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PHOENIX — From the crack of the bat and the trajectory of the ball, it was immediately clear that the Dodgers had found a new way to lose.
Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz hung a slider over the plate to Arizona’s Ryan Waldschmidt, and he sent it over the left-center field wall for a two-run, walk-off homer in a 4-3 win that sent the Dodgers to a season-worst seventh straight loss.
“I’ve got to find it tonight, tomorrow when I come to the field,” Díaz said of his slider, which hasn’t been nearly as effective as usual this season. “Because that’s my pitch. I got a good fastball, but my slider is the strikeout pitch. And today, I missed with two strikes. … I’m still positive. I’m always positive. Just got to do my job better and help the team to win.”
For the first time in a long time, an in-division matchup felt like it had real stakes.
The Dodgers’ recent skid dropped their National League West lead into single digits for the first time in over a month. They are now only 7½ games ahead of the second-place Diamondbacks in the division.
Shohei Ohtani and Pete Crow-Armstrong each had three hits and homered twice in the Dodgers’ 7-6 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday at Wrigley Field.
They also now have the fourth-best record in the majors (69-47), falling behind the Brewers (72-44) and Braves (70-46) and Rays (69-46).
“A week ago, it looked a lot different,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And another week from now, it could look even more different. So you’ve just got to put your head down and play baseball.”
They did, at least, have a better record than last season (67-49) at the 116-game mark. But the Dodgers would prefer to, unlike last year, at least earn a first-round bye, and ideally home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Their performance Friday sent them in the wrong direction.
“A loss is a loss, but to get walked off never feels good,” Roberts said. “We didn’t play a clean game, a great game on either side of the baseball, but we did enough to put ourselves in a position to win a game, and unfortunately, we couldn’t finish it.”
The Dodgers went hitless against Diamondbacks starting pitcher Merrill Kelly for the first five innings. Kyle Tucker and Shohei Ohtani both drew walks, as the Dodgers’ only baserunners before the sixth — and Ohtani was thrown out attempting to steal second to end the third inning.
Finally, leading off the sixth, Tommy Edman — who three innings prior was robbed of a home run on a leaping grab by Diamondbacks right fielder Corbin Carroll — broke up Kelly’s no-hit bid with a sharp infield hit.