Comedy Of Errors Leads To Dodgers Laugher

A ton of errors turned tonight's outcome into the opposite of last night's game, and the Dodgers cruised to a 14-1 defeat of the Diamondbacks.

The Dodgers erupted for six runs in the second inning. All the runs were unearned, so there was some help from the Diamondbacks, but the inning was so bizarre that it featured:

• Casey Blake reaching on a ball to first baseman Rusty Ryal that was ruled an error
• Xavier Paul walking on three balls
• Blake DeWitt singling with the bases loaded, pushing his career batting average to .471 (eight hits in 17 at-bats)
• Clayton Kershaw grounding a ball to shortstop, too slow for a double play, but Tony Abreu booted the ball and no outs were recorded on the play
• Rafael Furcal hitting a ball to deepest center field, only to have Chris Young drop the ball in attempt to make an over the shoulder basket catch
• On Furcal's hit, Kershaw thought it was caught, so he tried to run back to first, only to pass Furcal as Furcal was also trying to run back to first
• Matt Kemp launching an opposite field home run to right field to clean up the mess and finish the scoring in the six-run inning

The comedy of errors didn't stop there, either. The Diamondbacks committed three more errors in the third inning, and the Dodgers did their part with another out on the bases, as Paul was tagged out after he technically committed toward second base on an errant throw to first base. The Dodgers only scored one in that inning, pushing their total at that point to seven unearned runs off Rodrigo Lopez.

In the fourth, the Dodgers earned their runs. Furcal homered into the pool area, his second hit of the night, pushing his multi-hit streak to seven games, the second longest stretch of the season. Andre Ethier added another home run, his first since June 16, ending a streak of 62 straight plate appearances without a home run.

The Dodgers scored in the fourth consecutive inning in the fifth, adding a pair of runs thanks in part to Paul's speed, a DeWitt RBI single, and the third error of the night by Tony Abreu.

Kershaw was the beneficiary of all this offense, and he didn't even allow a run. However, a high pitch count led to an early exit of Kershaw, who was pulled with two outs in the sixth inning with nobody on base. In his 5 2/3 innings, Kershaw allowed four hits and two walks while striking out eight.

Travis Schlichting, in his first game back up with the Dodgers, pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, pushing his season totals to 10 scoreless innings with three walks and eight strikeouts.

Jonathan Broxton for some reason was brought in to pitch the ninth inning, up by 14 runs! Broxton hadn't pitched since throwing 48 pitches last Sunday against the Yankees, so I understand that he needed the work. Broxton hasn't had a save opportunity since June 9, and it's not like Joe Torre can manufacture a save opportunity out of thin air (well, maybe he could pitch George Sherill more with big leads). But there are times to get Broxton an inning of work when he actually has some value to the team, rather than in a game that has already been decided, with eight games in their next eight days. Call me crazy, but I want the Dodgers best reliever to be used in high-leverage situations.

Notes

• Every Dodger starter scored at least one run
• The last time the Dodgers got home runs from each of the first three hitters in their starting lineup was April 26, 1978, when Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Reggie Smith turned the trick in Cincinnati
• Casey Blake, who reached twice on an error and was hit by a pitch, became the first Los Angeles Dodger ever to score three runs without a hit or a walk
• The Dodgers had five hitters with multi-hit games, led by three hits by James Loney, who is now hitting .433 in 30 career games in Arizona
• Matt Kemp had a home run and a double, pushing his OPS on the season to .797 (it got as low as .765 a week ago)
  
• Xavier Paul had two hits and a walk in his first game back with the big club, scoring two runs and driving in two more
• The Diamondbacks set a franchise record with six errors

After two blowouts, expect tomorrow's series finale to be a low-scoring affair, between Chad Billingsley and Dan Haren.

WP - Clayton Kershaw (8-4):  5 2/3 IP, 4 hits, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts

LP - Rodrigo Lopez (4-7):  3 2/3 IP, 6 hits, 9 runs (2 earned), 1 walk, 2 strikeouts

Box Score