Game Summary
The Diamondbacks showed a little more fight compared to their campaign opening loss last night, but still came up short at Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium (ugh). Ryne Nelson started the game for the good guys against Emmet Sheehan and very-much-bad-not-good-at-all guys, and it was a bit of a mixed bag for our talented righty. Ryne finished the night with a line very similar to Zac’s from last night, a not incredibly impressive 4 ER over 4.2 IP. Nelson did leave a better taste in our mouth than Zac did thanks to Nelly’s 4 runs all coming in the 3rd before he bounced back and retired the last 7 hitters he faced, compared with Zac mowing the Dodgers down for 4 innings then getting lit up at the end. Nelson has room for improvement, but this was largely a good start for him and I imagine it will be somewhat easier to limit his blow-up innings against teams that don’t stack 8 straight All Stars at the top of the lineup.
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The offense showed more punch than the night before as well, but for as many opportunities as they gave themselves with the bat, they took away some key opportunities with mistakes on the base paths. Pavin Smith getting sent from first to home should be something on the Do Not Do list given out to the coaches when pitchers and catchers report in February, but apparently our third base coach was feeling froggy and wasted a prime scoring opportunity in the second by sending Pavin to his doom on Alek Thomas’ first RBI double of the evening. Then, Alek undid his own good when he tried to stretch an RBI double into a triple in the fourth inning. It wasn’t the last out of the inning, and he did actually beat the throw, but having Alek at second with one out and a potential to flip the order over would’ve been a favorable outcome for the Snakes.
The defense was again pretty solid, with the only real miscue being Gabi’s throw into centerfield when trying to throw out a stealing Kyle Tucker, but that didn’t end up hurting the team’s chances. The bullpen was mostly brilliant for the second night in a row, with a single pitcher allowing a run that wound up being the difference on the night. While Loaisiga and Thompson looked solid, almost brilliant, Ginkel and his diminished fastball velocity made one mistake too many and cost his team the game. Giving up a leadoff double to the only Dodger not expected to be an All-Star this year was the death knell as the Dodgers ‘fundamentaled’ the go ahead run in with Shohei’s grounder to second advancing the runner to third and Tucker putting the ball perfectly into the hole between Ketel and Santana to put the Dodgers ahead in the 8th.
Coming into the 8th inning, the Dodgers had scored 4 runs on 2 hits. The D-Backs had quadrupled that hit total, but had still only scored the same 4 runs. The margin for error against this squad is too small for the D-Backs to afford making extra outs on the bases or giving up costly hits to the 9-hole hitter (2-3 with a 2B and HR). Make one mistake and that is all they need.
Loss Probability and Box Score
Outside the Box Score
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Geraldo Perdomo greeted home plate umpire Corey Blaser as he walked up to home plate for his first at bat of the ballgame and lingered a little while longer than perhaps is usual with him. Blaser was the umpire who called Perdomo out with that now infamous low Strike 3 call to end the Dominican game against USA in the WBC just a couple weeks ago. Appears all is water under the bridge at this point and Blaser even gave Domo the benefit of a borderline pitch in a 2-strike count later on in the AB, but Will Smith successfully challenged resulting in a strikeout.
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Ryne Nelson couldn’t quite match Emmet Sheehan’s 3 strikeouts in the first inning, but he buckled both Shohei and Tucker with beautiful knee-high sliders to ꓘ them starting off the game. Mookie put the first ball in play of the whole game with a soft lineout to Corbin in right.
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Alek Thomas delivered a moneyball line drive into the corner in right field with runners at first and second in the second inning. Unfortunately, Pitters immediately went into flashbacks of last season when our third base coach sent Pavin trundling home where he was a dead duck for the third out of the inning. On the bright side, Gabi did score to give the Snakes a 1-run lead, but it’s really annoying to be giving baserunners away yet again in 2026.
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Ketel Marte’s homer off Sheehan came on a 3-0 fastball that was absolutely tanked into the right field bleachers. 107.2 mph off the bat and 391 feet.
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Gabi got his first ABS reversal of the season (I think?) during Shohei’s second AB of the night when Ryne missed his spot and flew a pitch to the far side of the plate. The pitch was completely inside the strike zone but called a ball because, as it has for generations, when a pitcher wildly misses his spot he loses the benefit of the doubt. This type of situation is exactly what I’m most excited for ABS to correct. The borderline pitches that could go either way don’t usually bother me too much, but the obvious balls/strikes that are missed are what I want to see addressed and glad they can be now.
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Nelson had Kyle Tucker struck out in the bottom of the third on a foul tip, but Gabi couldn’t hang on to the tip so Tucker got new life. The next three pitches were all balls and Tucker earned a free pass. That set the table for Mookie’s three run bomb a couple pitches later.
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Weird factoid: the first groundball of the entire ball game didn’t come until the last out of the third inning when Will Smith grounded out to Domo. That was the 27th plate appearance of the game!
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Pavin Smith earned full count walks in both of his first 2 plays appearances. I’d bet that both of the called Ball 4s could’ve been challenged and overturned to Strike 3. We’ll take it!
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After our third base coach, apparently with the last name of House per the fellow Pitters in the GDT, sent Pavin from first to home on a double into the right field corner, there was some banter about Pavin and House combining for more buffoonery when he got a leadoff walk in the fourth. To my horror, Carlos Santana roped a double into the right field corner just like what happened in the second inning. Thankfully for my heart health, House learned his lesson and held Pavin at third to set the table for Alek’s 2-RBI double (thrown out when he overslid the bag trying to stretch it into a triple).
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Jonathan Loaisiga made his D-Backs debut in the fifth to face Kyle Tucker with 2 outs and the bases empty. Loaisaga made him look silly finishing him off with 3 nasty changeups to end the inning. I’m really excited for what he could bring to the team.
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In Ketel’s at bat in the top of the 6th inning, he was spun around to the right side against Alex Vesia where Ketel is known for his extremely hard swings. In the AB he got a line drive single to left that wasn’t particularly astonishing, but his recorded swing speed was 83.1mph which was the fastest of the game to that point (the second fastest swing for either team was his HR swing earlier in the game, nearly 5.5mph slower at 77.7mph). Interestingly, Corbin Carroll topped that high swing speed in the very next AB with 83.5mph.
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Comment of the Game
It wasn’t Opening Night levels, but the GDT was still well populated, finishing at 267 comments at time of publishing. Many went Sedona Red, but first COTG for the season goes to VW Beetle with a game-leading number of Recs with his reaction to Alek’s hit and the base coach assisted TOOTBLAN in the second inning:
Coming Up
The Diamondbacks face the Dodgers for the third and final game of this series tomorrow night at 6:10pm. WBC hero – and the Snakes only LHP – Eduardo Rodriguez will be on the mound trying to stave off a season-opening sweep, while the Fighting Guggenheims counter with Tyler Glasnow. Tune in and join the GDT to give the recapper Dano some company.
Read the full article here