Diamondbacks 1 , Dodgers 14 - Pitiful play

Is this the beginning of the end for Humberto Castellanos? Coming into tonight’s start, Humberto hasn’t cleared 5 2/3rds innings since joining the rotation in mid-April for struggling Caleb Smith. He’s been alright in that time, with a 4.13 ERA (vs. 4.56 FIP) while needing multiple relievers to support his low innings count. But with multiple prospects knocking on the door, it sure seems like his MLB-rotation days are on life support and with him facing the menacing Dodgers tonight, this could be the beginning of the end.

Things looked troublesome from the get-go, with both Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman doubling for an early run. And after a fly ball, a Will Smith single scored Freeman, giving the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. It was more of the same in the 2nd, as the Dodgers collected 5 hits and a walk en route to a 4 run inning and a 6-0 advantage. Most of the damage came on a Freeman homer, his 4th of the year.

The D-backs got the bats going a bit in their half of the inning, as Christian Walker singled and Pavin Smith walked with 1 out, but a grounder and line out undid all of that, as the opener Mitch White held down the fort despite coming in with a 6.17 ERA on the day. He’d lower that with another two scoreless innings in the 3rd and 4th.

Humberto settled down after that, as he’d allow just a single in the 3rd before leaving after 4 innings and 96 pitches. This was easily his worst performance of his 2022 season with 6 earned runs and 10 hits allowed putting the D-backs in a pretty big hole that they would never come close to escaping.

Luis Frias was the next to enter and kept up the scoreless inning with one of his own in the 5th. But it unraveled in the 6th, with some familiar names causing problems on the basepaths, as Betts singled, Freeman doubled, and Turner tripled for two quick runs. A mound visit didn’t help, as Smith and Rios singled, and a Bellinger double to cap a 4-run inning, 10-0 Dodgers.

The offense finally scored in their half of the 6th, as the only one who seemingly wanted to play, Christian Walker, dumped one into the bleachers for the lone D-backs run on the evening, 10-1.

A Chris Taylor homer made it 12-1 in the 8th, and with Jake Hager on the mound in the 9th, the Dodgers added two more to give us our final score, 14-1.

The Dodgers capped off the night with 24 hits, a new high by any team this season.

Pretty bad one there. Despite two hits, Walker was only a +.1 WPA on the night. Pavin’s single and walk led the way with a +1.5 WPA on the night. You can probably guess the leader on the negative side of the ball.

Gamethread was sparse, so no Comment of the Thread. Sorry me. Tune in tomorrow for the 2nd game of this 4 gamer, first pitch is at 6:40pm.