LOS ANGELES — They turned back the clock Friday night at Dodger Stadium.
They didn’t turn it back very far – just to the six-week stretch of July and August they thought they had put in the rear-view mirror with this week’s four-game winning streak.
But the offense reverted to its midseason malaise, managing just three hits while striking out 10 times in a 3-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks that ended that winning streak – during which they scored 26 runs and hit nine home runs.
The second-place San Diego Padres also lost at Minnesota on Friday, so the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West remains two games.
Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen became the third starting pitcher in the past seven games to drag a 5.00-plus ERA into a start against the Dodgers and dominate them for six innings. Yu Darvish (5.36) and Nestor Cortes (5.87) each held the Dodgers to one hit over six innings last weekend in San Diego.
Gallen came into Friday’s start with a 5.13 ERA over his first 27 starts this season for a Diamondbacks team that was supposed to ride its pitching into contention.
But even in Gallen’s good years, he has struggled against the Dodgers. Friday was his first win in eight career starts at Dodger Stadium and only his second in 15 career starts overall against the Dodgers.
He walked the first batter in each of the first two innings Friday but got a double play to erase the first one and struck out the side following the walk in the second.
Gallen didn’t give up a hit until Shohei Ohtani’s ground ball off the glove of first baseman Tyler Locklear with two outs in the third. The Dodgers didn’t hit a ball out of the infield until Teoscar Hernandez flew out to end the fourth inning and didn’t get a runner to second base until Mookie Betts’ two-out double to left center in the sixth inning – their second and last hit off Gallen in his six innings. Will Smith flew out to the warning track in left field to strand Betts.
The Diamondbacks were hardly lighting up the scoreboard against Dodgers starter Blake Snell either.
He also didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning. But that Lourdes Gurriel Jr. single was followed two batters later by a two-run home run from Blaze Alexander.
Both of those hits came on four-seam fastballs from Snell – 92.1 mph to Gurriel, 93.4 mph to Alexander. Snell’s fastball velocity was down in his first start back from paternity leave. He averaged 93.7 mph on his 26 four-seamers, down from a season average of 95.4 mph. None of his 15 swings-and-misses in 86 pitches came against his fastball.
Corbin Carroll led off the sixth inning with a double and scored two batters later on an RBI single by Gabriel Moreno.
The Dodgers’ offense didn’t stir from its slumber once Gallen gave way to the bullpen. They had just one hit over the final three innings – a two-out single by Andy Pages in the seventh inning.
More to come on this story.