Gabriel Moreno had three hits, including a grand slam, Brandon Pfaadt won his National League-leading sixth game, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 on Thursday in Phoenix.
Moreno and Ketel Marte each hit his first homer of the season for the D-backs, who sent Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto (4-3) to his least effective outing of the season. Yamamoto saw his ERA double from an NL-leading 0.90 to 1.81 after he permitted five runs on six hits in five innings. He struck out four and walked one.
Shohei Ohtani hit a solo homer with two outs in the ninth, but Kevin Ginkel subsequently retired Mookie Betts on a fly ball for his first save of the season.
Pfaadt (6-2) pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings and gave up four hits, all singles, while walking three and striking out six. Jalen Beeks entered with one on in the seventh and struck out Enrique Hernandez and Ohtani to the delight of most of the 40,319 in attendance.
Max Muncy had two hits and an RBI while Betts and Will Smith added two hits apiece for the Dodgers, who have lost three of five.
Moreno’s fourth-inning slam opened the scoring. Marte’s homer in the fifth made it 5-0 before the Dodgers scored twice in the eighth inning twice off Juan Morillo.
Betts singled to open the inning and Smith singled him to third with one out. Muncy hit a ground-rule double to deep right-center, a ball that would have scored both runners had it stayed in the field of play.
Andy Pages singled in Smith to put runners on the corners before second baseman Marte went far to his left to start an inning-ending double play and keep the score 5-2.
Moreno is 25-for-75 (.333) with five homers and 21 RBIs in 21 regular-season and postseason games against the Dodgers since being acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays before the 2023 season.
The D-backs’ two homers matched the number Yamamoto had given up in his first 40 innings, both against the Detroit Tigers in his second start of the season.
Arizona had lost four of its previous six games.
–Field Level Media
