The Los Angeles Dodgers extended their season-long losing streak to seven games with a stunning collapse on Friday night, falling 4-3 to the Arizona Diamondbacks. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
Rookie Ryan Waldschmidt hit a two-run, walk-off homer against closer Edwin Diaz to seal the win for Arizona. It was Waldschmidt's second career homer and first big league walk-off.
"A loss is a loss but to get walked off never feels good," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "We didn't play a clean game, a great game, on either side of the baseball, but we did enough to put ourselves in position to win a game."
It was another rough outing for Diaz, who has an 11.00 ERA over 11 outings this season. The 32-year-old is a three-time All-Star but hasn't been able to help the Dodgers much after signing a $69 million, three-year deal during the offseason.
"It's the slider," Diaz said. "The fastball was great today, but I missed the slider right in the middle. I think I was trying to be perfect with the pitch and I'm missing right in the middle — I've got to be better. I'm a big league pitcher so I've got to make pitches."
The Dodgers were swept by the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs coming into Friday night's game. They still have a comfortable lead in the NL West — 7 1/2 games in front of the Diamondbacks — despite a 10-16 record since July 5.
Roberts acknowledged that Diaz has been struggling since his return from the injured list on July 29.