Anderson masterful but Dodgers break through late
LOS ANGELES -- Arizona manager Chip Hale blamed the Dodger Stadium bullpen phones for the miscommunication that forced Matt Reynolds to face Corey Seager without a proper warmup.
The damage already had been done to the Diamondbacks' hopes for a third straight win at Chavez Ravine.
Chase Utley hit a leadoff homer and added a tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning, and Los Angeles snapped its four-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory Wednesday night.
Utley's double to the wall in right field drove in Jimmy Rollins, whose clever bunt single leading off the eighth was Los Angeles' first hit since Utley's homer on Chase Anderson's first pitch.
Anderson struck out a career-high 10 during six dominant innings, but Rollins and Utley finally broke through against David Hernandez (1-5).
"For the leadoff guy to hit a home run, and then shut them down the rest of the game, that's huge," Arizona catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. "That's what we needed. Unfortunately, we couldn't follow up with a win for us."
Chavez Ravine was rocking when Seager added a two-run homer later in the eighth for the Dodgers (86-65). Thanks to their victory and San Francisco's loss at San Diego, the Dodgers' magic number for clinching a playoff berth and their third straight NL West title dropped to five.
Hale blamed himself and the venerable stadium's phones for forcing Reynolds into the game unprepared. Reynolds had already warmed up twice earlier in the game.
"Matt wasn't even up," Hale said, referring to the warmup tosses in the bullpen before entering a game. "This is a really difficult phone here, one of the harder ones in the league, and I guess the communication wasn't there. We wanted him ready for Seager, and I guess he wasn't even up. So that's obviously an issue with the coaching staff and myself. We just can't let that happen."
Paul Goldschmidt homered in his fourth straight game at Dodger Stadium for the Diamondbacks, who easily won the first two games of this series.
Anderson mowed down the Dodgers after the first pitch, striking out five straight batters at one point.
"I thought (Anderson) threw as well as we've seen him, as well as probably early in the year when he was dominating," Hale said. "It was really good to see, especially after not being out there in competition for a while."
Carlos Frias pitched four innings of one-hit ball in an emergency start for the Dodgers. Zack Greinke has won five straight starts and 13 of 15 overall, yet Frias was outstanding in his second appearance after spending two months on the disabled list with a back injury.
The rest of the Dodgers' bullpen also provided excellent work, yielding four hits and never allowing a runner to reach third after Goldschmidt's homer in the second.
Chris Hatcher (3-5) finished the eighth for Los Angeles, and Kenley Jansen closed it out for his 33rd save.
Utley put Anderson's first pitch of the game into the bleachers in right. The veteran infielder had never hit a leadoff homer in the first 1,575 games of his 13-year career. Anderson was just as shocked as the Dodgers' fans: "I knew that he was probably the lowest in Major League Baseball on first-swing percentage on pitches. After that, I just kept going and tried to make the outing as strong as I could."
Goldschmidt answered Utley with his 31st homer on Frias' first pitch of the second inning. He joined Chad Tracy as the only Arizona players to homer in four straight games in Los Angeles.
Diamondbacks: SS Nick Ahmed is expected to miss at least two games with a sore lower back.
Dodgers: Greinke is expected to take his next turn in the rotation early next week. He said the calf injury isn't serious.
Diamondbacks: Patrick Corbin (6-4, 2.99 ERA) has a 1.44 ERA in his last five starts.
Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw (14-7, 2.18 ERA) is coming off his first loss since June 27, but still leads the majors with 272 strikeouts.
