If this had a familiar ring to the Dodgers and a crowd of 46,593 in Chavez Ravine on Wednesday night, it was because it was all too familiar, the Arizona Diamondbacks cruising to a 6-0 victory to win two of three games in a series that was reminiscent of their three-game sweep of the Dodgers in last year’s National League Division Series.
Carroll keyed a three-run fifth inning with a two-run triple that helped send Dodgers ace Tyler Glasnow to his second straight loss; Walker did his usual Dodger damage with a solo homer in the sixth and a double in the eighth, and Marte started a quirky and timely double play to help extricate the Diamondbacks from a two-on, no-out jam in the sixth.
And it was bulk reliever Ryan Nelson who reprised the role of Brandon Pfaadt from Game 3 of that division series, the 26-year-old right-hander entering the day with a 2-3 record and 7.06 ERA in seven starts but blanking the Dodgers on five hits over five innings, striking out five and walking three.
The Dodgers, at the end of a stretch in which they played 13 games in 13 days, went hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position and lost their first regular-season home series to Arizona since April 13-15, 2018, a span of 13 series.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Glasnow was dominant through four scoreless innings in which he gave up two singles, struck out six, walked none and induced 14 swinging strikes, but the Diamondbacks snapped the scoreless tie with three runs in the fifth.
Gabriel Moreno sparked the rally with a one-out walk. No. 9 hitter Kevin Newman grounded a single to center field to advance Moreno to third, and Newman took second on the throw.
Carroll, the 2023 NL rookie of the year who is off to a brutal start in 2024 — he entered Wednesday with a .191 average, two homers and 14 RBIs — drove a hanging 1-and-2 curveball from Glasnow into the right-center field gap for a two-run triple for a 2-0 lead. He then scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0.
The Dodgers had a similar threat in the top of the fourth when Teoscar Hernández walked with one out and Gavin Lux laced a double to right to put runners on second and third with one out.
But Nelson, who replaced opener Brandon Hughes in the first inning, struck out Andy Pages on three pitches and got Jason Heyward to ground out to first to end the inning.
The Dodgers failed to score again after putting two on with no outs in the fifth when Shohei Ohtani hit a mile-high fly ball to center field, Freddie Freeman struck out on a 96-mph fastball from Nelson and Will Smith flied to the wall in right.
The Diamondbacks extended the lead to 4-0 in the top of the sixth when Walker crushed a 417-foot solo homer to left-center field off Dodgers reliever Elieser Hernández, giving the Arizona first baseman 22 homers in 87 career games against the Dodgers, 14 of them coming in Chavez Ravine.
The Dodgers put two on with no outs–again–in the bottom of the sixth when Teoscar Hernández singled to right and Lux singled to left.
Pages followed with a bloop up the middle that Marte alertly let drop near the second-base bag. Marte fielded the ball, stepped on second for the force out and started a rundown that ended with Hernández being tagged out between second and third for a double play. Heyward flied out to the warning track in left to end the inning.
Arizona tacked on two insurance runs off reliever Ryan Yarbrough for a 6-0 lead in the eighth when Marte led off with a homer off the left-field foul pole and Walker doubled to left and later scored on a passed ball.
Short hops
Left-hander James Paxton and right-hander Walker Buehler will start the first two games of a three-game series at Cincinnati beginning Friday night, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start Sunday’s series finale, marking the fourth time this season the right-hander will pitch on five days’ rest. … Closer Evan Phillips, out since May 5 because of a mild right-hamstring strain, will throw live-batting practice with Class A Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday and is scheduled to begin a rehabilitation assignment with the club on Sunday.