Dodgers win game and series in Arizona, 8-6

The Los Angeles Dodgers hit the ball both hard and softly Thursday night and it led to beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-6 to win the series in Phoenix.

It also concluded a nine-game road trip that saw the Dodgers win seven of those games and club 17 home runs.

The Dodgers opened the night with a bang. Kiké Hernandez cleared the bases with a ringing double into the left field corner in the top of the first inning off losing pitcher Anthony Banda.

The bags were full thanks to singles by Corey Seager and Justin Turner, and a walk to Logan Forsythe.

Yu Darvish allowed some long at-bats throughout the night, which ran up his pitch count quickly. 106 pitches through five innings ended Darvish’s evening at that point, but he struck out ten Diamondbacks in the process, allowing two runs.

That included Paul Goldschmidt three times, meaning the Arizona slugger is now 0-for-6 lifetime versus Darvish, striking out all six times.

Darvish became the first Dodgers pitcher to strike out ten or more batters in his first two games with the club since 1954 when Karl Spooner struck out 27 batters (15 Giants and 12 Pirates) in his only two appearances that year.

Kenley Jansen pitched a scoreless ninth against the heart of the Diamondbacks order to record his 30th save of the season. That made him the first Dodgers pitcher with four 30-save seasons. Todd Worrell and Eric Gagne both had three such seasons.

After the Diamondbacks crept back within one run to make it a 3-2 game, Chris Taylor led off the fifth inning by hammering a first-pitch home run over the left-field fence.

The Dodgers added two more runs that inning when Seager walked, moved to second on a ground out and scored when Chris Iannetta threw Cody Bellinger’s swinging bunt into RF for an error, sending Bellinger to second base. Forsythe’s infield single put runners on the corners and Austin Barnes followed with another infield single to cash in Bellinger.

When that run scored, only two balls had left the infield, Taylor’s homer and Iannetta’s throw.

Arizona plated a run in the third inning with a leadoff walk, a sacrifice bunt, a wild pitch and the second infield single of the night by David Peralta.

They added another in the fourth when J.D. Martinez drove a fastball over the fence in right-center field with the bases empty. Darvish worked out of more trouble that inning by striking out pinch-hitter Brandon Drury after two two-out singles.

Iannetta got two runs back for Arizona with a homer in the sixth off Brock Stewart, after Justin Turner blasted a double off the center field wall to plate two runs in the top half of the inning.

The bullpen coughed up two more runs when Brandon Morrow allowed three singles and a stolen base for the runs. But Tony Cingrani struck out two left-handed batters who each represented the tying run at the plate to end the inning. Then Jansen closed out the game.

Hernandez continues to scorch left-handed pitching this season. In 128 PA he is hitting .252/.352/.613 against southpaws with 20 of his 28 hits going for extra bases (9 doubles, 2 triples, 9 home runs).

Up next

The Dodgers return home to open a weekend series with the San Diego Padres on Friday. Rich Hill deals the cards for Los Angeles, while Clayton Richard toes the rubber for the visitors.

Thursday particulars

Home runs: Taylor (16), Martinez (23), Iannetta (10)

WP - Darvish (2-0): 5 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, 10 strikeouts, 1 home run allowed

LP - Banda (5-4): 4 IP, 4 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 1 home run allowed

S - Jansen (30): 1 IP