Dodgers sweep Diamondbacks with walk-off win

LOS ANGELES -- Yasmani Grandal hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 13th inning, giving the Dodgers a 1-0 win over the Diamondbacks on Sunday and a three-game weekend sweep at Dodger Stadium. It was the first walk-off home run for the Dodgers this season, and their first since August 2, 2014.

It was the first walk-off home run of Grandal's career.

Evan Marshall got hung with the loss in relief for a second straight game.

The Dodgers have won four straight, have three home series sweeps this season and are 13-2 at Dodger Stadium.

What a relief

Dodgers relief pitchers have a streak of 26 straight scoreless innings, dating back to last Sunday. In this game, they pitched seven scoreless frames and allowed only four hits (two by Paul Goldschmidt), with nine strikeouts.

Pedro Baez was called on to pitch the seventh inning against the hear of the Diamondbacks order — Goldschmidt, Mark Trumbo and Yasmany Tomas — and he struck them out on 15 pitches. Baez has struck out 15 of 46 batters faced this season (32.6 percent).

Adam Liberatore pitched the eighth, and retired all three batters he faced, all right-handed. The left-hander has retired 21 of 22 batters faced in his brief major league career, 7⅓ scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.

Yimi Garcia pitched a perfect ninth, including a strikeout, continuing his amazing run. Batters are just 4-for-43 (.093) against Garcia this season, all singles, with four walks (one intentional) and 21 strikeouts, a 45.7-percent strikeout rate.

Sergio Santos allowed a leadoff double to Goldschmidt in the 10th inning, almost as an initiation, but then struck out the next two. After some unnecessary maneuvering by manager Don Mattingly, Paco Rodriguez got the final out of the inning.

Rodriguez stayed in to pitch the 11th inning and retired Arizona in order, including one strikeout. Opposing batters are 3-for-22 (.136) against Rodriguez this season, with three walks and six strikeouts.

Juan Nicasio, a day after throwing 29 pitches in three perfect innings on Saturday, pitched a scoreless 12th, working around a Goldschmidt single.

J.P. Howell allowed two hits in the 13th, putting runners at the corners, then threw a wild pitch. But he also alertly covered home and somehow, behind his back, without looking, tagged out a sliding Jordan Pacheco at home plate to end the inning.

"There was a lot of people after the second game [of the season] who thought the bullpen wasn't good enough," Grandal said. "It's just going to keep on getting stronger. Just because we have young guys out there doesn't mean they can't do the job.

"Just catching bullpens and seeing the stuff they have, you can tell. I haven't been around for long, but I've seen talent. I had a really good bullpen in San Diego. I kind of know what we have, just by looking around and comparing to what I had last year and the year before."

Close calls

The Dodgers nearly had a chance for heroics in the ninth inning, when Howie Kendrick doubled to the right center field gap with one out. Mark Trumbo bobbled the ball, which spurred Kendrick to try for third base, but he was thrown out by a strong relay throw from second baseman Chris Owings. That was the first extra-base hit of the game.

Adrian Gonzalez followed by reaching base on an error by a shifted Tomas near second base, but the Dodgers didn't score in the inning.

Andre Ethier opened up the 10th inning with a double to right field against left-hander Andrew Chafin, but was stranded thanks to some excellent relief by Enrique Burgos.

Anderson vs. Anderson

The Dodgers got a much needed strong outing from Brett Anderson on Sunday. The left-hander pitched six scoreless innings, allowing five singles while striking out four. Anderson kept the ball on the grass, inducing eight ground ball outs, including two double plays.

It tied the longest outing of the season for Anderson, who didn't last past five innings in any of his last three starts.

"I felt good. I got some double plays, was able to be fairly efficient. I got some ground balls and got some strikeouts. It was a good stepping stone," Anderson said. "Even though the last inning wasn't great by any stretch, I can see where my stuff was progressing. The hits weren't hard per se, just some seeing eye singles. I can see some light at the end of the tunnel."

No Diamondback even reached second base until the sixth inning, when Nick Ahmed singled then advanced on a ground out. With two outs and Dodger assassin Goldschmidt looming in the on-deck circle, Anderson ran the count to A.J. Pollock to 3-1, but recovered to strike him out to end the scoring threat.

Chase Anderson matched Brett with six scoreless innings of his own, allowing only two hits and a walk while striking out seven. The Dodgers only got one runner in scoring position against Anderson, and that only happened when Adrian Gonzalez advanced to second base in the fourth inning on a wild pitch that bounced off home plate straight up into the air.

"Maybe Chase Anderson and I were meant to have no-decisions after six innings against each other," Brett said.

One more Anderson

A game started by Brett and Chase Anderson on Sunday was the longest scoreless duel between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks since June 2, 2010, a game ended by a Garret Anderson walk-off single in the 14th inning.

Backstops here

Offense was at a premium on Sunday, with both Andersons on their game. In need of a runner in scoring position, catcher Tuffy Gosewisch tried to steal second base with two outs in the fifth inning. He got a good jump, but a strong throw from his counterpart A.J. Ellis nailed him at second base to end the inning.

It was the first stole base attempt in Gosewisch's career, the first time someone activated his go switch.

Ellis has thrown out five of seven runners (71.4 percent) attempting to steal this season*. Among all catchers in baseball this season, only Jordan Pacheco of the Diamondbacks (2-of-2, 100%) and Salvador Perez of the Royals (9-of-12, 75%) have been better at throwing out runners than Ellis.

*It should be noted that Ellis, through no fault of his own of course, gets credit for a caught stealing for when Clayton Kershaw picked off Archie Bradley trying to steal second on April 11 in Arizona. So in reality, Ellis has thrown out four of six runners this year, which is still impressive.

Sunday particulars

Home run: Yasmani Grandal (1)

WP - J.P. Howell (1-1): 1 IP, 2 hits, 1 tag

LP - Evan Marshall (0-2): 1+ IP, 1 hit, 1 run