Battered ... beaten
Injuries, COVID, Dodgers take turns knocking down D-Backs
LOS ANGELES — Diamondbacks third baseman Josh Rojas returned the visitors’ clubhouse at Dodger Stadium and was struck by a realization. He had not had a chance to take a breath, not during Wednesday’s 5-3 loss, not at any point over the previous three days.
Facing the Los Angeles Dodgers is difficult enough for the Diamondbacks. It is even harder when they have to play them four times in three days. And it is harder still when they are hit hard by injuries and COVID-19. Given all that, the outcome of the series came as little surprise.
The Diamondbacks were swept in four games, extending their losing streak to six and dropping to 18-21, three games under .500 for the first time since the start of the month.
They played the entire series without shortstop Nick Ahmed, who is on the injured list for an undisclosed reason. They received only six at-bats from second baseman Ketel Marte, who is nursing a sore left hand. They were playing essentially with a one-man bench on Wednesday after losing two position players, Cooper Hummel and Jose Herrera, to positive COVID tests.
On top of that, they did not play especially well. Their starting pitching struggled. Their offense was decent but couldn’t come up with big hits. They did not play or pitch terribly, but against the Dodgers, in their home ballpark, it wasn’t good enough.
Since the start of 2019, the Diamondbacks are 3-23 at Dodger Stadium, where they are 1-18 in their past 19 games, including nine losses in a row.
“In this stadium, there’s a lot of momentum,” Diamondbacks right-hander Zach Davies said. “It’s a big crowd, they definitely get that momentum from the crowd. They’re an All-Star lineup, one through nine, and knows their job and does it well.”
Davies was nursing a 2-1 lead when the Dodgers’ Will Smith shot a double into right with one out in the fourth, the start of a speedy unraveling for the Diamondbacks. Max Muncy followed by lining a single into right and Justin Turner put the Dodgers in front by blasting a full-count change-up out to left for a three-run homer.
All three hits came on pitches up in the zone, and the pitch Turner saw was the sixth change-up in a seven-pitch atbat.
Davies said he couldn’t say whether he should have gone to something else or not since the pitch he did throw was so poorly located.
“Bad pitch,” he said, “and in that lineup those don’t tend to stay in the park.”
The outing was Davies’ first since his ex-wife, Megan, detailed in an Instragram post earlier this week how their marriage had dissolved, saying Davies had left her without warning and had cut off all communication. Davies was asked if having his personal situation made public served as a distraction to his outing.
“That’s a personal matter that I’m not willing to discuss publicly,” he said.
Three of the four losses this week were close games, a point Rojas raised when reflecting on the series.
He marveled at the depth of the Dodgers roster, not just in the lineup but in how a former Cy Young winner, David Price, was just one of many talented pitchers they have on their staff. Standing at third base for the duration of the series, Rojas knew he had to be ready for a 100-mph liner at him at nearly any moment.
“Every team you face is a major league team, but this lineup that you face, there’s no time to take a breath,” he said. “Not only do they have the talent, they have the experience.”
Rojas was not conceding games — the Diamondbacks took two of three from the Dodgers at home last month — but trying to make a point about how draining they can be against a team this good, and about how easily mistakes can become amplified against them.
“I believe that we can match up with them,” he said.
“It’s just very tough. You have to be locked in, you can’t make mistakes and you have to go out there and concentrate and be prepared for every pitch.”