After a series loss to the Giants and two straight losses to open up play at Dodger Stadium, the Diamondbacks rallied to split the series with L.A. on Monday night. At 9-5, the Dbacks currently have their best record after 14 games since 2008. Here’s what we learned from the Dbacks trip to Dodger Stadium:
At the Plate
The Dbacks’ bats couldn’t get going against Clayton Kershaw on Friday night, and struggled on Saturday, but Sunday and Monday the Snakes found their sweet spots against Rich Hill and Brandon McCarthy.
Chris Iannetta homered on Sunday to give the Dbacks an early lead and Chris Owings and Paul Goldschmidt both went 2 for 4 in the 3-1 win. On Monday, Jake Lamb came up big with the go-ahead home run in the eighth, while AJ Pollock and David Peralta combined for eight of the Diamondbacks 10 hits. Peralta hit his first triple of the season to secure the 4-2 win in the ninth.
The #FreightTrain is back on the tracks! @dperalta6's first triple of the year scores A.J. for some #Dbacks insurance. pic.twitter.com/ruUcR2LE70
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 18, 2017
“Since I’ve been here we don’t play too well here at Dodger Stadium,” Lamb told Fox Sports Arizona after Monday’s win. “After losing the first two, these two wins to finish up this series have been awesome.”
In these first two weeks of the season, manager Torey Lovullo has had nothing but high praise for the way his guys have been playing. After Monday’s win, Lovullo continued to credit his guys for their resiliency.
“I’m proud of these guys,” Lovullo said. “You come in to Dodger Stadium and lose the first two games and then rebound the way we did…we executed a lot of things to help us get in that situation.”
Bullpen Support
Manager Torey Lovullo hopes to get the most out of his starters and has put a lot of faith in his starting rotation, but the Diamondbacks have a solid core in their bullpen. Most notably right now is Archie Bradley, who has made the adjustment from starter to reliever this season. Bradley currently has a 0.00 ERA in 9.1 innings of relief allowing only five hits with 11 strikeouts. The bullpen ace came in for an impressive 2 2/3 innings of relief for Taijuan Walker on Sunday.
Update: @ArchieBradley7 is still 🔥 out of the 'pen. pic.twitter.com/ZkeIWA54T9
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 16, 2017
Monday night, JJ Hoover took the bump for two solid innings of relief. Hoover earned his first win of the season and first since last June in Houston.
Closer Fernando Rodney gave up three runs on two hits in the eighth on Saturday, but Rodney bounced back on Sunday and Monday to earn back-to-back saves and shoot the arrow.
Starting Rotation
In the most expensive pitching matchup in the league on Friday night between Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, Greinke came out on the losing end, showing signs of the struggles he had at the end of 2016. Greinke went five innings, allowing five runs on 10 hits, walking three and striking out four. Then on Saturday, Patrick Corbin didn’t have a great outing earning his second loss of the season.
Sunday however, Taijuan Walker helped turn things around. Walker went five innings allowing one run, four hits and striking out seven.
It was a slow start for Robbie Ray on Monday night, but Ray found his rhythm in the fourth after giving up a home run to Enrique Hernandez to start the inning then struck out six straight. Ray came one strikeout short of matching the franchise record of seven consecutive strikeouts.
Strikeout after strikeout after strikeout after strikeout after strikeout after strikeout.
Literally. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Skhl5p8mVm
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 18, 2017
The Diamondbacks head down the coast to take on the Padres Tuesday-Thursday, then will host the Dodgers at home starting on Friday.
