home.
Chris Hatcher struck out Chris Hermann swinging to start the third inning. Kyle Jensen drew a walk and scored on Jason Bourgeois’ RBI double to left field as part of a hit-and run. Bourgeois then advanced 90 feet on Hatcher’s errant pickoff attempt.
The error proved costly as Nick Ahmed’s sacrifice fly tied the game at 2-2 before Hatcher managed to get out of the inning. Diamondbacks reliever Yoan Lopez retired Ethier, Puig and Gonzalez in order in the bottom of the third.
CONTINUE READING: Jose De Leon Has Strong Debut, Dodgers Put Together Big Sixth Inning
