PHOENIX — Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz trudged toward the dugout as Arizona’s Ryan Waldschmidt’s celebrated with teammates after hitting a two-run, walk-off home run in the ninth inning to seal a 4-3 win that sent the Dodgers to a season-worst seventh straight loss.
“We’ve just got to play better,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “I don’t think that the standings — obviously, they are important, they matter. But I just feel like with the talent that we have, we just got to play good baseball, and it’ll take care of itself. It always does.”
The Dodgers’ recent skid dropped their National League West lead into single digits for the first time in over a month. They are now only 7½ games ahead of the second-place Diamondbacks in the division.
They also now have the fourth-best record in the majors (69-47), falling behind the Brewers (72-43) and Braves (70-45) and Rays (69-46).
“A week ago, it looked a lot different,” Roberts said. “And another week from now, it could look even more different. So you’ve just got to put your head down and play baseball.”
They did, at least, have a better record than last season (67-49) at the 116-game mark. But the Dodgers would prefer to, unlike last year, at least earn a first-round bye, and ideally homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.
Their performance Friday sent them in the wrong direction.
The Dodgers went hitless against Diamondbacks starting pitcher Merrill Kelly for the first five innings he pitched. Kyle Tucker and Shohei Ohtani both drew walks, as the Dodgers’ only baserunners before the sixth — and Ohtani was thrown out attempting to steal second to end the third inning.
Finally, leading off the sixth, Tommy Edman — who three innings prior was robbed of a home run on a leaping grab by Diamondbacks right fielder Corbin Carroll — broke up Kelly’s no-hit bid with a sharp infield hit.
Kelly picked off Edman at first base, but Hunter Feduccia followed with a single of his own, the catcher’s first hit since rejoining the Dodgers at the trade deadline.
Ohtani and Andy Pages both drew walks to load the bases. And the Dodgers finally scored on a ground ball fielder’s choice from Freddie Freeman. That single run was all they got out of the inning.
Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki held the Diamondbacks to two runs in six innings. He surrendered a solo homer to Arizona third baseman Nolan Arenado in the second and an RBI triple to Geraldo Perdomo in the fifth. But he only gave up two other hits.
With both starters out by the seventh (Kelly exited with two outs in the sixth because of cramping in his right leg), the Dodgers orchestrated a comeback and then gave it up.
Edman drove in the tying run, too, lining a single to left for the Dodgers’ third hit of the inning off Diamondbacks right-hander Taylor Clarke in the seventh. But the Dodgers failed to turn a bases-loaded situation into a crooked number when Ohtani grounded into a double play to end the inning.
The next inning, Pages gave the Dodgers the lead with a solo homer off Diamondbacks lefty Brandyn Garcia.
The Diamondbacks threatened against Dodgers setup man Tanner Scott. But he escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth by winning a 12-pitch at-bat against Arenado for the inning-ending strikeout.
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