Pitcher's Duel Spoiled by Bullpen, Dodgers Defeat D-Backs 6-0

Ryne Nelson threw 6 scoreless innings, but bullpen fails late, offense can't get untracked.

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Ryne Nelson and Tyler Anderson locked in a pitcher's duel with neither pitcher allowing a run, Nelson through 6 and Anderson through 7. But the Diamondbacks bullpen allowed 3 runs in the 7th and 3 more in the 9th in a 6-0 loss to the Dodgers.  

Nelson ran his scoreless streak to 13 innings, having thrown 7 shutout innings in his major league debut. That is the longest scoreless streak to begin a career by a starting pitcher in  franchise history. The previous record high of 11 was set by Micah Owings in 2007.  

The rookie began to tire in the 6th inning however, with a noticeable dip in velocity. There were several hard hit balls in the inning including a two out triple by Trea Turner. Nelson fell behind 2-0 to Freddie Freeman before issuing an intentional walk. He finally got out of the inning by getting Will Smith to fly out to center.  That was the end of his night giving him a final line of 6 IP, 2 hits, 2 walks, one intentional and 6 strikeouts. Nelson got 13 swings and misses, nine on his fastball. 

He said after the game however that he felt like his fastball command was not quite as good as the last outing. Early in the game he was landing his curveball for strikes, but later in the game that command of the curve was not quite there for him. 

Manager Torey Lovullo spoke to the media about Nelson's outing and his decision to pull the starter after that 6th inning, despite just 81 pitches thrown. 

Speaking further on whether velocity loss was a sign that it was time to take Nelson out of the game, Lovullo indicated that was one of the considerations.

As has so often been the case this year, things went south once Lovullo turned it over to the bullpen. Kyle Nelson came in and promptly gave up a long double to Max Muncy. The drive was just out of the reach of Alek Thomas off the centerfield wall. On the next play Justin Turner grounded sharply back to Nelson who spun to throw to second base trying to catch Turner who was well off the bag. With Ketel Marte covering the bag, Nelson threw the ball to Geraldo Perdomo instead who was backing up on the play. Perdomo gamely threw over to first but too late to catch Turner. A walk to Joey Gallo loaded the bases with nobody out forcing Lovullo to make a change, going to Kevin Ginkel. 

Ginkel allowed a long sacrifice fly to score the game's first run. That was followed by two run double from Cody Bellinger, giving the Dodgers a 3-0 lead. The three inherited runners scored increased Ginkel's season total to 5 of 11.  

Tyler Anderson meanwhile befuddled the D-backs with his changeup, allowing just 5 hits and two walks in his 7 shutout innings. He induced three inning-ending double plays, including two by the recently recalled Jordan Luplow and one by Carson Kelly. 

Keynan Middleton pitched the 9th giving up two singles and a three run blast by Mookie Betts running the score to 6-0.

The D-backs squandered a couple of decent chances to score earlier in the game. Singles by Ketel Marte and Jake McCarthy  in the 4th inning gave the D-backs runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. But consecutive fly outs and then a strikeout by DH Stone Garrett ended that thread.  Marte also had a one out double in the 6th but advanced no further. 

Evan Phillips and Phil Bickford each worked a scoreless inning to complete the team shutout for the Dodgers. 

The Dodgers locked up a post season spot for the 10th year in a row. With a victory tomorrow night the Dodgers can also clinch the NL West for the 9th time in 10 years.

The Diamondbacks record is now 66-74, and they're now 1.5 games back of the Giants for 3rd place in the NL West.

The second game of the series is tomorrow night at Chase Field, beginning at 6:40 P.M. MST. Merrill Kelly, (12-5, 2.94 ERA) will go up against Clayton Kershaw, (7-3, 2.62 ERA)