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PHOENIX — Consider it a quirk of Major League Baseball’s balanced schedule. The Los Angeles Dodgers had already completed their season series against the Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins before they had even played so much as a single game against their true division challengers in the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres or San Francisco Giants.
Until Thursday, the Diamondbacks had not faced a team within their division, period. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has called the National League West the “best division in baseball” — at least when excluding the Colorado Rockies, who have fewer wins on the season (six) than the Dodgers recently had in a week (seven). It took until the second week of May to actually see it on the field, with the National League’s last two pennant winners meeting at Chase Field. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks meeting is not a litmus test. But it is a series worth watching.
“We’ve seemed to bring out the best in them,” Roberts said. That remained true Thursday. The Diamondbacks took full advantage of Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s worst start of the season, depositing a pair of cutters into the seats to knock him for five runs over five innings and double the right-hander’s ERA from 0.90 to 1.80. The Dodgers’ chorus of loud contact did not produce any results against Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt.
A 5-3 loss did little to change the general consensus around these two clubs. The Diamondbacks have been a trendy choice to be the top challenger to the Dodgers’ run of 11 division titles in 12 seasons, with a deep lineup that led the sport in runs in 2024 and remains near the top of the leaderboard this season. The Dodgers, for all their injuries and inconsistencies, entered the day as the only team in baseball with 25 wins.
“This is what we expected as far as the back and forth, tight ballgames,” Roberts said.
No. 11 for Shohei Ohtani! 💪 pic.twitter.com/KEaCUZOsXV
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Yamamoto had seemingly been in control of everything through his first seven starts. In his eighth, the first one he’s made on five days’ rest instead of his typical six, he lacked control of anything. He created a mess in the fourth inning, missing outside with a two-strike curveball to issue a leadoff walk to Pavin Smith. Josh Naylor grounded a single that Mookie Betts had to dive for just to keep it in the infield. When Yamamoto got Eugenio Suárez down 0-2, he tried a slider. It didn’t break, hitting Suárez to load the bases. After falling behind Gabriel Moreno, he tried a cutter that got far too much plate. Moreno went with it the other way, sending his first home run of the season to right field for a grand slam.
An inning later, Ketel Marte slugged his first home run of the season, as well. He pounced on a cutter in off the plate, leaning back and watching it bounce off the top of the wall and over the fence for a solo shot.
“Obviously, I didn’t have my best stuff today,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda.
The Dodgers never managed to break through against Pfaadt despite squaring him up. Betts stung a 105.2 mph fly ball in the first that Alek Thomas tracked down in center field. Michael Conforto, who appears to at least be hitting the ball hard in the recent at-bats of his prolonged slump, lofted a 101 mph fly ball that Thomas caught short of the track. Thomas again ranged back, this time to the wall, to catch James Outman’s 105.4 mph fly ball in the third inning. Conforto shot a 110.9 mph liner in the fourth inning … only for it to go straight into Marte’s glove at second base. Of the Dodgers’ nine hard-hit balls off Pfaadt that were either lined or in the air, just three landed for hits.
“I thought we squared up a lot of baseballs and didn’t get anything to show for it,” Roberts said. “Overall, I don’t think the line score speaks to how well we swung the bats.”
Pfaadt pitched into the seventh without allowing a run. And just as the Dodgers looked as if they’d close the gap against the Diamondbacks bullpen, chipping away for two runs against Juan Morillo in the eighth, another hard-hit ball quashed the threat. Conforto, representing the tying run, pounded a 95.2 mph groundball for an inning-ending double play.
“Frustrated to be in position to keep a rally going and not being able to beat that ball out,” Conforto said. “It’s frustrating. It makes me sick.”
Conforto’s slump has endured. Over his last 102 plate appearances, he has as many hits (seven) as times he’s grounded into double plays. He’s hitting .082 in that stretch.
“Just gotta keep going,” Conforto said. “I’m working hard. A lot of it is putting together better at-bats, hitting the ball hard. I’ve just got to keep going out there, keep focusing on that. Hopefully, find a couple holes and get it rolling.”
Still, Roberts said he was encouraged at the batted balls Conforto produced Thursday, which had expected batting averages of .610, .860 and .280 but didn’t result in any hits.
“He’s taking good at-bats,” Roberts said. “Certainly, not getting a whole lot to show for it. But I think for me it’s easy to bet on him because the head is still there, the work is still there. They’re going to fall. It’s going to turn.”
It didn’t on Thursday, as more than 40,000 fans chanted “Beat L.A.” and poured into a ballpark that has often been overrun by Dodger blue in years past. That dynamic has shifted. In baseball’s best division, there will be more nights like this. It’s a shame it took until May.
“This was good,” Roberts said. “This was fun. You can see that their faithful was there, supporting, excited. Our guys travel well, and we were there. So it was a fun environment.”
(Photo of Yoshinobu Yamamoto: Matt Kartozian / Imagn Images)
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