PHOENIX — The Dodgers have been an ideal 5-0 this season when going through former Cy Younger Award winners.
On Saturday evening at Chase Subject, nevertheless, they lastly met their match.
Regardless of lacking his final scheduled begin due to shoulder irritation, Corbin Burnes had his manner with the Dodgers’ powerhouse lineup in a 3-0 win for the Arizona Diamondbacks, throwing seven shutout innings to make sure the Dodgers will do no higher than cut up this four-game sequence between Nationwide League West rivals.
“I think that he was going to bring his best tonight,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned. “And we really didn’t get a whole lot of good swings against him.”
Dodger Mookie Betts reacts after getting referred to as out on strikes within the eighth inning in opposition to the Arizona Diamondbacks Saturday in Phoenix.
(Rick Scuteri / Related Press)
In a stark reversal from Friday evening’s 25-run thrill journey, when the Dodgers wanted a five-run rally within the third inning and a six-run come-from-behind outburst within the ninth to earn their lone win by means of three video games this weekend, a pitcher’s duel ensued beneath a closed roof at Chase Subject on Saturday.
Dodgers starter Dustin Could was good, dotting the corners of the strike zone together with his depraved sinker-sweeper mixture en path to a 6 ⅔-inning, two-run, five-strikeout outing — his longest since getting back from a second profession elbow surgical procedure this 12 months.
“He was in a good rhythm, he was getting ahead in counts, he put guys away when he needed to,” Roberts mentioned of Could, who lowered his ERA to 4.08 on the season. “I thought he pitched really well.”
Could’s solely two errors got here on a pair first-pitch sinkers over the center of the plate: One which Corbin Carroll hit for a leadoff triple within the third inning, main to at least one run; and one other that Eugenio Suárez clobbered for a 455-foot homer within the sixth.
“I was working the sinker to both sides of the plate, and I had just two poorly executed sinkers, and they took advantage of it,” Could mentioned. “It’s the big leagues, and that’s what they do.”
Burnes, nevertheless, was higher the entire manner, flashing the shape that made him a Cy Younger winner in 2021 with the Milwaukee Brewers and $210 million free-agent signing for the Diamondbacks (21-19) this winter.
“[He was] being Corbin Burnes,” mentioned first baseman Freddie Freeman, one in every of 4 Dodgers’ batters who went hitless on a day the group collected solely 5 complete. “He’s one of the best pitchers in the game for a reason … Just had everything going today.”
Burnes erased a leadoff single within the first from Friday evening’s hero, Shohei Ohtani, with an instantaneous double-play from Mookie Betts. He stranded two runners on base in each the third and fourth innings, simply extinguishing the 2 greatest threats the Dodgers (26-14) generated in opposition to him. And he completed the day giving up simply 5 hits and two walks (one in every of them was intentional) whereas hanging out 5.
Getting into Saturday, a number of the Dodgers’ most spectacular wins this season got here in opposition to former Cy Younger arms. Throughout their 8-0 begin to the season, they gained in opposition to each of final 12 months’s winners, Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers and Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves. They knocked off Jacob deGrom and the Rangers in Texas final month, when their very own Cy Younger candidate, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, outdueled deGrom in a low-scoring affair. Within the final two weeks, that they had battered Miami’s Sandy Alcantara twice, beating up on the NL’s 2023 winner as he works his manner again from Tommy John surgical procedure.
Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll scores in opposition to the Dodgers in the course of the first inning Saturday in Phoenix.
(Rick Scuteri / Related Press)
Burnes, nevertheless, was on a distinct degree Saturday, complementing his signature cutter with a mixture of curveballs, changeups, sinkers and sliders to show in his greatest efficiency in a Diamondbacks uniform.
Between Burnes and Arizona reliever Ryne Nelson, who completed the sport with a two-out save, the Dodgers compelled Diamondbacks pitchers to make simply 107 throws in what was their third recreation being shut out this season.
“Especially when he’s at the bottom of the zone [with his cutter], it’s hard to hit those,” Freeman mentioned of Burnes, who was additionally aided by a positive strike zone from dwelling plate umpire John Tumpane. “He was commanding the zone and getting some calls … We were ready for him, and he was just really good today.”
Whereas the loss ended the Dodgers’ excellent document in opposition to Cy Younger winners, it continued a extra troubling development for the group of late.
Since that 8-0 begin, the Dodgers have performed 11 video games in opposition to groups at the moment above .500. With Saturday’s loss, they’re now 3-8 in these contests, and can now want a win Sunday to keep away from dropping a fourth-straight such sequence.
“We probably do got to play better against teams with winning records,” Roberts mentioned, “but I’m not carrying too much weight into that one right now.”
