The star-studded, payroll-guzzling Los Angeles Dodgers have hit a speed bump.
Even the trade-deadline addition of two-time Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal could not stop a losing streak that has reached six games as the Dodgers open a three-game series against the surging Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix on Friday night.
Right-hander Roki Sasaki (5-5, 4.64 ERA), the most recent Dodgers pitcher to win a game, will oppose Arizona right-hander Merrill Kelly (8-9, 5.04) in the opener as the Dodgers look to recover from three-game sweeps by the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs.
Los Angeles was outscored 42-22 in those six games.
“We’re going to be fine,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman told reporters after a 7-6 loss at Wrigley Field on Wednesday in which Shohei Ohtani hit two homers but was upstaged by fellow National League MVP candidate Pete Crow-Armstrong, who also hit two.
“We just have a really good team. It’s a 162-game schedule,” Freeman continued. “We’re going to go through it at some points. We win four in a row, no one talks about the six in a row we lost. So it’s on us. We just got to play better on Friday.”
The Diamondbacks started their season turnaround the last time they met the Dodgers, sweeping a three-game set in Los Angeles on July 10-12 leading into the All-Star break.
Arizona is 16-8 since July 9, although the team enters this series after losing two of the past three games of a four-game set against the San Diego Padres.
Arizona (61-55) had two hits in the final five innings of a 5-1 loss Thursday against the Padres (60-56) as both chase Philadelphia (62-54) for the second wild-card spot in the National League. The Diamondbacks hold the final of three wild cards in the league and have a one-game lead over the Padres.
“We got a big series starting (Friday),” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said after Thursday’s loss. “So we got to flush this, understand what happened, what went right, what went wrong, and just get better.”
The Diamondbacks’ organization added bullpen depth Thursday, signing former Pittsburgh closer Dennis Santana to a minor league contract. Arizona is expected to add a reliever on Friday.
As the Dodgers (69-46) have scuffled, the NL West has tightened, although the Dodgers still have an 8 1/2-game lead over the second-place Diamondbacks in the NL West. Los Angeles led San Diego by 14 games and Arizona by 15 on July 9.
Seemingly cruising to home-field advantage throughout the postseason, the Dodgers are three games behind Milwaukee (72-43) and one game behind Atlanta (70-45) for the best record in the National League.
“We’re looking forward,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “They (Diamondbacks) put it on us pretty good right before the break. So I would just say we’re looking forward to playing them and kind of taking care of business.”
Arizona’s Kelly was 3-0 with a 1.95 ERA in five July starts but gave up five runs in five innings the last time out, a 5-0 road loss to the Cleveland Guardians last Sunday.
He has not faced the Dodgers, who have been his kryptonite, this season. Kelly is 0-11 with a 5.56 ERA in 17 starts against them and has given up 16 homers in 89 innings, the most he has allowed to any opponent.
Sasaki does not have a decision in two career appearances (one start) against the Diamondbacks. He has allowed five runs on five hits and two walks in five innings vs. them.
–Field Level Media
