LOS ANGELES—Former Diamondback pitcher Brandon McCarthy helped the Dodgers beat his old team with seven strong innings of play on Sunday, April 23.
“He’s just got a good look in his eye,” said manager Dave Roberts. “I like the word relentless and I think that right now he’s in that focused mindset and he’s relentless.”
After scoring 24 combined runs in the previous games against the Dodgers, the Diamondbacks were only able to muster two runs this game, coming off a first inning homer by Paul Goldschmidt. After the rocky start for McCarthy, he was flawless throughout, blanking his old time while striking out six. McCarthy is now 3-0 this season with a 2.25 ERA, undoubtedly the Dodgers best pitcher not named Clayton Kershaw.
“I started hitting more spots,” McCarthy said. “The first couple of hitters I was just not commanding very well. Then at that point I got, not necessarily settled in, but just kind of got a grip on what I was doing and the ball started going closer to where I wanted it so it’s not as easy to give up hard contact.”
The opposing pitcher, Shelby Miller, was doing fairly well himself. He only allowed one run before tightness in his forearm caused his to leave the game after the trainer visited him on the mound. He’s set to have a precautionary MRI to check it out.
“These are tough things for me to address. It is really unfortunate,” Lovullo said. “Shelby has been throwing the ball really well. This is a minor setback for him but, numbers aside, you just hate to have a situation like this pop up.”
After Miller was pulled, the game got away from the Diamondbacks. All of McCarthy’s run support came in a monster fifth inning in which the Dodgers scored all six of their runs. First, Corey Seager doubled deep to center and McCarthy scored as did Joc Pederson thanks to an error by Diamondback shortstop Nick Ahmed. Adrian Gonzalez followed with a double of his own that sent Justin Turner and Seager across home plate and Yasmani Grandal delivered another two runs when he homered to right field.
Next up, the Diamondbacks will continue their home stand against the San Diego Padres. The Dodgers will be heading up north to take on their hated rivals, the San Francisco Giants. The Giants, who just got swept by the Rockies, will have a good chance to end their losing streak when they play the Dodgers on Monday. They will be sending ace Matt Cain( 1-0, 3.31 ERA) on the mound against the beleaguered Hyun Jin-Ryu (0-3, 5.57 ERA).
