The Los Angeles Dodgers were swept in the 2023 postseason by the Arizona Diamondbacks, who went on to compete in the World Series.
Winning one regular-season game surely doesn’t equate as payback but the Dodgers will take it. In the teams’ first meeting since the postseason, the Dodgers won the opener of a three-game series, 8-4, on Monday in Phoenix.
Los Angeles will look to make it two straight wins over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday.
Los Angeles rookie outfielder Andy Pages drove in three runs for the second time since making his major league debut on April 16, and Teoscar Hernandez added a two-run double in Monday’s game.
“I tried to just put a good swing on it and good results happened,” Hernandez said.
Will Smith hit his third homer of the season and is 10-for-20 with two homers and three doubles over the past four games. He has two four-hit outings during the stretch.
Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Pages is batting .298 with two homers, five doubles and eight RBIs in 12 games since being recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
“For a young player to come in and make an impact like that, it’s been great,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said of Pages, a native of Cuba. “There’s a lot of talk about the bottom part of this order, but each one of those guys have gotten a little bit better and Andy has certainly been a big part of that.”
Said Pages through an interpreter: “I’m playing against the best players in the world, but they make mistakes, too. You try to do the best you can.”
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani went 1-for-2 with runners in scoring position with an RBI single in the eighth. Ohtani has struggled in that situation in his first season with Los Angeles and has a .194 average in 36 such at-bats.
Ohtani came up with the bases loaded in the second inning and grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Reigning National League Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll of the Diamondbacks continues to struggle.
He went 1-for-4 in the opener and enters the last day of the month with a .191 average, one homer and five RBIs.
“This is a tough league,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said postgame when asked about Carroll’s slow start. “You can ask every superstar in that Dodgers’ dugout … it happens. There are trying days, there are learning moments and Corbin is going to figure this out because he cares.
“He cares as much as anybody I’ve ever been around.”
Left-hander Jordan Montgomery (1-1, 2.77 ERA) will make his third start of the season for the Diamondbacks.
Montgomery won his Arizona debut against the San Francisco Giants on April 19 before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals last Wednesday. He allowed three runs and seven hits in seven innings in the setback.
Montgomery, 31, is 0-2 with a 5.91 ERA in two career starts against the Dodgers.
Hernandez is just 2-for-21 with eight strikeouts against Montgomery while Freddie Freeman is hitless in nine at-bats. Smith (2-for-4) has homered against Montgomery.
Dodgers right-hander Landon Knack (1-1, 3.27) will make his third career start.
Both of Knack’s other two major league appearances were against the Washington Nationals. He gave up two runs in each, losing on April 17 and winning last Wednesday
Knack, 26, has allowed seven hits and struck out nine in 11 innings.
Roberts said that right-handed reliever Ryan Brasier injured a calf prior to the opener and will undergo an MRI exam on Tuesday. He was placed on the 15-day injured list on Monday, with right-hander Gus Varland recalled from Oklahoma City to fill his spot.
Arizona right-hander Zac Gallen (hamstring) threw Monday and Lovullo said his ace will start Wednesday’s series finale.
–Field Level Media