Dodgers defeat Diamondbacks in another wild, highlight-filled game at Chase Field

PHOENIX — The Los Angeles Dodgers scored two runs in the ninth inning to outlast the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-6 in another thrilling back-and-forth game at sold-out Chase Field on Saturday.

With runners on second and third and two outs, Dodgers outfielder Tommy Edman went down to flare a Justin Martinez splitter into right field, driving in the game-winning runs. Martinez entered the jam with one out, and second baseman Luis Guillorme made one of the most absurd catches of the season on a line drive to rob Miguel Rojas to preserve a 6-6 tie.

Martinez had Edman down 0-2, but the hitter just got enough wood on the ball to drop it beyond Guillorme’s reach.

Luis Guillorme WOW pic.twitter.com/Lz5PHICQ1x

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 1, 2024

Evan Phillips recorded the save for Los Angeles, who won in front of a crowd of 50,041.

“A little bit of a grinding loss, right?” manager Torey Lovullo said. “There was just a dug-out split-finger that was the difference.”

The Diamondbacks had already come back from three previous deficits, similar to Friday’s 10-9 loss.

The ballgame started as wild as possible, as Dodgers stars Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman hit back-to-back-to-back homers to lead it off against D-backs starter Merrill Kelly.

Shohei Ohtani – 420 FT
Mookie Betts – 400 FT
Freddie Freeman – 437 FT

The Big Three hit over 1,200 feet worth of homers in the matter of 4 pitches 🤯 pic.twitter.com/wMWlGTlujY

— MLB (@MLB) September 1, 2024

The Diamondbacks responded right away. Corbin Carroll hit an inside-the-park home run to lead off the first inning, his 19th homer of the year and the first D-backs inside-the-parker since Jordan Luplow in 2022. Arizona tacked on three more runs to take the lead, two from a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. double off Dodgers starter Gavin Stone.

The Dodgers retook the lead in the second off Kelly, who made a costly throwing error to third base. Kelly finished his outing with 5.1 innings and six runs allowed, four of them earned but the two unearned stemmed from his own error.

Gurriel homered in the third inning off Stone to tie the game 5-5, but the Diamondbacks did not record a hit for the rest of the evening.

Home-to-home in 14.32 seconds 🔥

Corbin Carroll is lightning fast ⚡️

(MLB Stats x @GoogleCloud) pic.twitter.com/U3MuVchoQ3

— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) September 1, 2024

What happened with Merrill Kelly?

Kelly said his start was defined by missed spots. He explained location has been his most significant hindrance since returning from the injured list. In four starts, Kelly has thrown 21.1 innings with 16 earned runs for a 6.75 ERA.

“If you look at pretty much every pitch I got beat on tonight, it was a mislocation,” Kelly said. “The at-bat to Shohei, first it wasn’t a bad at-bat. I made some decent pitches and then hung the curveball in the middle. Mookie, slider right down the middle. Freddie, fastball right down the middle. … Just having trouble, especially glove side with the breaking stuff, getting it over there right now.”

Merrill Kelly says missed location has been his biggest issue since coming back from injury. pic.twitter.com/ktc0Jc8s7T

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) September 1, 2024

Kelly said the ball felt the best out of his hand since his return, as his velocity was back up. His fastball averaged 92.2 mph, which was his average last season.

But the veteran said that does not mean (expletive) if he cannot locate.

“In my mind, it’s not necessarily one thing that’s jumping out. I just think the timing and everything of my lower half and my arm being on time, there’s just somewhat of a disconnect right now,” Kelly said.

Arizona starters other than Ryne Nelson had a difficult August. Zac Gallen had a 4.94 ERA in five starts, Brandon Pfaadt a 6.04 ERA in five starts and Eduardo Rodriguez a 5.06 ERA in four starts.

The offense continues to battle, but not getting quality starts from a rotation that came into the season with lofty expectations has put the D-backs in some tough positions lately (7-7 over the last 14 games). Gallen-Kelly has been one of the most effective tandems in MLB over the past couple of seasons, a duo the D-backs will rely on to right the ship in September.

“We’ve got to get them going,” Lovullo said. “Zac had a good outing in Boston. I know yesterday was a similar outing to Merrill’s. So hopefully that’s something they can build on for the next one. When you come here and those two guys are pitching, you expect to win those games and we didn’t.”

How did Torey Lovullo manage the 9th inning?

Lovullo had Ryan Thompson start the ninth inning after the right-hander faced three batters in the eighth and struck out Teoscar Hernandez to strand a pair.

Thompson surrendered back-to-back singles to open the ninth, and L.A.’s Enrique Hernandez bunted them over. That’s when Lovullo called in Martinez in a tough spot.

“I know it’s probably an easy target, but I wanted to split up the three innings between Thompson and Martinez, and I was budgeting for 10 innings,” Lovullo said.

“I felt like it was going to be a couple batters with Thompson. He had good stuff. But there’s a little bit of an emotional let down. He got out of that big jam in the eighth, so they took advantage and they got two clean base hits. If we took the lead, (Martinez) was going in the game. I wanted some power in the top of the 10th and I was going to target Martinez and I didn’t want him to throw two complete innings.”

Torey Lovullo explains his reasoning for how he handled the bullpen in the ninth inning. pic.twitter.com/7i6WQG6rJU

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) September 1, 2024

Can Christian Walker come back already?

After the game, Lovullo had an update on Christian Walker, who played five innings at Salt River Fields on Saturday as he works back from an oblique strain. Lovullo said everything went well and the club will see how Walker responds in the morning. That said, he is not an option to return on Sunday.

Eugenio Suarez was shown on the TV broadcast in a bit of discomfort, but he stayed in the game.

Lovullo said Suarez had a little bit of upper back discomfort, and he will be fine for Sunday.

Diamondbacks’ next game

The Dodgers (82-54) snatched the first two games at Chase Field and extended their lead in the division to six games.

The Diamondbacks (76-60) get two more cracks at Los Angeles, as this series extends into Labor Day Monday.

Sunday’s game features a pitching matchup between Arizona’s Brandon Pfaadt and Los Angeles left-hander Justin Wrobleski.

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

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