Diamondbacks can't solve Kershaw as Dodgers batter Bumgarner
LOS ANGELES — In the second inning on Saturday night, Nick Ahmed chased a curveball from Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw that bounced before it reached the plate. It put him in position to go down on strikes one pitch later.
After the Diamondbacks were pounded, 10-1, by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Ahmed used his overaggressive moment as an example of what has been happening to his team’s offense through three games at Dodger Stadium. Through 27 innings, the Diamondbacks have scored just five runs and drawn just a single walk.
“You’ve got to be as good as you can every at-bat if you’re expecting to win a game,” Ahmed said. “Just try to make adjustments as quick as you can.”
A quiet offense is just one of the issues the Diamondbacks have had to confront so far in this series, which wraps up with Sunday’s afternoon’s finale. Their rotation has logged all of 12 1/3 innings, including a rough, four-inning outing from left-hander Madison Bumgarner on Saturday. And the bullpen, despite Drey Jameson’s stellar relief outing on Friday night, has posted an earned-run average north of 6.
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They are facing the Dodgers, of course, a difficult opponent that has both a tough lineup and a talented pitching staff. And, as they have reminded reporters, it is only three games. That said, it is not the way they wanted their season to begin.
“I know they’re better; I know those first three guys are better,” manager Torey Lovullo said of his rotation of Zac Gallen (4 2/3 innings, five runs), Merrill Kelly (3 2/3 innings, no runs) and Bumgarner (four innings, five runs). He then transitioned to the other half of his roster.
“I think we’ll play a better version of baseball overall. We’ve got to. We’ve got to be better at the plate. We’ve got to be a little more selective at the plate. We’ve got to start driving pitch counts and just fight through some at-bats. It’s one walk in three games. That’s not who we are. We’ve got to be a little bit better, especially on the offensive side of the ball.”
The Dodgers have had far fewer issues. Trayce Thompson, getting his first start of the year, homered three times on Saturday and drove in eight runs. His first-inning grand slam off Bumgarner put the Dodgers ahead for good.
Bumgarner described his outing as one of those days that happens a handful of times a season when he just doesn’t feel right physically. Not hurt, but not strong, either. His stuff was down across the board, including a fastball that was 89.1 mph, more than 2 mph off last year’s average of 91.2. It so concerned the Diamondbacks coaching staff that a member of the training staff was sent to check on Bumgarner’s health between innings.
“It was more just us asking questions and trying to find out if everything is OK,” Lovullo said. “There was looseness to the breaking ball, and things just weren’t consistent. He’s always around the zone, but there were some big misses today. Red flags go up when we see that. Our eyes tell us a story, but Bum was OK.”
Still, Bumgarner felt he was one mistake away from escaping the first inning with minimal damage. It was 1-0 when Thompson destroyed an 0-1 change-up for the second grand slam of his career.
“It wasn’t like I went out there and threw the ball really well, but I was just one pitch away in the first of it being a completely different game,” Bumgarner said. “After that, it wasn’t bad. I would like to leave here with better results, but we’re not, so you’ve got to move on to the next one.”
Kershaw struck out nine batters in six innings of one-run ball. He did not walk a batter. His outing followed similarly strong performances from left-hander Julio Urias and right-hander Dustin May in the first two games.
The Diamondbacks are hitting .170 as a team, with one walk and 23 strikeouts in 94 at-bats.
“It’s only three games; I know that,” Lovullo said. “But in that short sample we’ve just got out of the zone and maybe got away from things, the things that we’ve talked about, the things we were good at in spring training, we’ve got to control the zone a little bit offensively.”
Third baseman Evan Longoria gave credit to Kershaw but pointed to what he thinks might be a group of hitters trying too hard to get their seasons off on the right foot.
“It’s hard when you don’t get a couple of hits in your first couple of games,” Longoria said. “You start to feel like the 0-fers are mounting up. And there’s pressure that comes with that. I think everybody understands that.
“We just need to have a good game where the lineup kind of gets going. You start to feel a little comfort. And just getting those first hits out of the way is huge. I’m looking forward to a big bounce back game tomorrow.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks can't solve Kershaw as Dodgers batter Bumgarner
