Dodgers down Diamondbacks on Jackie Robinson Day
Four Los Angeles relievers combined to shut out Arizona for five innings and the Dodgers capitalized on two errors to beat the Diamondbacks 8-4 on Jackie Robinson Day at Dodgers Stadium.
Alex Wood (1-0) relieved starter Kenta Maeda to begin the fifth inning and hurled 3 1/3 hitless innings for the win on Saturday night.
Sergio Romo followed and faced one batter, giving up a single to Paul Goldschmidt -- the only Diamondback to reach base by a hit or walk against the Dodgers' bullpen.
Luis Avilan struck out Jake Lamb before turning the ball over to Kenley Jansen, who induced Brad Drury to line out to end the eighth.
Jansen struck out the side in the ninth after Yasiel Puig gave the Dodgers some breathing room with a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth.
Patrick Corbin (1-2) was the hard-luck loser for the Diamondbacks. He entered the game with a 1.80 ERA and watched it rise to 2.81 after giving up three earned runs. He went six innings and gave up nine hits and issued three walks.
But it was defense that let Corbin down with the score tied at 4 in the fifth.
With one out, Enrique Hernandez hit a ground-rule double to deep right. He advanced to third on a wild pitch. Scott Van Slyke was intentionally walked to set up the forceout.
The strategy backfired when Van Slyke stole second and catcher Chris Hermann's throw sailed into center field, allowing Van Slyke to score the go-ahead run.
Major League Baseball honored the 70th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut on Saturday. And nowhere was Robinson's mark in history more celebrated than in Los Angeles.
Before the game, the Dodgers unveiled an 800-pound bronze statue depicting Robinson as a rookie sliding into home plate. The statue was placed in the left-field plaza, the most popular entrance to the park.
Among those in attendance were Robinson's wife, Rachel, and children Sharon and David. Dodgers owner Magic Johnson was joined by baseball's first black manager Frank Robinson, as well as Vin Scully, Tommy Lasorda and Sandy Koufax.
The Dodgers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on three straight hits. Logan Forsythe doubled to deep right and scored on a single to short shallow by Corey Seager. Justin Turner doubled to put men on second and third.
Puig's sacrifice fly scored Seager to make the score 2-0. Corbin got out of the inning by striking out Adrian Gonzalez and handling Trayce Thompson's grounder for the final out.
While Maeda breezed through the first three batters in just 11 pitches, the second inning was a different story.
Lamb led off with a single and, one batter later, Daniel Descalso walked, setting the stage for Nick Ahmed, who belted a three-run homer to left to put Arizona up 3-2.
Austin Barnes evened the game in the Dodgers' half of the third with his first major league homer and his first RBI of the season.
Ahmed struck again in the fourth, singling in Drury to put the Diamondback up 4-3.
But an error by Ahmed led to an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth. The Dodgers tied the score when Seager's sacrifice fly scored Van Slyke, who pinch hit for Maeda and reached first on Ahmed's throwing error.
NOTES: Jackie Robinson was honored across Major League Baseball on Saturday as all players wore his number 42 as well as many wore special cleats to pay tribute to the game's first player. ... Arizona kept A.J. Pollock out of the starting lineup. The struggling center fielder did pinch hit, grounding into a forceout to end the top of the seventh inning. In his past six games, Pollock is just 2-for-28 with no walks and six strikeouts. ... Dodgers starter Kenta Maeda lasted only four innings. In each of his first two starts this season, he had lasted five innings, giving up three runs against the Padres and four against the Rockies at Coors Field. ... Even though they now are in opposite dugouts, managers Torey Lovullo and Dave Roberts have one thing in common: They both played at UCLA under the watchful eye of manager Gary Adams, who was in attendance Saturday night. Jackie Robinson also attended UCLA.