Diamondbacks had Dodgers cornered, but they slipped away to set up season-series rubber match

PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks looked to have Saturday’s ballgame against the Los Angeles Dodgers won, primed to take the season series by walking off their division rivals for a second straight night.

Down 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll hit back-to-back triples off Dodgers closer Edwin Diaz, who allowed a walk-off home run to Ryan Waldschmidt on Friday.

With no outs and the 3-4-5 hitters up, that ninth inning could have been played 10 times from that point on and the D-backs might have won nine.

Just not the one that counted, as the Dodgers wiggled out of danger to win a tense, playoff-like game in 10 innings, 2-1. Los Angeles snapped its seven-game losing streak overall and five-game losing streak to Arizona.

The main story of this game was that pitcher Brandon Pfaadt threw seven scoreless innings, but the offense finished 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 15 runners on base.

“Tough loss,” Nolan Arenado said. “We feel like we could have won that game and took care of business. But, like I said, we battled. It just didn’t go our way. … There’s no doubt that when we get chances to capitalize against a good team, we got to do it.”

To add to the frustration, the winning hit was a Shohei Ohtani infield single that bounced out of first baseman Tim Tawa’s glove on a dive. It was hit 73 mph off the bat.

The Diamondbacks have not won a season series against the Dodgers since 2018, and ending that streak will be on the line in Sunday’s rubber match.

How did the Diamondbacks not win in the 9th inning?

The ninth inning could not have started any better.

Perdomo battled for seven pitches and drove a ball into the right-center field alley for a triple. He dove into third base, fired up as the Diamondbacks’ side of the packed house jolted to life. Carroll followed with a sharp line drive to left field, which rattled in the corner at the end of the bullpen, allowing him to sprint around the bases.

Win probability can be a funny metric because baseball’s anything can happen without a clock nature, but the D-backs had a 92% chance to take the victory at that point, according to Statcast.

Gabriel Moreno stepped up crushed a ball 106 mph off the bat … right to third baseman Max Muncy.

Carroll did well at retreating to third base quickly, but that looked like the game-winner for a fleeting moment. Ketel Marte’s rough slump continued in the worst way, as he popped up a pitch he was looking to elevate. With two outs, Ildemaro Vargas struck out.

The D-backs were 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position at that point, having stranded the bases loaded in the eighth inning.

“Situational hitting, especially this late in the season, it’s the difference between scoring seven runs and scoring one or two runs,” manager Torey Lovullo said.

“As long as the approach is good and we have a process and we’re not swinging randomly or wildly at pitches, I can live with it. I can live with guys staying behind the ball and staying in the middle of the diamond. … I saw enough of that today that leads me to think that the guys were engaged and the guys were really trying to make it happen and just couldn’t get it done.”

The Dodgers scoring in the 10th was also entirely preventable.

With two outs, reliever Gerardo Carrillo — who has been thrown to the deep end as a rookie in the major leagues for two weeks and done very well — walked nine-hole hitter Hunter Feduccia to get to Ohtani. Worse yet, ball four was a wild pitch, moving the ghost runner to third.

It just took a tapper from Ohtani to the right side with Tawa holding the runner to bring in the winning run, as the ball just popped away from Tawa as he dove for it. Lovullo explained that Tawa had to hold the runner to prevent him from getting into scoring position, even with Ohtani up to bat.

In a game as tightly played as this one, or even these past two games, there has been very little room for the missteps or missed opportunities that piled up for Arizona.

Tawa failed to get a bunt down in the bottom half and struck out, which was another example of failed execution with runners on, and Waldschmidt fell short of being the hero on back-to-back nights by bouncing into the game-ending double play.

“A lot of things went right for us in that late in the game,” Lovullo said. “We had the right guys up in the right situation and just couldn’t execute. You get that close and you fight as hard as we did all day and you come up on the short end, it’s frustrating and it hurts because we care so much and we’re in the middle of a race. But this team is resilient. I know they’re frustrated right now, but they’ll bounce back.”

With the loss, the Diamondbacks (62-56), remain in a tie for the second National League Wild Card spot with the Philadelphia Phillies, while the San Diego Padres are one game back.

Brandon Pfaadt continues to amaze for Diamondbacks

Pfaadt has not allowed an earned run over his last three starts, tallying 20.2 innings.

The last D-backs pitcher to throw 20 straight innings with no earned runs allowed was Zac Gallen in 2023. It has only been done by six different pitchers in franchise history:

• Brandon Pfaadt (2026)
• Zac Gallen (2022, 2023)
• Robbie Ray (2017)
• Randy Johnson (2008)
• Brandon Webb (2006, 2007)
• Andy Benes (1998)

Pfaadt’s ERA at the time the D-backs optioned him to Triple-A to stretch back out into a starter was 5.92. After Saturday’s effort, it dropped to 3.36. In eight starts since coming back up, he owns a 1.32 ERA.

He simplified his mechanics by eliminating his over-the-head motion, moved back over to the first-base side of the rubber and came back with a mindset to attack the strike zone relentlessly. His command and the sharpness to his pitches have been stellar, and on Saturday, it was the changeup that he leaned on.

It is a pitch he’s used only 14% of the time this year, but he had it working on Saturday to the tune of six whiffs on 16 swings. He dropped a particularly filthy one to strike out Ohtani in the seventh inning. Ohtani went 0-for-3 against Pfaadt.

“I think a lot of things were working,” Pfaadt said. “I think we were able to establish the zone up-and-in and down-and-away, especially to those lefties. … (James McCann) did a good job calling the game and keeping them in between the fastball and changeup.”

Pfaadt was done after 93 pitches, and the game was tied at no score.

He had to duel Dodgers All-Star Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw 5.2 scoreless innings.

Saturday attendance

46,213

One more time vs. L.A.

Eduardo Rodriguez (2.71 ERA) will pitch for the Diamondbacks to close Arizona’s season series against the Dodgers on Sunday. L.A. will start fellow All-Star left-hander Justin Wrobleski (3.31 ERA).

First pitch is at 1:10 p.m. MST on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app. 

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