LOS ANGELES _ The bullpen mounds near the left-field pavilion stood empty as the eighth inning began. The inactivity symbolized the trust extended by Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to the most combustible reliever in his relief corps. Chris Hatcher trotted out of the dugout for his second inning of work.
Through the first two weeks of the season, Dodgers relievers faced 181 batters. All 181 stayed within the ballpark. At 9:40 p.m. Monday, the Dodgers operated the only bullpen in baseball that had not given up a home run. A minute later, in the climatic moment of a 4-2 defeat against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers lost that distinction, and a game along with it.
On the first pitch of the eighth, Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb cranked a waist-high cut fastball from Hatcher into the right-field bleachers. The homer stemmed not only from a misplaced pitch but also from the receipt of the previous two days, when the Dodgers' starting pitchers combined to log seven innings.
Brandon McCarthy struck out eight Diamondbacks but departed after giving up two runs in five innings. He had thrown only 86 pitches. The outing forced Roberts to lean upon his relievers. Roberts learned to thrive amid this type of tumult in 2016. Monday's game offered a reminder of the challenges inherent when managing a pitching staff that is long on depth but short on brevity.
The performance by Hatcher was not the only voucher accrued over the weekend. In the ninth, pitching for the third day in a row, Luis Avilan gave up a run-scoring triple to outfielder David Peralta.
In defeat, the Dodgers (7-7) botched a chance to win a four-game series. After dropping the first two games at Dodger Stadium, the Diamondbacks salvaged a split. The Dodgers remained inefficient at situational hitting.
They struck out 15 times, went hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners.
A sequence in the bottom of the eighth, after Lamb's home run, epitomized an evening's worth of frustration. Justin Turner ripped a leadoff double against Diamondbacks reliever J.J. Hoover. The next three batters _ Yasiel Puig, Yasmani Grandal and Enrique Hernandez _ saw four pitches and popped up three times.
And so the Dodgers lost, yet again, when opposing a left-handed starting pitcher. Five of their seven losses have come in this fashion.
A few hours before the game, Logan Forsythe chugged through conditioning exercises in the outfield. He was testing his right hamstring, which had tightened Saturday. Forsythe passed inspection and returned to the lineup. The Dodgers required his presence, with Arizona starter Robbie Ray on the mound.
"I gave him every opportunity to take another day," Roberts said before the game. "But he was confident that the hamstring was fine."
The Dodgers' first hit came from a new arrival. The Dodgers called up Rob Segedin from triple-A Oklahoma City after putting Rich Hill back on the disabled list because of a blister. Segedin started in Adrian Gonzalez's place at first base and stroked a second-inning single against Ray.
After Segedin's hit, Scott Van Slyke took a walk. The Diamondbacks bungled a bunt by McCarthy when second baseman Daniel Descalso dropped the throw. The error loaded the bases for Forsythe. He flied out to center field, allowing Segedin just enough time to tag up for the first run of the game.
McCarthy had logged six innings in each of his first two starts. After burning up the bullpen Saturday and Sunday, the Dodgers required length Monday. Alex Wood pitched 3 1/3 innings Saturday and was slated to start Friday. Ross Stripling collected five outs Sunday.
The first inning was a curiosity. McCarthy yielded singles to the first two batters. Grandal erased both runners on separate attempts to steal second. McCarthy did not give up another hit until Ray singled up the middle in the fifth.
The offense handed McCarthy a second run in the bottom of the fourth. Ray challenged Enrique Hernandez with a fastball on the inner half of the plate.
Hernandez lifted a homer that nestled just inside the left-field pole and just beyond the fence.
McCarthy could not spot his curveball for strikes and flooded the zone with fastballs and cutters. He fanned six batters in the first four innings.
The lead evaporated in the fifth. After a walk by shortstop Chris Owings, Ray's single appeared innocuous, a two-out groundball knock on a two-seam fastball that leaked over the plate. The hit became more painful when outfielder A.J. Pollock poked a cutter into center for an RBI single.
The next batter, outfielder David Peralta, tied the score by shooting another cutter up the middle for a tying hit.
The flurry of singles brought four-time All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to the plate. Goldschmidt has tormented the Dodgers for half a decade. McCarthy prevented an addition to Goldschmidt's legacy of destruction at Dodger Stadium by firing a 95-mph fastball past Goldschmidt to end the inning.
