TL;DR: Jordan Montgomery was ineffective, the offense was lifeless, and the Dodgers cruised to a series win.
Just one day after securing an emotional, walk off win, the D-Backs were outplayed in nearly every facet of the game. In case you went to bed already after the bee delay and extra innings pushed the end of the game into the wee hours of the night, Christian Walker’s two-run homer sent the Arizona faithful home happy. AZ had the recap of that wacky, topsy-turvy game with a real paucity of bee puns in my opinion, but I understand that it was a late night. Unfortunately, there was to be no dramatic, late inning comeback tonight, but instead complete one-sided pitching dominance.
This game got out of hand quickly as Jordan Montgomery, who opted not to start last night after such a lengthy delay the previous night, got the ball tonight and looked out of sorts from the get go. He managed a tidy 1-2-3 inning in the first, but unraveled in the second as six straight Dodgers reached base before Freddie Freeman mercifully bounced into a double play to end the onslaught. It started innocently enough with a walk to Kike Hernandez before latest Dodgers’ rookie superstar Andy Pages golfed a changeup into the left field bleachers for a 2-0 Dodgers’ lead. Miguel Rojas followed with a double ahead of a Chris Taylor walk – just his eighth of the year – for Austin Barnes who crushed a ball to the deepest part of the park and agonizingly tipped off of Corbin Carroll’s glove:
Mookie Betts, who had been held hitless through the first two games of the series, fully busted open the scoring with a two-run single – the first of three hits on the night. When it was all said and done, the Dodgers had a comfortable 5-0 lead and Montgomery looked absolutely gassed after a frustrating inning. He would remerge for the third and surrender another run on a solo homer to Will Smith for a 6-0 Dodgers’ lead. Unfortunately, he would not return for the fourth as Torey Lovullo opted to yank the veteran righty as he posted his worst performance in a D-Backs uniform and his worst overall outing since last September. There are legitimate questions on whether or not Montgomery should have pitched in his regular spot in the rotation last night (as the Dodgers opted to do with their scheduled starter Landon Knack). During the postgame press conference, Lovullo reiterated that Montgomery said he felt fine and volunteered to pitch tonight. The analytics backed up his instinct: for his career, Montgomery has a 3.31 ERA and 1.224 WHIP in 24 starts on six or more days of rest. Regardless of the reason, the eye test and underlying numbers revealed that Montgomery was not particularly sharp. He only induced three swings and misses and the spin on his changeup was down throughout his outing.
Blake Walston, making his big league debut, was the undisputed hero for the D-Backs tonight. It was overshadowed by the miserable outing from Montgomery, but he managed to give Torey nearly four innings of effective relief until he ran into trouble in the seventh. He loaded the bases on a pair of walks to Freeman and Kike Hernandez as well as a single from Teoscar Hernandez and then walked in another Los Angeles run for a 7-0 lead. Brandon Hughes, who opened the Bee Game, entered and walked in yet another run for the 8-0 final score. Still, after needing seven pitchers last night and the abbreviated outing from Montgomery, it was incredibly valuable for Walston to come in and provide some length and at least give the offense a chance.
Speaking of which, the offense – which has been inconsistent to put it mildly – was completely lifeless tonight. Yoshinobu Yamamato was just as good as advertised. He mixed and matched his pitches excellently and took advantage of aggressive Arizona batters: there were nine plate appearances that ended in three or fewer pitches across his six inning outing. The D-Backs, after going a woeful 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position in last night’s comeback, only managed a handful of scoring opportunities tonight and still couldn’t take advantage of them with another miserly 0-for-5. They also hit into a pair of double plays and did not attempt a stolen base. While I understand that this D-Backs roster was constructed with slugging and power in mind rather than speed, the formula has not paid off to this point. It’s still early and there are plenty of key offensive contributors that are either injured or are underperforming, but this version of the D-Backs does not have a clear identity yet. Here’s hoping that they figure it out before things get too ugly.
Thankfully, no matter how ugly this loss was – and it was ugly – it still only counts as a single loss. And the beauty of baseball lies in the fact that there’s always another game coming up where you can redeem yourself for whatever mistakes or missed opportunities you might have made. As fans, we just have to hope that the team can look ahead and not dwell on the mistakes like the rest of us plebes. And even still, there was the wonderful poetic symmetry in Chris Taylor and Ketel Marte playing their 1,000th respective career games nearly a decade after Taylor was optioned for Marte’s big league debut when they were both with the Mariners. Even when it’s ugly, baseball is beautiful