Losing six of seven at home will do that.
Eric Lauer limited Arizona to a run over five-plus innings, Austin Hedges homered for the first time since April 10 and the San Diego Padres opened a four-game series in the desert with a 6-3 victory over the slumping Diamondbacks on Thursday night.
The Diamondbacks fell to 1-6 in what will be a 10-game homestand and dropped into a virtual tie with the idle Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the NL West. Arizona had been alone in first since June 8.
”We know that we are in a pennant race, if you want to call it that right now at the halfway point of the season,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. ”I think we enjoy that part of the game. We know it is going to be a dogfight for the rest of the year.”
Wil Myers drove in two runs with a triple and single, and Carlos Asuaje reached base four times – a triple, RBI single and two walks – for the last-place Padres, winners for only the fourth time in 17 games.
”Offensively, I think Carlos Asuaje is probably the story of the day for us,” San Diego manager Andy Green said.
Shelby Miller (0-3) was better in his third start coming off Tommy John surgery, but still got the loss, allowing five runs – three earned – and five hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked two.
”I feel good Isaac Yiadom Jersey ,” Miller said. ”I think today the command was a little bit better. I would have liked to go out there and finish the sixth, put up a zero out there and get out of the game. Have us in a little better situation, 2-1 instead of 5-1, leaving that inning but we kind of beat ourselves that inning a little bit.”
Arizona’s Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer off Matt Strahm in the eighth.
Lauer, a 23-year-old left-hander, gave up seven hits – mostly to soft contact – walked two and hit a batter, but only one of those baserunners managed to score in his first win in four starts.
Brad Hand gave up an infield single, then struck out the next three in the ninth for his 24th save in 28 opportunities.
Miller, who had allowed 11 runs and 15 hits in 8 2/3 innings during his first two starts back from the surgery, got off to a rocky start in the first inning when the second batter, Asuaje Thurman Thomas Jersey , tripled to deep center and scored on Myers’ single.
But the Arizona right-hander settled down, blanking the Padres for three innings before Hedges’ line shot into the left-field seats put San Diego up 2-1 in the fifth. Hedges missed 41 games with right elbow tendinitis before being reinstated on June 24.
An error by usually sure-handed shortstop Nick Ahmed led to two unearned runs in San Diego’s three-run sixth. Asuaje led off with an 11-pitch walk and scored when Myers tripled to deep right-center.
Ahmed muffed Eric Hosmer’s hard one-bouncer to allow Myers to score. Freddy Galvis‘ two-out single off reliever Andrew Chafin brought home Hosmer and the Padres led 5-1.
BIG PITCH
With runners at first and third and two outs in the fifth, Lauer struck out Paul Goldschmidt with a pitch that Green never had seen the pitcher throw: a cutter.
”It’s fun to watch a kid throw a pitch that you’ve never seen him throw before,” Green said. ”I haven’t seen the 90 mph cutter out of him before. If I haven’t seen it, Goldschmidt hasn’t seen it, either.”
Lauer said he has been working on the cutter as his slider evolved and was ”amped up” when he threw it to Goldschmidt.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Diamondbacks: OF Steven Souza Jr. (right pectoral strain) was activated from the 10-day DL and OF Jarrod Dyson was placed on the DL with a strained right groin. Souza started in right field and went 0 for 3 at the plate with a walk in just his 15th game of the season. Dyson was injured in Arizona’s loss to St. Louis Wednesday night.
UP NEXT
Padres LHP Joey Lucchesi (4-3, 3.26 ERA) makes his fourth start since coming off the disabled list (right hip strain) and the Diamondbacks counter with RHP Zack Godley (9-6, 5.07) in the second game of the four-game series.
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LOS ANGELES — The Pittsburgh Pirates headed north by bus Sunday evening to see if the roller-coaster ride will continue.
Fresh off a series victory at San Diego, capped by a 7-5 victory Sunday, the Pirates are now in Los Angeles for the first of three games Monday, having won four of their last six games.
That winning run came after a five-game losing streak. The five games before that? The Pirates won four of them.
The Dodgers have been a bit steadier of late Allen Robinson Jersey , going 17-9 in June to keep pace with the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West. But the end of June was a bit of a struggle as the Dodgers lost four of their last five before the calendar flipped. They opened July with a 6-4 win over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday.
Not only did the Dodgers’ offense take off in June, to the tune of 55 home runs to set a franchise record for a month, the pitching staff got healthy again … literally.
Alex Wood (4-5, 4.00 ERA) will take the mound Monday, looking and feeling much better after nagging leg cramps early in the year.
Wood went seven innings against the Chicago Cubs in his last outing Wednesday, his longest start since his season debut on March 30 when he worked eight innings against the San Francisco Giants.
An All-Star for the first time last season, Wood is once again starting to look like the pitcher who can rise to the occasion on a nightly basis.
“I’m still looking for consistency out of my sinker, but the breaking ball was a lot better,” Wood told reporters after his most recent start. “Overall, it was pretty good.”
The Dodgers also have Clayton Kershaw back recently from a lower back injury and Rich Hill returned from a blister on his left middle finger. Both left-handers will face the Pirates this week.
Pittsburgh announced Sunday that Nick Kingham (2-3, 3.82) will start the series opener at Dodger Stadium. He will take the spot of Chad Kuhl Donte Jackson Jersey , who is on the DL with a forearm strain.
The Pirates (40-43) know that getting some length on their current winning ways can get them to .500 soon, possibly by the All-Star break that starts in two weeks.
“We’re starting to show a little bit of resiliency here the last week or so,” Pirates infielder Josh Harrison said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “A team that (is) not making any excuses, which is refreshing because at the end of the day we know what we have to do and that’s come to show up every day.
“It’s been some ups and downs, but every team goes through ups and downs, and a lot of guys here are riding that wave of knowing that any day can be that day that we turn it around.”
Wood is 2-2 with a 2.86 ERA in eight career games (seven starts) against the Pirates. He has not faced Pittsburgh since last season. Kingham, a rookie, has not pitched against the Dodgers in any of his first six appearances.
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