Diamondbacks hold off Dodgers, get first win of season

LOS ANGELES — The louder it is in the ballpark, the easier it is to focus, Diamondbacks left-hander Andrew Chafin said. Wait. The louder it is?

“Yeah,” Chafin said. “Because if they get so loud, then I can’t hear this little feller talking up here.”

With that, Chafin tapped the side of his head, drawing laughs after closing out a 2-1 victory at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

The Diamondbacks’ first victory of 2023 felt like the kind of game they would have lost in 2022.

For much of last season, manager Torey Lovullo did not have three consecutive right-handed hitters on his bench to send to the plate as pinch-hitters — and if he did, odds are they would not have come up with hits the way Evan Longoria (double) and Kyle Lewis (two-run homer) did in the eighth.

And for most of last season, Lovullo might not have had the relief options available to navigate a short start from right-hander Merrill Kelly, at least not like the ones he had at his disposal on Friday.

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First, he went to right-hander Drey Jameson, the power-armed starter-turned-long reliever to get through four innings. Then he went to Scott McGough and Chafin, who combined to get the final four outs, with Chafin retiring each of the final three hitters with the tying run on base in the ninth to pick up the save.

“We’ve got good players on this team,” Lovullo said. “We’ve got guys who understand what it takes to have a quality at-bat. Two guys impacted the ball and we won a baseball game because of it. It’s a great moment. It’s a team win. I think a lot of people were responsible for this team winning a baseball game today.”

Trailing 1-0 after seven innings, Lovullo had Alek Thomas (lefty), Geraldo Perdomo (switch hitter) and Josh Rojas (lefty) due up to start the top of the eighth against Dodgers lefty reliever Alex Vesia. Instead, he sent to the plate three right-handed pinch-hitters.

Nick Ahmed led off and bounced out to third, but Longoria followed by ripping a full-count fastball into the left-field corner for a double.

That brought Lewis to the plate. For most of spring training, he was the club’s best hitter, regularly hitting balls hard all over, and often out of, Cactus League ballparks. But he had a rough night on Opening Day, going hitless in four at-bats with three strikeouts. It served as a lesson for Friday.

“I wanted to see if I could get short with the swing coming off of yesterday,” he said. “Just shorten up and not try to do too much and try to save the day. I just wanted to be simple, keep the line moving, as best I could.”

He did more than that, launching a 2-1 slider out to left field to put the Diamondbacks in front, 2-1.

Kelly issued four walks in his 3 2/3 innings, but managed to keep the Dodgers off the board. Jameson entered and flipped slider after slider at Dodgers hitters, striking out five and allowing just one run in his four innings.

With a runner on and two out in the eighth, Lovullo summoned McGough into his first game back in the majors since 2015. McGough, who spent the previous four years pitching in Japan, walked the first batter he faced but got Miguel Rojas to line to short to escape the inning.

McGough came back out for the ninth but issued another walk — the last of nine walks the Diamondbacks would hand out on the night — before giving way to Chafin.

Due up were Freddie Freeman (lefty), Will Smith (right) and Max Muncy (lefty), and Chafin carved through them, getting a pair of ground outs and a pop up to end it.

Lovullo had said throughout spring training he would determine bullpen roles by matchups, at least early in the season. He stayed true to that plan on Friday.

“I think everybody in this bullpen is very adaptable and they’re able to maneuver and help us win baseball games,” Lovullo said. “You saw how the matchups were happening. There were a lot of moving parts there. I think there’s just positive roles (when leading) and negatives (when trailing) and I think these guys will just fill in the gaps from there.

“If somebody emerges in that ninth inning, then it will give me the opportunity to play the matchup game in the seventh inning or eighth inning, more power to us. But we’ve got to get there first. We’ve got to let guys get comfortable, find their place and help us win games.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks Daily: D-Backs hold off Dodgers, get first win of season