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
Rickie Weeks hit a two-out double off Luis Avilan in the fourth and took an extra base on Puig’s fielding error. Avilan prevented the Diamondbacks from taking the lead by striking out Brandon Drury to end the inning.
Lopez easily worked his way through the bottom of the fourth by retiring the side in order. Jamey Wright, signed to a Minor-League contract on Feb. 24, made his first appearance of the spring as he entered in the fifth inning.
The veteran right-hander set the Diamondbacks down in order, with one out coming on an inside curvebal to Jensen for called strike three. Jose De Leon’s first pitch in the sixth was pulled into left field by Ahmed for a leadoff double.
After De Leon struck out Lamb swinging, his errant pickoff attempt at second base allowed Ahmed to take third. With the go-ahead run standing 90 feet away, De Leon regrouped and preceded to strikeout the side.
The Dodgers opened the bottom of the sixth inning with a leadoff double from Trayce Thompson and a walk by Austin Barnes. Daniel Gibson got Cody Bellinger to ground into a double play, but then gave up a go-ahead double to Alex Hassan.
Rob Segedin followed with a two-run line-drive homer that extended the Dodgers’ lead to 5-2. Zarraga knocked a base hit up the middle and came around to score on Charlie Culberson’s RBI double to left field.
Socrates Brito led off the seventh with a base hit, but De Leon responded by collecting his fourth strikeout of the game followed by an inning-ending double play. Walks by Brandon Hicks and Barnes, and a Bellinger single loaded the bases for the Dodgers with one out.
They were unable to pad their lead, however, as Hassan tapped back to Braden Shipley for the start of an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play. Chris Anderson worked around a leadoff single to throw a scoreless inning of relief in the eighth.
Leading off the bottom of the eighth inning, Segedin connected for his second home run of the game. He was acquired in a January trade with the New York Yankees in exchange for Tyler Olson and Ronald Torreyes.
Anderson completed a second inning of work by tossing a scoreless ninth to wrap up the Dodgers’ 7-2 win over the Diamondbacks.