PHOENIX _ Dave Roberts stood on the lip of the mound at Chase Field and rubbed a baseball with his hands. It was too late to transfer any magic onto the object. It was too late to save this evening. The Los AngelesDodgers' bullpen had already blown a lead and cost Clayton Kershaw a victory in a 4-3 defeat to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Managing in the major leagues is challenging. Managing in the major leagues with a tinderbox bullpen is excruciating. For most of his first two seasons running the Dodgers, Roberts avoided this fate. His third year at the helm has proved far more troubling, at least through the first six weeks. He does not know whom he can trust among his relievers; in truth, he must mistrust them all.
Adam Liberatore became the latest reliever to falter. He was not an outlier: Daniel Hudson, Tony Cingrani and Pedro Baez have all met similar fates in the last few days. On Tuesday, trying to protect a one-run lead for Kershaw and the Dodgers, Liberatore faced three batters in the seventh. The first two hit singles. The third was Arizona outfielder Daniel Descalso, who slashed a two-run triple to send the Dodgers (12-17) careening toward their seventh defeat in eight games.
Kershaw gave up two runs, both on solo home runs, in six innings. He struck out six and escaped a treacherous jam in the fifth inning. Cody Bellinger supplied a two-run homer in the third inning as the Dodgers compiled a three-run lead. The pitching staff could not support it.
Kershaw returned to the mound after a bizarre outing last week. Facing the Miami Marlins, Kershaw lost command of his fastball, curveball and slider. He issued six walks in five innings and former Dodger Miguel Rojas bashed a three-run homer. It was Kershaw's shortest outing of the season.
On Tuesday, he ran into a player his teammates could not contain the night before. Diamondbacks outfielder A.J. Pollock had homered three times Monday. He launched his fourth in two days in Tuesday's second inning. Kershaw fell behind in the count. Pollock destroyed a 3-1 fastball for a solo shot.
Matt Koch was making the fifth start of his career. Arizona inserted Koch into the rotation after Taijuan Walker underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery. Koch posted a 1.93 ERA in his first three appearances this season. He remained an enigma to his opponents.
"Does anyone know who we're facing tonight?" Bellinger asked around 4:15 p.m., settling behind a bank of laptops to watch film of the opposing pitcher. Max Muncy spelled out the name. The players tried out a few pronunciations before Bellinger commenced his pregame studying.
Bellinger introduced himself to Koch in the third inning. With a runner at first, Bellinger detonated a 92.1-mph fastball deep into the right-field seats. He trotted around the bases at a reasonable clip. Two days earlier, he did not hustle enough to meet Roberts' standards. Now the manager greeted Bellinger in the dugout with a double high-five.
The Dodgers took advantage of an Arizona error in the third. Chase Utley hit a fly ball into left field. Descalso tracked the ball down but dropped it. Utley reached second on the mistake and scored after a pair of groundouts.
Kershaw dealt with traffic on the bases in the third and the fourth. Arizona third baseman Devin Marrero led off the third with a swinging bunt for an infield single, which Kershaw threw away to allow Marrero to advance 90 feet. Kershaw retired the next three batters, so Marrero traveled no farther. In the fourth, Kershaw survived a two-out single by outfielder Chris Owings and a two-out walk by second baseman Ketel Marte.
The Diamondbacks did some damage in the fifth. Koch departed for a pinch-hitter, Christian Walker. Kershaw threw a 2-1 slider at the belt, and Walker launched it for a solo shot into the second deck of the left-field stands.
From there, the game nearly slipped from Kershaw's grasp. Descalso singled. Utley could not smother a hard-hit grounder off the bat of Nick Ahmed. Looming in the on-deck circle were five-time All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and Pollock.
Goldschmidt gave the ballpark a jolt _ but little more. He connected with a 3-2 curveball, but it was only a towering fly ball only into left field. Pollock chopped a grounder for the inning's third out.
The inning left Kershaw's pitch count at 92. Roberts sent him back for the sixth. Kershaw had much less trouble in securing the next three outs. He finished the inning in nine pitches and returned to his dugout, where he bumped fists with Roberts and hoped for the bullpen to hold the lead.
His hopes were dashed in the seventh. Liberatore, a left-handed reliever, faced a pair of right-handed hitters to start the outing. Marrero hit a single, and catcher John Ryan Murphy did the same. Up came Descalso, a left-handed batter. Descalso capitalized on a belt-high fastball for the game-deciding triple.
