The Los Angeles Dodgers took advantage of three gift runs, including a walk-off balk, for a 5-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday.
With two out, Casey Blake on third and the game tied, Esmerling Vazquez (0-1) didn’t step off the mound and re-set after Blake faked heading for home. The balk was called and the game was over as Blake was mobbed by teammates.
Before that, the Dodgers scored two runs on two errors on one play by second baseman Kelly Johnson to tie it in the eighth.
With runners on second and third and two outs in the inning, Andre Ethier hit a groundball to Johnson, who took a couple steps to his left. He not only booted the ball but threw it past the first base bag in a hurried attempt to get Ethier to allow both runs to cross the plate to tie it at 4-4.
Jonathan Broxton picked up the win to improve to 3-0 with one inning of work after relieving Chad Billingsley’s eight-inning effort.
Arizona starter Rodrigo Lopez allowed six hits, two earned runs and struck out four in eight innings, but was done in by Johnson’s two errors in the no-decision.
The Diamondbacks grabbed an early lead for one of the few times on this 0-7 road trip as Justin Upton, the second batter of the game, hit a two-run home run off Billingsley.
In the second inning, Chris Young and Chris Snyder hit solo shots to give the team a 4-0 lead.
Manny Ramirez got to Lopez in the second with a solo shot to close within 4-1 and then Matt Kemp, who had three hits, had an RBI single in the third.
Arizona | LA Dodgers | |
Rodrigo Lopez | Player | Chad Billingsley |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
8.0 | IP | 8.0 |
4 | Strikeouts | 11 |
6 | Hits | 6 |
2.25 | ERA | 4.50 |
Arizona | LA Dodgers | |
Kelly Johnson | Player | Matt Kemp |
2 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
3 | TB | 4 |
.500 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Arizona | 7 | 3 | 17 | .212 | 5 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
LA Dodgers | 7 | 1 | 12 | .219 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |