Ahmed’s career night can’t save Diamondbacks against Dodgers

With power hitters like Paul Goldschmidt, Jake Lamb, Adrian Gonzalez and Corey Seager in the game, it was fitting that on Jackie Robinson Day a lesser known hitter would have a career-night for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Unfortunately for the D-backs (7-5), Nick Ahmed’s career-high four RBI Saturday was ruined by his defensive miscue and some bad luck in Arizona’s 8-4 loss to Los Angeles.

Ahmed gave a sense of relief early to D-backs’ starting pitcher Patrick Corbin, who was coming off of a stellar performance against the Cleveland Indians.

Corbin pitched six innings of scoreless baseball on Sunday, only allowing four hits while striking out three, winning his first game as a starter since June 21 against Toronto.

The Dodgers (7-5) seemed to have a read on Corbin right away though, getting three straight hits to start the game and scoring two runs in the first inning.

To be fair, the defense behind Corbin was a bit shaky at times. He was able to get out of major jams and didn’t struggle much with his command (throwing 58 strikes on 95 pitches), but he didn’t do much to baffle the hitters either. The Dodgers reached at least second base in every inning that Corbin was out there, scoring in four of his six.

Corbin pitched six innings, giving up five runs (three earned) on nine hits and three walks, while striking out three. He moved to 1-2 on the season and now has a 2.81 ERA.

The left-hander was able to go that deep in the game thanks mainly to Ahmed. Saturday’s starting shortstop quickly erased a two-run deficit with a three-run jack in the second inning, marking his first home run of the season and his first since June 18 at Philadelphia. He followed up in the fourth by setting a new career-high with his fourth RBI coming on a bullet up the middle that scored Brandon Drury.

Ahmed bested his three-RBI game on Sep. 11, 2015, also against the Dodgers, and he was the first Diamondbacks shortstop to get four RBI in a game since Chris Owings did so against Colorado on June 5, 2014.

It wasn’t all peaches for him though. His throwing error in the fourth inning allowed the Dodgers to tie the game.

The D-backs finished with two errors on the night, but it was some bad luck that cost them in the fifth inning, and might have cost them the game.

Chris Herrmann came up firing on a ball in the dirt trying to get Enrique Hernandez out at third, who was caught in no man’s land. Herrmann plunked Hernandez, the ball squirted away and Los Angeles scored the go-ahead run.

The game got away from Arizona when Francisco Rodney entered with two outs and nobody on in the eighth inning. The first four batters he faced reached base, which included a three-run blast by Yasiel Puig to put the game out of reach.

The Dodgers have taken the first two of this four-game series. with first pitch slated for Sunday at 1:10 p.m. It will be Taijuan Walker against Rich Hill in Sunday’s 1:10 p.m. matchup, where Arizona will look to snap a season-long three-game slide.