The Arizona Diamondbacks again struggled offensively and Dodgers starter Nathan Eovaldi was aided by three double plays. Scott Van Slyke and Elian Herrera each homered off of Wade Miley and Eovaldi picked up fhis first win of the season as Los Angeles sent Arizona to their sixth straight defeat, 4-1 on Thursday night.
The Dodgers jumped on Miley early, scoring two runs on four straight hits in the top of the first inning. Mark Ellis and Jerry Hairston crossed the plate on hits by Juan Rivera and Luis Cruz.
Manager Kirk Gibson said after the game that Miley "wasn't able to hit his location," but "did a real good job getting out of that with the two runs." He noted that Miley was elevating everything that got hit and that his velocity was down.
Arizona got one back in the bottom of the second, but could have had more. They loaded the bases on a double by Paul Goldschmidt, sandwiched by walks to Jason Kubel and Miguel Montero. Aaron Hill grounded into a double play that did not score a run, but Stephen Drew singled in Goldschmidt to cut the LA lead to one run.
Miley settled down after the first inning, but gave up a Scott Van Slyke homer in the fourth inning to push the lead for the Dodgers to 3-1. He gave up another homer to make it 4-1, the first career homer for Elian Herrera, with two outs in the seventh, and that was it for the left-hander. "I probably left him out there one guy too much," said Gibson after the game, but he was trying to get him through the inning "trying to get him the win."
His velocity was down, and Gibson said it could be a result of the fact that the team is halfway through the season, or that it also is due to the lack of off days.
Miley, though, would not point to velocity as an excuse, nor did he think that it was an issue. "I felt fine," he said. "It just whether you throw 88 or 94 (mph), if the ball is belt high, middle of the plate, someone is going to hit it."
Eovaldi went six innings and allowed just the one run. Scott Elbert, Ron Belisario and Kenley Jansen combined to pitch three scoreless innings to finish the game. Jansen picked up the save, his 15th of the year. He struck out Justin Upton, Jason Kubel and Paul Goldschmidt.
Eovaldi, with his first win of the year, improves to 1-5. Miley falls to 9-5 in his final game before heading to Kansas City for the All-Star Game.
Arizona failed to homer as well. That ended their 15-game homer streak as a team.
The two teams will play again on Friday night at 6:40 PM.
Get more Diamondbacks coverage over at AZ Snakepit.
For the latest AZ sports, follow us on Twitter @SBNArizona and "Like" us on Facebook.