​The All-Star break couldn’t come soon enough for Los Angeles Dodgers fans, as an unusual stretch of baseball continued to unfold. The Arizona Diamondbacks handed the Dodgers a 5-3 defeat Sunday afternoon, a result that underscored just how atypical this season has felt for Los Angeles. It marked the first time this year that the Dodgers were swept, and it was also the first time the Diamondbacks had completed a three-game sweep at Dodger Stadium since September 2017.
Heading into the final series before the break, the Dodgers boasted the fewest errors in the majors with 24, but by Sunday they had already accumulated nine misplays over three games, a stark contrast to their early-season efficiency.
The Dodgers looked poised to seize momentum early, with Shohei Ohtani delivering a solo homer in the bottom of the first, his 22nd of the year, before he would need a knee drain after the game. Tommy Edman then followed in the third with a two-run single, pushing Los Angeles out to a 3-0 lead. After that, the offense went cold, going 0-for-18 at the plate the rest of the way following Edman’s RBI hit, allowing Arizona to mount a comeback.
Emmet Sheehan took the mound for the final game before the break and was steady through four innings. Arizona finally broke through in the fifth, stringing together back-to-back doubles from Ildemaro Vargas and Nolan Arenado to get on the board. Ryan Waldschmidt followed with a sacrifice fly, trimming the deficit to two and signaling the start of a late-game rally.
Sheehan was pulled after recording just one out in the sixth, finishing with seven strikeouts over 5.1 innings. His biggest blemish came when a Max Muncy throwing error from third allowed the tying run to reach base, igniting the Diamondbacks’ late surge. Vargas then delivered an RBI single off Edgardo Henriquez to complete the comeback, putting Arizona ahead for good.
Tim Tawa iced the game with a second homer of the series in the ninth, providing the insurance run as Arizona built a three-game total of seven RBIs for the series from him.
With the loss, the Dodgers concluded the first half of the season at 61-36, a strong mark but tempered by the sting of this sweep. The All-Star break now arrives as a much-needed pause, offering both teams a chance to regroup before the second half of the season.
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