Sedona Red Recap: D-backs offense remains electric in win over Dodgers

PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks improved to a franchise-best 8-1 at home to start the season with a series win against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chase Field on Saturday night.

What a difference a season makes.

The D-backs sent Robbie Ray to the mound against Kenta Maeda for the Dodgers. Ray has been consistently impressive so far in 2017, starting the season 1-0 with a 1.96 ERA in two starts.

Ray allowed one run and struck out ten in six innings in his last start, which happened to be against the Dodgers in a no decision. He wasn’t as sharp on Saturday, allowing five earned runs on nine hits in 5.1 innings of work.

His counterpart Maeda struggled as well against this offensively potent D-backs team, allowing six earned runs on nine hits in a bid to be a copycat of Ray.

The D-backs were down early after Ray gave up a leadoff home run to Enrique Hernandez, but the offense picked him up in the bottom of the inning in the form of back-to-back home runs by Lamb and Tomas.

The Dodgers made a game out of it in the sixth inning by putting up some big numbers once Ray exited. Wilhelmsen and Hoover both failed to sustain Ray’s success in relief, and the Dodgers put up three runs in the inning, reducing the D-backs’ lead to 6-5.

But that would be the closest L.A. would get. The D-backs put up some big offensive numbers of their own in the 7th and 8th innings to close the door and win by a score of 11-5, giving the D-backs the series win against the Dodgers.

The D-backs’ bats were mighty once again, tallying eleven runs on fourteen hits. Owings, Tomas, Peralta, and Pollock all had multi-hit games, with Tomas putting up two home runs and Peralta delivering with a franchise record four doubles.

Overall, it was a solid victory over a division rival who used to own Chase Field. Times are changing, and this feels like a completely different D-backs team.

THE GOOD

David Peralta set a franchise record with four doubles in a single game. Boston’s Brock Holt was the last MLB player to obtain four doubles in a game on June 1st, 2014.

Yasmany Tomas, who lead the majors in 2016 with seven multi-home run games, gets his first mutli-homer game of 2017 tonight, with both long balls coming off of Kenta Maeda.

Despite being down early, the D-backs responded immediately in the bottom of the first with three runs of their own that gave them the lead for the remainder of the game.

Home runs from Lamb, Herrmann, and two from Tomas provided the team with enough offense to sustain Goldschmidt’s current struggles at the plate.

Robbie Ray was solid again, going 5.1 innings with nine hits and five earned runs. He struck out six, including Joc Pederson on three occasions, and he walked two.

Starting pitching for the D-backs now has an 8-7 record on the season with a 3.60 ERA.

THE BAD

Ray gave up a leadoff home run to Enrique Hernandez, the third leadoff home run of his career, that put the D-backs in a deficit after the first at-bat of the game.

Goldschmidt continues to have problems offensively, going 1-4 at the plate with a walk. His batting average over the last 12 games is .195. Luckily, the team has picked up the slack.

The D-backs collapsed in the 6th inning, allowing three runs to score and the Dodgers back in the game. Arizona was unable to get a quality relief appearance out of Tom Wilhelmsen or JJ Hoover, and a badly-played ball by Owings with the bases loaded kept the inning going and allowed a run to score.

Hazelbaker has dropped his batting average from 1.000 to .438 over the last week. Everybody should panic.

STAT OF THE GAME

8-1: The D-backs’ 8-1 start at Chase Field is now the best start at home in franchise history

NOTED

With a first-pitch temperature of 93 degrees, the roof and panels were closed to start the game. The roof was opened prior to the 4th inning.

36,294 were in attendance at Chase Field for the game.

The D-Backs’ first six runs of the game were produced via home run.

UP NEXT

The D-backs will send an improved Shelby Miller to the mound on Sunday to face off against former D-back and notorious Twitter troublemaker, Brandon McCarthy. Miller (2-1) went 7.1 innings in his last start against the San Diego Padres, giving up four hits and one earned run in a winning effort. He struck out five and walked two.

Miller is 1-3 in his seven career starts against the Dodgers with a 6.95 ERA.

This is only McCarthy’s second start against the D-backs, which includes his last start on April 17th. McCarthy went 5.0 innings, giving up two earned runs in a no decision.

In fact, in two career starts against his former club, McCarthy has an impressive 1.64 ERA with two no decisions to show for his effort.

First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 with pregame coverage beginning 40 minutes earlier on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

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