Diamondbacks comeback falls short, fall to Dodgers 7-6

Record 18-19, Tied for last in the NL West

Tyler Gilbert cruised through the first 5 innings of the game on 65 pitches, allowing just one run on a Will Smith Solo Homer. The offense staked him to a 3-0 lead in 3rd, the big blow being Christian Walkers’s 8th homer.

But a disastrous 6th inning saw Gilbert allow 3 more Dodger homers and 5 more runs to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead. The offense battled back to get in the game, making it 6-5 in the 7th, thanks to an Alek Thomas homer and Ketel Marte RBI base hit. But a Dodger tack on run in the 7th turned out to be the winning margin.

For the second straight day the D-backs managed to score off of Craig Kimbrel in the 9th, something nobody else had done sinc April 8th, but in both instances it wasn’t enough to blow the save.

Here is your inning by inning recap for those that couldn’t watch the game.

T-1: Ryan Pepiot walked Varsho and Rojas to start the game, causing Dave Roberts to get the pen up in the 1^st inning of a double header. But Smith K’d on a slider down and Walker couldn’t catch up to 95 MPH fastballs striking out as well. Peralta ground out 4-3 to end the inning, and they’re already 0-3 w/RISP. Pepiot threw 27 pitches though, so that’s good.

B-1: Tyler Gilbert gave up a leadoff single to Betts, but induced popouts from Freeman and Trea Turner before Alek Thomas ran down a deep fly to track from Will Smith ending the inning with a tidy 13 pitches.

T-2: Pepiot mows down the D-backs in the 2^nd, popping up Hummel and striking out Thomas and Perdomo. He’s struck out 4 of the last 6 hitters.

B-2: Gilbert says I can do that, popping up Muncy and striking out Justin Turner and Bellinger, needing just 10 pitches to do so. Good stuff. It’s weird how he’s so much more effective in MLB than he is in AAA

T-3: Rojas drew a two out walk and advanced to 2^nd on a passed ball. Smith broke through with a groundball single through the hole into right scoring Rojas. Christian Walker then smashed his 8^th homerun of the year, and 8^th in Dodger stadium for his career. 3-0 D-backs

Walker Talked about how he loves playing in front of a packed stadium that is being loud. I wish he could get that opportunity at home.

B-3: A leadoff single by Chris Taylor was quickly negated by a 6-4-3 double play, followed by a K looking for Betts. Gilbert with 35 pitches through 3

T-4: Hummel, Thomas, & Perdomo once again go down in order

B-4: Will Smith tagged Gilbert for a 2 out solo shot to left on a middle middle cutter. 3-1 Diamondbacks

T-5: Lefty Justin Bruihl in to pitch for LA. With one out Varsho dragged a bunt for a base hit. But then there was another pickoff caught stealing on what looked like a pretty good jumb. That’s happened 3 times, all recently. They are tied for 2^nd in MLB POCS

B-5: 3 up 3 down, Gilbert K’s 2 more, he has 6K’s so far, no walks.

T-6: D-backs go down in order, Smith and Walker strikeout and Peralta grounds out into the shift.

B-6: Welp, all the feel goods from Gilbert’s outing have evaporated. A leadoff single was followed by a two-run blast to left by Mookie Betts and one out later Trea Turner hit one into the Dodgers bullpen. Then Gilbert issued a two out walk and was clearly tiring. Inexplicably Torey left him in to face Justin Turner, who promptly hit the 4^th HR off of Gilbert, the 3rd in this inning. Gilbert walked one more and Torey FINALLY came out of the dugout to get him. 6-3 Dodgers. The slow hook for Gilbert was a point of discussion in the game thread, rightfully so. Gilbert had not pitched since May 6th.

T-7: Alek Thomas got the D-backs back on the board with a solo shot, his 2^nd of the year. Jake Hager drew a two out walk, advanced on a fielders choice/E4, and then scored on a pinch hit single by Ketel Marte. Dodgers 6-5

B-7: Betts hit a one out double, chasing J.B. Wendelken. Kyle Nelson came in to pitch to Freeman, and gave up an RBI single before getting the final two outs. That was the first inherited runner to score off of Nelson this year. 7-5 Dodgers.

T-8: Walker draws a leadoff walk but advances no further. Peralta K, Hummel & Thomas both fly out to CF.

B-8: Caleb Smith records a 1-2-3 inning.

T-9: Kimbrel on to close for LA. Perdomo caught a break on a check swing not called that got Dave Roberts ejected. He ended up and drawing a leadoff walk, and went to 2^nd on Defensive Indifference. Varsho struck out, but Kimbrel intentionally balked Perdomo over to 3^rd. (Dodgers aren’t using pitch com, and he didn’t want Perdomo stealing signs) Ketel Marte then hit a ground ball up the middle for an infield RBI single bringing the D-backs within one run. Jordan Luplow worked the count full and fouled off a bunch of tough pitches before finally going down swinging. Dodgers win 7- 6

While frustrating, it was an entertaining game, and the team didn’t give up, they kept battling. You can’t complain with the effort. The Dodgers are a great hitting team and it’s tough to keep them down. While we second guess Torey a lot, and some of the time it’s even justified, ;), you have to hat tip the Dodgers.

See Y’all for the night cap, 7:10 P.M. Merrill Kelly goes against Tyler Anderson They’ll need to win to get back to .500 and stay out of the cellar

Fangraphs WPA Box Score

Christian Walker. +.203 WPA thanks to his 2nd inning HR.

Ketel Marte + .172 with a couple of RBI singles late in the game

Chuck E Cheese (Yes, I did that). Tyler Gilbert. -.503

Jordan Luplow. -.172. Struck out twice, as pinch hitter in the 7th with runners on 1st and 3rd and again to end the game with a man on.

COTD:

155 comments, not terrible for day game. Lopez snares the prize with the most rec’d and only Red comment (that I could find)