Saturday night’s game at Chase Field looked eerily similar to the night before. Tasked with a lead in the ninth inning after a low-scoring game, an ineffective Edwin Díaz surrendered the advantage.
Geraldo Perdomo tripled, then Corbin Carroll did the same. A precarious 1-0 lead was gone, and the Diamondbacks had the winning run on third base with nobody out. FanGraphs’ game log shows Arizona having a 93.4-percent chance of winning the game at that point, and Baseball Reference had them at 93 percent.
This was going to be a loss, the Dodgers’ eighth defeat in a row.
Only Carroll never scored. A lineout right at Max Muncy, followed by an infield popout gave the Dodgers hope. Following an intentional walk, Ildemaro Vargas struck out, and the Dodgers somehow escaped having stared certain death straight in the face.
Los Angeles scratched together a run, and Jack Dreyer stranded the free runner in the 10th to give the Dodgers their first win of August, a sense of relief matched only by the promise that Díaz won’t pitch on Sunday after appearing in each of the previous two games.
Allowing two triples is rare for a reliever, something done by the Dodgers only a dozen times since moving to Los Angeles. Before Díaz, the last Dodgers reliever to give up two triples was Ricky Trlicek on June 10, 1993 at San Diego. Díaz is the first such reliever two allow two triples in the same inning since Tim Crews on July 30, 1988 against the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium.
Díaz was the first Dodgers reliever to allow triples to consecutive batters since Howie Reed on August 6, 1964 at the Pittsburgh Pirates. Like Díaz, both triples off Reed started the inning, but Reed permitted both to score.
Someone coming out of the bullpen and giving up two triples is not conducive to winning, as the Dodgers have lost 65 of the 70 games in which this has happened. The only other game a Los Angeles Dodgers team won despite a two-triple reliever was June 23, 1963, overcoming Bob Miller to beat the Cardinals in St. Louis.
Díaz got the win on Saturday night because baseball has a sense of humor sometimes. He’s the first Dodgers reliever to allow two triples and get a win out of it since George Jeffcoat for Brooklyn on July 18, 1936 to beat the Pirates in Pittsburgh.
