PHOENIX — Back on April 16 at Petco Park, the Dodgers scored five times in the 12th inning to beat the San Diego Padres.
If they had known then that it might be their only extra-inning win of the season, maybe they would have savored it a little more.
The Dodgers spotted the Arizona Diamondbacks a three-run headstart, ran them down in eight innings but lost in the 10th, 6-5, on Friday night.
The Dodgers have ventured into the dark alley of extra innings 12 times this season and came out at the other end with a victory just that one time back in the innocent days of April.
“To look in retrospect, you can obviously do things different,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But you still have to play the game. You still have to execute when you have opportunities on the offensive side and on the defensive side you’ve got to make pitches.
“Whether there’s a man on second base in extra innings or not, it’s the same for both clubs. But we clearly haven’t played well in extra innings.”
Max Scherzer can’t get here soon enough – literally, they could use a starter Saturday.
The trade that will bring Scherzer to the Dodgers eventually – he is scheduled to join the team in Arizona on Saturday and make his Dodgers debut most likely on Wednesday – cost the Dodgers their Saturday starter, Josiah Gray.
Some bullpen games are planned. Others are thrust upon you.
Starter Tony Gonsolin faced just 11 batters on Friday and walked five of them, putting the Dodgers in an early hole and setting off a conga line of relievers. Roberts used eight to cover 7-2/3 innings Friday.
“Not good,” Roberts said of the state of his bullpen heading into Saturday when it will be expected to cover all nine innings (or more). “We have an off day on Monday. But to get there we’ve got to obviously play two ball games. So we’ve got to piece it together. I expect us to make a couple moves for coverage in the bullpen. That’s kind of the result of tonight.”
Scherzer’s arrival and Clayton Kershaw’s imminent return from the injured list have made Gonsolin’s days in the starting rotation numbered. It’s a spot he has never really had much of a grip on.
Gonsolin spent the first two months of the season nursing a shoulder injury. In 10 games (nine starts), he has only occasionally looked over it.
Gonsolin completed five innings just twice in those 10 games. His fastball velocity has been consistently low – he averaged 93.3 mph on Friday, down from 95.1 mph last season. And his command has been erratic. Friday was the fifth time he walked three or more batters in a game. In total, he has walked 26 batters in 35-2/3 innings this season.
Gonsolin acknowledged he had difficulty trying to repeat his delivery “and make competitive pitches” and was asked directly if lingering issues with his shoulder are to blame.
“It has its days where it doesn’t feel great. But for the most part, it feels good on game day,” he said. “I’m not going to take it (the shoulder) out of the mix. But that’s no excuse to not throw strikes.”
Roberts said he has been assured by the training staff and Gonsolin that “he’s definitely healthy enough to pitch and not putting himself in harm’s way” and pointed to Gonsolin’s previous start. The right-hander took a shutout into the sixth inning against the Rockies.
“If you’d have asked me after that last start (if he was healthy), I would have said, ‘Yes,’” Roberts said. “Then six days later we see this.”
The Diamondbacks built their early lead while the Dodgers managed just three baserunners in the first five innings – on a walk, an error and a single.
They had plenty of baserunners after that – but went 3 for 16 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 in the game.
“You fight back,” Roberts said. “You claw back and you put yourself in position to take the lead, tie the game, whatever it is situationally and we just didn’t execute. It’s not from lack of effort. But it’s not a ‘try’ game. We’ve just got to be better.”
Chris Taylor drove in three of their first four runs with a home run and a triple. But the Dodgers had two situations, in particular, that could have helped them avoid extra innings.
In the sixth, they followed Taylor’s home run with three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs. Will Smith was called out on a checked swing but AJ Pollock followed with a drive to the deepest part of center field, flipping his bat away like a man who knew he just hit a grand slam in his former home ballpark.
The ball died short of the wall and Pollock settled for a sacrifice fly.
Then in the eighth, Pollock was on second with Smith on third when Albert Pujols lined a single through the infield to drive in the tying run. With two outs, Pollock was off with the swing and might have scored. But Pujols’ liner went right past Pollock, forcing him to back up rather than take off. He had to hold at third and Taylor grounded out to end the inning.
“He takes his secondary. It’s right at him to the shortstop side. He’s got to pull up so it doesn’t hit him,” Roberts said. “At that point in time, (Diamondbacks center fielder Daulton) Varsho charges hard, has a good arm and there’s nothing AJ or (third base coach) Dino (Ebel) can do. It’s baseball. With two outs you would think a base hit would score the run (from second). But in that spot, there’s nothing AJ or Dino could have done.”
The Diamondbacks pushed across the winning run in the 10th against Jimmy Nelson, a double by Asdrubal Cabrera driving in the extra runner from second.
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