After watching the San Francisco Giants fall again to the Philadelphia Phillies, the Arizona Diamondbacks had a chance to pull into sole possession of first place in the NL West. However, behind the hitting of catcher Rod Barajas and the pitching debut of Nathan Eovaldi, the Los Angeles Dodgers downed the D-Backs 5-3. Arizona remains one-half game behind the Giants in the West.
Barajas, a former Diamondbacks catcher, drove in two runs on three hits. Eovaldi held Arizona to two runs in five innings.
Joe Saunders, the starter for Arizona provided really the only offense that D-Backs could muster early. He had a pair of hits and drove in the team's only two runs with a bases-loaded single in the second inning. Saunders lasted 5 1/3 innings and allowed four runs. Justin Upton pulled the game to 5-3 in the eighth inning with a double that scored Willie Bloomquist, who had reached on a fielder's choice.
The absence of shortstop Stephen Drew was felt defensively. Two of the Dodgers' runs were the result of plays that Bloomquist failed to make, but likely would have been were Drew playing. The first was Barajas' run-scoring single in the second. It was a Texas leaguer that fell just past Bloomquist's reach. The second play was in the sixth inning on what could have been a double play. Bloomquist dropped the ball and failed to even get the lead runner. Both runners scored. Assuming only the force play, those two runs were crucial.
The Dodger's scoring was accounted for by the Barajas hit in the second, an Andre Ethier RBI groundout in the third, RBI singles by Aaron Miles and Barajas in the sixth and then an RBI groundout by Juan Rivera in the seventh.
Saunders fell to 8-9 on the season, while Eovaldi collects hi first career win in his debut. Scott Elbert pitched the ninth to collect his second save of 2011.