PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks forced the Los Angeles Dodgers to admit defeat less than three innings into Sunday’s 14-3 victory, giving themselves a chance to salvage a four-game split and win the season series on Monday.
Los Angeles pulled stars Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez in the third after the D-backs put up an eight-run second inning to blow the game open.
The Diamondbacks (77-60) had fallen to six games behind Los Angeles (82-55) after frustrating losses on Friday and Saturday. Now, another D-backs win on Monday would keep L.A.’s National League West lead within four games with the tiebreaker in Arizona’s hands.
“I’m not saying it was a must-win game, but it was a very, very important game,” manager Torey Lovullo said.
“We know the standings. We’re following it. We’re chasing the Dodgers, all that stuff, but what impresses me most is our ability to block that out, go out, execute and win the game the way we did today. It’s no errors. It’s Brandon Pfaadt staying locked in and almost giving us a quality start despite the the risk of letting things wander. Our focus was right. Those are the things that stand out to me.”
After Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly each allowed five runs over the first two innings on Friday and Saturday, Pfaadt effectively shut down the Dodgers early. Pfaadt began his outing with three scoreless innings and seven strikeouts, punching out Dodgers superstars Shohei Ohtani, Betts and Freeman in order during the third.
“I think it was kind of similar to (Philadelphia) last year, that’s kind of the feeling that it was,” Pfaadt said. “We know these games are important. With what happened the last two days, I think shutting them down in that first inning was important and certainly an aspect of going into the game being aggressive and trying to limit damage.”
