Diamondbacks win season series vs. Dodgers for 1st time since 2018

PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks suffered a sweep to the Los Angeles Dodgers to open the 2026 season, and instead of accepting that they might have fallen to superior team, D-backs players were frustrated that they left wins on the table.

Since then, the D-backs have taken seven of their next 10 games against the two-time defending champions, and Sunday’s 4-2 victory clinched Arizona’s first season series win against Los Angeles since 2018.

The Diamondbacks showed no fear of the Dodgers during the 2023 postseason despite years of coming up empty against their division rivals. Even facing a beefed-up version of Los Angeles, one with a payroll surpassing $400 million, the Diamondbacks have risen to the challenge competitively. Since the 2023 playoffs, Arizona is 22-20 in this matchup.

The Dodgers were not playing well entering this weekend and had motivation to get on track, but the Diamondbacks’ pitching staff, led on Sunday by Eduardo Rodriguez, largely shut them down.

The series was tense.

The D-backs outscored the Dodgers 9-7 over three games, winning the first on a walk-off home run from rookie Ryan Waldschmidt and losing the second in extra innings. It was played in front of a packed house for all three games at Chase Field, a split crowd that created a high-stakes atmosphere.

“We always play the Dodgers well,” Ketel Marte said via Spanish interpreter. “It’s a tough game. I like that type of adrenaline. We are doing the little things well, this is going to help us out.”

In that environment, Arizona’s starting pitchers Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt and Rodriguez held the Dodgers to three runs over 19.2 innings, and Rodriguez put forth a Herculean effort in the finale.

Rodriguez threw seven innings with two earned runs, but he did so with 115 pitches to save a taxed bullpen. No Diamondbacks pitcher had thrown that many pitches since Zac Gallen in 2022.

In general, the Diamondbacks did very well at limiting Los Angeles’ two hottest hitters, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman, who went a combined 2-for-23 in the series with two singles. Ohtani’s lone hit was the go-ahead infield single in the 10th inning on Saturday.

The D-backs (63-56) are 7.5 games behind the Dodgers (70-48) for the division lead, but their win on Sunday kept them tied with the Philadelphia Phillies for the second NL Wild Card spot with 43 games left.

“Every game counts right now,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not just the Dodgers, we’re at the point right now where we have to win the most series that we can. We just have to keep winning.”

“I want everybody to enjoy it,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “They deserve it. We won a season series against the Dodgers. We are firmly planted in the middle of a Wild Card race. We’re going to layer in players that are getting healthy. I want them to feel what they did and be ready for a series that’s going to be very stubborn tomorrow against the Rockies. That will be another test. It never stops.”

The Diamondbacks passed another test on Sunday.

They suffered an “emotional” loss in extra innings on Saturday, another game they felt should have been a win. Any sign of a hangover was not present early on Sunday, as the D-backs jumped out to a 2-0 lead off a Marte home run against Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski. The lead doubled in the second inning, and even though the offense shut down, it gave Rodriguez the space he needed.

“On a day where we had four relievers down and we’re extremely thinned out, day game after night game, tough emotional loss last night, clearly a game we felt like we should have won, we cycled through that and threw up four runs in the first couple of innings,” Lovullo said. “I’m proud of the team’s readiness and the statement they made. That sets a tone. From there, E-Rod took it over.”

Eduardo Rodriguez delivers a start we just don’t see anymore

In the history of the Diamondbacks, there have been 283 regular season games when a pitcher threw at least 115 pitches, but only two such performances were in the 2020s. The 115-pitch mark has been reached only five times league-wide this season.

The Diamondbacks brought Rodriguez back out for the seventh inning at 93 pitches, as they needed as much length as they could get.

Rodriguez battled with Kiké Hernandez — who had historically crushed the lefty — for 11 pitches before Hernandez popped out. Lovullo described that at-bat as agonizing.

That’s when Rodriguez thought he’d get the hook, but Lovullo stayed in the dugout. Rodriguez’s day ended on an Ohtani ground out, and the former walked off to a standing ovation at the end of the frame.

Rodriguez kept the Dodgers to five hits with a season-high nine strikeouts. He drew 17 whiffs, 11 with the changeup (55%, another season high). That pitch gave some of the best hitters in the world fits.

“The changeup was working great,” Rodriguez said. “It’s been a long time since the last time I (threw 115 pitches), but I know how much we needed it today.”

Rodriguez last threw 115 pitches in a game in 2019.

Taylor Clarke and Kevin Ginkel finished the job with scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively, with Ginkel earning the save.

Rodriguez made four starts against the Dodgers this season, and with that many looks, one would think the hitters would be able to take advantage.

But Rodriguez did not allow more than two runs in any of the four games, and Arizona won the final three of them.

“A really good left-on-left changeup that I think was causing problems for left-handed hitters like Ohtani,” Lovullo said. “That early in the year wasn’t in the game plan, so we saw something that was a little bit of a deficit, and we took advantage of it. It’s how good he is. He can make adjustments. He can put a baseball in his hand and manipulate it as good as anybody I’ve ever been around. Merrill’s the same way.”

Even if the Dodgers’ division lead is unsurmountable, winning division games is very productive. When looking at postseason tiebreakers, the top one is head-to-head record. Against a division rival like the San Diego Padres, the teams will play each other 13 times, so the season series is the tiebreaker. But the next tiebreaker is divisional record, and the D-backs are 25-14 against the NL West.

Ketel Marte reaches 20 home runs

Marte hit his 20th home run of the season, becoming the fourth D-backs player in franchise history to do so five times:

• Paul Goldschmidt (6)
• Luis Gonzalez (6)
• Steve Finley (5)
• Ketel Marte (5)

Marte had not hit a home run since July 26, as he has slumped since July 1. Getting that one felt good.

“Very happy, especially because I’ve been struggling a little bit lately,” Marte said. “To be able to hit a home run there in the first inning maybe drops their energy a little bit.”

Arizona added another pair of runs in the second on a throwing error from Wrobleski and an RBI double from Gabriel Moreno.

Sunday attendance

43,775

The Chase Field attendance surpassed 40,000 for three straight games for the first time this season.

Diamondbacks-Rockies coming up

The Diamondbacks finish their 10-game homestand with a three-game series against the Rockies, starting on Monday.

Pitching probables:

Monday: RHP Gabriel Hughes (4.25 ERA) vs. RHP Michael Soroka (3.07)

Tuesday: RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (4.51) vs. LHP Mitch Bratt (3.90)

Wednesday: RHP Ryan Feltner (5.71) vs. RHP Merrill Kelly (4.88)

First pitch on Monday is at 6:40 p.m. MST on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app.  

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