PHOENIX — Every time the Los Angeles Dodgers offense inched a small step forward Saturday night, their pitching staff quickly took a disastrous step back.
That was the story of the team’s 12-8 defeat to the Arizona Diamondbacks, in which the Dodgers squandered an early four-run lead and failed to capitalize on an eight-hit, five-walk display from their lineup.
Noah Syndergaard was the main culprit, yielding six runs in a four-inning outing derailed by two-out rallies and center-cut changeups. The bullpen wasn’t much better, combining for six earned runs of their own to extinguish any late-game comeback bid.
“I thought we swung the bats well,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But it seemed like every (pitcher) we were running out there, we couldn’t put up a zero.”
After exploding for a first-inning four spot punctuated by a home run from James Outman — who is batting .348 with nine RBIs — Syndergaard quickly gave Arizona the lead back.
In the bottom of the first, he yielded back-to-back doubles. Then in the second, he gave up a pair of two-run homers with two outs in the inning, leaving a fastball elevated to Geraldo Perdomo and a changeup over the plate to Ketel Marte.
That wasn’t the only time Syndergaard’s reliance on his fastball (which averaged only 93 mph) and changeup (which lacked the bite and command) backfired on Saturday, as the right-hander went away from the slider-sinker plan that helped him cruise against the Diamondbacks (5-4) in Los Angeles last week.
“Just poor execution with my pitches,” Syndergaard said. “They capitalized on just about every single one of my mistakes.”
The Dodgers (5-4) stayed close for a while, nonetheless. Diamondbacks starter Zach Davies issued three straight walks in the fourth inning, plating a run on the last when the bases were loaded.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman then hit back to back doubles in the sixth — part of Freeman’s four hit night — to cut Arizona’s lead to 6-5.
From there, though, the Dodgers bullpen imploded. Alex Vesia gave up a run in the fifth, Brusdar Graterol was charged with two in the sixth and Andre Jackson yielded three in the seventh -- effectively serving as game, set, match for the Dodgers most frustrating loss of the young season.
“It doesn’t happen very often with our ballclub,” Roberts said. “But you’ve got to give those guys credit.”
