It was the final day of a 34 games-in-34 day’s stretch, and the last of a 10-game road trip for the Dodgers, on Wednesday, against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Lefty starter, Brett Anderson along with eight righties stacked in the Dodgers’ lineup ended their prolonged stretch on a high note, knocking off the D-backs 4-3 in the series finale at Chase field.
Arizona’s starter, left-hander Robbie Ray coincided with the Dodgers schedule prompted manager Don Mattingly to go with a right-handed heavy lineup, and it paid off. Enrique Hernandez, batting .333 against lefties, led-off the game with a triple down the right field to get things started. He scored one batter later, when Howie Kendrick hit a sac-fly to continue his recent tear in the two-hole.
Anderson wouldn’t need much run support on the night, looking for his fifth win in his 16th start of the season. He allowed two base-runners in each of the first three innings of the game and only retired the side in order once in his seven innings of work. However, Anderson gave up just one run in those seven innings, a solo-home run to Aaron Hill in the sixth, while finishing with seven strikeouts.
The handful of Dodgers’ righties jumped on Ray in the third inning, and again, it was Hernandez taking advantage of his opportunity. He belted one down the left field line this time, with one out, scoring A.J. Ellis from second base. Hernandez fell a home run shy of the cycle. Kendrick followed with an RBI-single, adding to his .394 average on the road trip. One batter later, Justin Turner doubled home Kendrick to put Los Angeles ahead 4-0.
Ray’s night ended after six innings, as he allowed four runs on seven hits, with six strikeouts.
The D-backs scored another run in the eighth inning on Hill’s sac-fly off reliever Yimi Garcia. One inning later, Dodgers closer’ Kenley Jansen came into the game and served up a one-out solo-home run to David Peralta to make it 4-3 game. Fortunately, Jansen would go on to retire the next two hitters to pick up his 13th save of the season.
WP: Anderson (5-4, 3.00)
LP: Ray (2-4, 2.55)
SV: Jansen (13)