Miscue is costly for D-Backs in loss in LA

LOS ANGELES — Alek Thomas charged in on the hard-hit single, looking to cut off a run. Instead, the ball skipped off his glove and rolled to the wall, a mistake that made an already raucous Dodger Stadium begin to shake with delight.

Just how costly Thomas’ error was in the fifth inning of the Diamondbacks’ 5-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night is up for debate. The three runs that scored that inning, all of them charged to the Diamondbacks’ Madison Bumgarner, were earned. But the momentum the mistake created was hard to deny.

Either way, the play was far enough below Thomas’ standards that he felt the need to say something. The minute the inning ended, he sought out Bumgarner in the dugout and owned up to it.

“I pride myself on playing good defense,” Thomas told reporters later. “It sucks that that play may have cost us the game. Definitely pride myself on that and if I make mistakes I’ll let the pitchers know, for sure.”

That the Diamondbacks lost a game at Dodger Stadium was nothing new. In recent seasons, the only real suspense involving these two teams, particularly in this ballpark, revolves not around if the Diamondbacks might lose, but how they might lose. Since the start of the 2019 season, they are 3-20 at Dodger Stadium.

Monday marked Thomas’ eighth day in the majors. In his first seven days, the club’s intriguing prospect had showed good pop, particularly to the opposite field. He had run the bases well. And he had played smoothly defensively in the outfield, where he is widely regarded as the organization’s best defensive center fielder.

But with two on and one out in the fifth, the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts lined a clean single into center. Because the ball had to clear a leaping Ketel Marte at second, Chris Taylor had to freeze off second base, raising the possibility he would have held at third had Thomas come up with it cleanly.

But, moments later, Thomas had his back to the infield as he raced to retrieve the ball, the Dodgers had scored the game-tying runs and had the goahead run at third. Betts would score one batter later on Freddie Freeman’s RBI double, capping the three-run inning.

“I think it might have turned the tide for what led to the extra runs being scored that inning,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said.