Dodgers can't finish what they started in home opener

LOS ANGELES -- The dangerous Paul Goldschmidt struck again, but he wasn't alone for the Diamondbacks, who scored four runs against the Dodgers bullpen for a 4-2 victory to spoil the home opener on Tuesday afternoon for Los Angeles.

The Dodgers pitching staff — not just the bullpen — blew leads in San Francisco in the sixth inning, the eighth inning and the fourth inning, so in a way Tuesday was just filling out another box in an increasingly disappointing bingo card.

The blown lead on Tuesday came in the seventh inning, when Nick Ahmed lined a ball over the short wall in left field with two outs against Pedro Baez, tying the game at 1-1.

One inning later, Chris Hatcher grooved a 3-0 fastball to Goldschmidt, who deposited it into the left field pavilion, giving Arizona the lead. After getting the second out of the inning, Hatcher loaded the bases and was pulled, but Louis Coleman got the final out of the frame to keep the Dodgers within a run.

Goldschmidt has 19 home runs and 54 RBI in his last 53 games against the Dodgers, dating back to the beginning o 2013.

But after threatening and coming up short in the bottom of the eighth, the Dodgers allowed two more runs in the ninth, both coming off Coleman.

Through eight games, the Dodgers starting pitchers have allowed 14 runs in 49⅓ innings, while their bullpen has allowed 16 runs in 21⅔ innings.

Good start

Kenta Maeda continued where he left off last week, only in this start he had to work out of more jams. But despite Arizona putting runners on second and third base with nobody out in the second inning, then threatening again in the sixth, the results were pretty much the same.

Maeda pitched six scoreless innings, allowing five hits while striking out four, identical to his start in San Diego. The only difference on Tuesday was that he walked a batter this time around.

The Diamondbacks were kept off the board in the sixth inning thanks to spectacular throws from Yasiel Puig and Justin Turner after a double into the corner by Jake Lamb, retiring catcher Welington Castillo, who was trying to score from first base.

"It was really encouraging to see him pitch out of trouble. Second and third, none out, to get out of that jam was really big for us at that point in the game," catcher A.J. Ellis said. "For him to give us six really strong innings today gave us a great chance to win the game, but we weren't able to come through."

With the zeroes to his ledger, Maeda became just the third Dodgers pitcher since 1913 to open his career with two scoreless starts, joining Karl Spooner (1954) and Kaz Ishii (2002).

Tuesday particulars

Home runs: Nick Ahmed (2), Paul Goldschmidt (3)

WP - Tyler Clippard (2-0): 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 strikeout

LP - Chris Hatcher (1-1): ⅔ IP, 2 hits, 1 run, 2 walks

Sv - Brad Ziegler (1): 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 strikeout