The Arizona Diamondbacks had a tall task coming into Friday night's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. They sought to end a six-game losing streak, but had to do it against Clayton Kershaw the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner. But six solid innings by Josh Collmenter and a five-run rally keyed by Justin Upton led the D-backs to a 5-3 win over the Dodgers.
Los Angeles got a run it should not have in the third inning. Tony Gwynn reached base on a throwing error by Willie Bloomquist and, with two outs, Bobby Abreu doubled him home to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.
While Kershaw mowed down the D-backs' hitters, Collmenter gave up his one earned run to start the fourth inning. Adam Kennedy led off with a homer and James Loney followed with a double off the center-field wall. Collmenter got out of the inning allowing just the one run, striking out Luis Cruz, retiring Kershaw on a sacrifice bunt and getting Gywnn to fly out to center.
Collmenter made his case to remain in the Diamondbacks rotation. In his second straight solid outing, he allowed just one earned run in six innings and struck out six.
The Arizona bats woke up in the sixth against Kershaw. After a leadoff walk to Henry Blanco and a strikeout of pinch hitter Lyle Overbay, the D-backs banged out four straight hits against Kershaw for four runs to chase the LA ace. Bloomquist singled Blanco to third, Aaron Hill drove him in and that brought up Upton, who was 1-22 in his career against Kershaw. He tripled down the left-field line to give his team the lead and then scored when Jason Kubel doubled after that.
Jamey Wright relieved Kershaw and walked the bases loaded and threw a wild pitch that scored Kubel, making the score 5-2 Arizona.
The Arizona bullpen made things interesting. Brian Shaw couldn't retire any of the four hitters he faced, allowing a walk and three hits.
Mike Zagurski came in with a 5-3 lead and slammed the door shut with some help. He struck out pinch hitter Jerry Hairston and then got James Loney to fly out to short left field. Mark Ellis tried to score and was cut down at the plate by Jason Kubel, who now has 11 outfield assists on the year.
David Hernandez also made things hard on himself allowing a pair of hits to start off the eighth inning. But he struck out Elian Herrera, got Tony Gwynn to fly out and struck out Mark Ellis to keep LA from scoring.
J.J. Putz pitched the ninth to notch his 15th save of the year, but allowed two hits.
Collmenter picked up his first win of the season. Kershaw, who took the loss, fell to 6-5, allowing five runs in five innings and a third. It was the most runs he had ever allowed against Arizona.
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