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Diamondbacks can't hold lead as Dodgers complete series sweep
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- Diamondbacks can't hold lead as Dodgers complete series sweep
LOS ANGELES — Entrusted with its first lead of the season, the Diamondbacks ' bullpen could not make it stand. It could not even get it to the ninth inning.
Will Smith 's go-ahead, two-run home run in the eighth off reliever Juan Morillo lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 3-2 win at Dodger Stadium, completing a three-game sweep of the Diamondbacks to open the season.
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The Diamondbacks are 0-3 for the fifth time in franchise history and the first since 2021.
In all three games, the Diamondbacks led 2-0 only to watch the Dodgers storm back. On Opening Day, the Dodgers scored eight unanswered runs. The next day, they eked out a 5-4 win with a late run off reliever Kevin Ginkel . In the finale, they got a big swing from their clutch catcher on his bobblehead night.
"This is a tough series," manager Torey Lovullo said. "No doubt about it. I did not think we'd be coming home 0-3."
That the Diamondbacks dropped the series is of little surprise. The Dodgers, who are running a $400 million payroll that is twice that of the Diamondbacks, have a roster filled with superstars. They have a loaded lineup, a powerful rotation and a deep bullpen. They are, on paper, a super team. It seems less a question of whether they will win 100 games and more about how early in the season they will get there.
All of which is to say: It makes evaluating the Diamondbacks in the first few days tricky. Was their pitching shaky? Was their offense inconsistent? Yes on both counts, but whether it would have showed up the same way against a team that, say, doesn't have a hitter coming off a 27-homer season ( Andy Pages ) batting eighth is hard to determine.
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"Of course, there are other things I wish that we did that we can clean up, but overall we won a lot of innings of baseball over the course of this three-game series and yet we're 0-3," Lovullo said. "That's frustrating. It's very frustrating.
"But the Dodgers are built this way. We knew it. We knew it coming in. We knew it'd be that type of baseball game. But I was proud of the way we did a lot of things today."
Thanks to five-plus strong innings from Eduardo Rodriguez , the Diamondbacks were able to jump to a 2-0 lead.
That was where things stood when Rodriguez departed one batter into the sixth, exiting after Kyle Tucker reached on an error by first baseman Carlos Santana . (Rodriguez blamed himself for the play. Santana booted Tucker's ground ball but recovered, and had Rodriguez got to first in time they still could have gotten Tucker.) Tucker scored three batters later when Freddie Freeman shot a double to left field off right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga.
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Right-hander Joe Ross worked a clean seventh inning — he was added to the roster in part for his ability to provide multiple-inning relief appearances — but he did not come back out for the eighth.
Instead, Lovullo went with Morillo. His inning felt like two different outings. He got the first two batters, Shohei Ohtani and Tucker, on a pair of ground balls. But his first pitch to the next batter, Mookie Betts , crossed up catcher James McCann and nailed home plate umpire Jansen Visconti square in the facemask.
McCann said he called for a curveball using the PitchCom device. Morillo heard fastball.
"I think it was just a moment in the game when the fans were loud," McCann said, expressing relief that Visconti appeared to avoid injury.
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But the pitch felt like a demarcation point in Morillo's night. After a short delay while Visconti was evaluated, Morillo missed the zone on his next three pitches to walk Betts, then served up Smith's homer, albeit at the end of tough, seven-pitch at-bat and on a 98.1 mph fastball at the top of the zone.
"The way he was throwing to Ohtani and then Tucker, it's easy to sit here and say it was like a momentum shifter when he had to sit there and wait." McCann said. "The game is definitely a game of momentum.
"Looking back, it kind of seemed to turn the tide a little bit. But I thought Juan threw the ball extremely well. Even the pitch Smith hit for a homer was top rail, and he put a pretty good swing on it."
Lovullo said he thought "a little bit" about sticking with Ross for a second inning but opted to go with Morillo, saying he liked the latter's power repertoire against the Dodgers' top hitters.
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Ross, however, was impressive in his own right. He averaged 96.7 mph with his sinker — up from last year's 94.6 mph average — while also throwing splitters and sliders in the 90-mph range.
That the Diamondbacks could not convert on their first save chance of 2026 felt like a continuation of last season, when they led the National League with 29 blown saves.
Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder Corbin Carroll (7) throws to the infield during the third inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, on March 28, 2026.
After scratching across those runs in the first and third innings, the Diamondbacks offense went silent. They had just two baserunners over the final six innings and finished 1 for their last 20.
"There's things that we did well and there's things we could have done better," McCann said. "You can't dwell on three games. It's three games out of 162. We have to find a way to bounce back. We have an off day tomorrow. I look forward to getting back home and playing in front of our fans."
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The Diamondbacks scored a run in the first on a Pavin Smith RBI single — with help from technology. Corbin Carroll , who scored the run, reached first on an infield single after a replay review showed he beat the throw to first from third baseman Santiago Espinal .
Carroll gave the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead on a sacrifice fly in the third to bring home Jorge Barrosa , who doubled to left off Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow to lead off the inning.
The Diamondbacks open their first homestand at Chase Field on Monday night, March 30, with the first of three games against the Detroit Tigers .
Marte, Freeman share a moment on bases
Ketel Marte and Freddie Freeman shared a tender moment on what was a routine ground ball in the second inning.
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With two out and Freeman on first base in the bottom of the second, the Dodgers' Santiago Espinal hit a ground ball to Marte, the Diamondbacks' second baseman.
Marte fielded it and waited to apply a tag on Freeman. Freeman stopped in the basepath, at which point Marte held out his arms.
Freeman walked toward him and the two exchanged a brief hug as Marte applied the inning-ending tag.
Lovullo wants better baserunning
Manager Torey Lovullo wasn't happy about Alek Thomas ' out at third base on Friday night, March 27, but he wasn't too upset. Some of the other outs the Diamondbacks have made on the bases in their first two games? Those are different.
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"I always say that, no matter what, if you're trying to take an extra base or steal a base and it's a bang-bang play almost where you have to stop play to review — those are OK," Lovullo said. "I can live with those. (But) I can't live with those if it's going to run us out of an inning. So there's a combination of things here.
"When we are basically giving away some of the outs that we have, the way we have, that's when it gets a little bit frustrating."
In two games, the Diamondbacks have made four outs on the bases. In a game like Friday night's, which the Diamondbacks lost by one run, those outs could have been the difference between a win and a loss.
"We can be a little better," Lovullo said.
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Lovullo was OK with Thomas' out because it wasn't a bad decision from Thomas to try to take third. He just executed a poor slide, coming off the bag long enough for Max Muncy to tag him out.
Coming up
March 29:Off.
March 30:At Chase Field, 7:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Michael Soroka (3-8, 4.52)* vs. Tigers RHP Justin Verlander (4-11, 3.85)*.
March 31:At Chase Field, 6:40 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Brandon Pfaadt (13-9, 5.25)* vs. Tigers RHP Casey Mize (14-6, 3.87)*.
April 1:At Chase Field, 12:40 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Zac Gallen (0-1, 9.00) vs. Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal (1-0, 0.00).
* Stats from 2025.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen gives up lead, game to Dodgers
