Dodgers bullpen squanders another lead in loss to Diamondbacks

Howie Kendrick finished Tuesday’s game in left field, something he doesn’t do very often. Kendrick is 32 years old and has played 1,080 games at second base in an 11-year career.

His role has changed out of necessity. Scott Van Slyke became the third Dodgers left fielder to go on the disabled list since the season began last week.

Meanwhile, manager Dave Roberts insisted he wasn’t about to change the roles in his bullpen, even after the Dodgers squandered a lead for the fourth time in their last five games. This loss came in the first home game of the regular season, 4-2 at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks before a sold-out crowd of 53,279.

To Roberts, the urgency to fix the bullpen hasn’t reached the point of necessity.

“It’s a long season,” Roberts said. “There’s going to be ups and downs, and guys are going to struggle. Right now these guys aren’t throwing the ball as well as they’d like to, or we’d like ‘em to. But they’d be the first to say that. For me, it’s just a matter of continuing to run ‘em out there.”

Arizona scored all its runs after Kenta Maeda threw six shutout iings in his second major league start.

Pedro Baez relieved Maeda and allowed a 345-foot line drive by Nick Ahmed to sneak out over the short left field porch for a home run. That tied the game 1-1.

Chris Hatcher (1-1) relieved Baez and allowed a solo home run by Paul Goldschmidt to begin the eighth iing, giving the Diamondbacks a 2-1 lead. Hatcher stayed in the game long enough to load the bases before Louis Coleman struck out Rickie Weeks Jr. to end the iing.

But Coleman was tagged for two runs in the ninth iing ‑ on an RBI triple by Socrates Brito and an RBI groundout by Goldschmidt ‑ to put the game away.

In eight games, the Dodgers’ bullpen has allowed 16 eaed runs in 21 2/3 iings, while the starters have allowed only 14 in 49 1/3 iings.

The trend only emerged after the Dodgers won three games in San Diego to begin the season while outscoring the Padres 25-0.

“Right now you want to continue to give these guys confidence and give them opportunities,” Roberts said. “We’re going to need those guys in the ‘pen.”

The bullpen’s failures have undermined several reasons to celebrate. Maeda produced an identical stat line to his major league debut last Wednesday ‑ six iings, five hits, no runs, five strikeouts ‑ despite inferior command. He shook off catcher A.J. Ellis a few times, something he didn’t do at all in his first start.

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Also just like his debut, Maeda needed a stellar play at the plate to preserve his perfect eaed-run average. In the bottom of the sixth iing, Jake Lamb laced a double into the right-field coer with a ruer on base. Yasiel Puig picked the ball up on the waing track, relayed it to third baseman Justin Tuer ‑ who had shifted to the right side of the infield against Lamb ‑ and Tuer’s throw home beat Wellington Castillo for a dramatic out.

Ellis’ squeeze bunt in the second iing brought home Kendrick, who was retuing from a calf injury that forced him to miss the season’s first seven games.

Kiké Heandez and Trayce Thompson had two hits apiece, solidifying their spots in the lineup against left-handers. Diamondbacks starter Patrick Corbin allowed six hits in six iings, and was removed with a 1-0 deficit.

Corey Seager doubled to lead off the ninth iing, extending his hitting streak to 11 games. He scored on an RBI groundout by pinch-hitter Yasmani Grandal. Like Kendrick, Grandal was playing his first game of the season following a DL stint.

If the bullpen roles or persoel don’t change, maybe the Dodgers’ best solution is to extract more iings from their starters.

So far, however, Roberts and the front office have wielded a fairly short leash. No starter has been allowed to throw more than 100 pitches in a game, and no one with fewer than three Cy Young Awards on his shelf has faced a team four times through the lineup. Rookie Ross Stripling was removed in the middle of a no-hitter Friday.

Maeda was pulled from his shutout Tuesday after 95 pitches.

“Ideally I would have thrown less pitches,” he said through an interpreter, “but I understand my pitches were creeping up a bit and there were many times there were ruers on base, so I understand that I had to be pulled out of the game.”

Maybe Vin Scully had the right idea. A pregame ceremony to honor the 88-year-old broadcaster made him late to the press box, so the broadcast on SportsNet LA and 570-AM went silent while Maeda delivered his first pitch. This is Scully’s 67th and final year with the Dodgers, and he couldn’t remember the last time a game began without him.

“I think they were trying to slow (the players) down, but Roberts said ‘go out,’” Scully said.

Lately, the Dodgers have rewarded the late arrivers. The games only get interesting at the end.