LOS ANGELES, CA — The Diamondbacks’ sweep of the first-place Dodgers over the weekend prior to MLB’s All-Star break is something fans of Dodger Blue were not expecting from their star-studded club.
Things were looking good for Los Angeles Sunday afternoon when, on his first pitch in his first start in the big leagues, 23-year-old Diamondbacks pitcher Mitch Bratt was greeted by Shohei Ohtani, who hit a towering 437-foot moonshot over the center field wall to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.
It was Shohei’s 22nd home run of the season, his ninth leadoff home run this season, and the 33rd of his career.
Bratt would leave with a line of three innings pitched, three runs, three hits, one home run, three walks, and zero strikeouts. He threw 58 pitches, of which 29 were strikes.
On the home side, Emmet Sheehan was cruising along before he was touched for two runs in the top of the fourth inning, leaving with a line of three hits, two runs, one earned run, one walk, and seven strikeouts. He threw 101 pitches, 68 of which were strikes.
From there, the Dodgers began to fall apart.
The Dodgers have recorded 14 errors across the last 10 games with their latest poor showing on the diamond on Sunday afternoon resulting in a Diamondbacks sweep – Image Credit: Francisco Rodriguez/Latino Sports
Their play in the field has been off, to say the least, but Sunday’s showing resulted in a total of 14 errors in their last 10 games! Not what Dodger fans are used to seeing that much. The costly mistakes allowed the D-Backs to take a 4-3 lead after six innings. Arizona would end up using seven pitchers to shut the Dodger bats down, not allowing two walks and no hits for the last six innings.
That’s something that has got to have the D-Backs feeling very confident as Arizona begins the second half of the season. They could catch the Dodgers in the National League West, as they did in 2022, on their way to a World Series appearance. But that’s only if they get hot and the Dodgers remain on this error-filled road. Stranger things have happened.
If baseball taught us anything in the past, it’s never count a team out of a division hunt until they are mathematically out of it – Image Credit: Emma Sharon/Latino Sports
One thing the Dodgers need to address is their defense. 14 errors in 10 games is unacceptable for any team in the Majors but even worse when it’s happening in Hollywood.
“Some mental lapses, some physical lapses,” manager Dave Roberts said. “This last week has just been below average for sure.”
Maybe the All-Star break will give them a bit of time to think about what they need to do to get back to playing better on the diamond.
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