Another intense D-backs-Dodgers set, and more NL West drama down the road

LOS ANGELES -- It wasn't so long ago that Dodger Stadium was a house of horrors for the D-backs.

From 2019-23, the Dodgers beat the D-backs 31 times in 38 regular-season contests at Chavez Ravine. But in that final year, the tide began to turn -- and the D-backs won two games there that mattered, both L.A. home games of the '23 NL Division Series.

Arizona had a winning record at Dodger Stadium last year, and though it's too early to know what the future holds for the two NL West contenders, the season series so far could make for a thrilling run to the finish.

"A lot of teams walk into Dodger Stadium and they back down," manager Torey Lovullo said. "They become intimidated by what’s across the field. Our group doesn’t have that gene -- they’re very tough, they’re very prepared and they embrace the challenge of playing against any team, especially the Dodgers, for sure."

The D-backs and Dodgers just played seven games in the span of the last two weeks, with L.A. emerging victorious, 3-1, in Wednesday's series finale at Dodger Stadium. Teoscar Hernández flipped the momentum of the rubber game on one swing, hitting a three-run blast in the sixth inning to snap a 21-inning scoreless streak for Corbin Burnes.

The Dodgers hold a 4-3 lead in the season series against the D-backs, which is important because the season series is the first tiebreaker used when determining postseason standing and seeding. The seven games between the two teams have not been lacking in drama.

In the three-game set at Dodger Stadium, Monday's D-backs win looked like a sure thing all the way until the ninth inning, when the Dodgers rallied for a pair of runs and made it interesting before leaving the tying run in the on-deck circle in Shohei Ohtani.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto took a no-hitter into the seventh on Tuesday before Arizona flipped the game on its head in the ninth, only for L.A. to walk it off in 10 innings.

Wednesday was a more straightforward ballgame, although tension was high with Burnes and Dustin May in a pitchers' duel with little margin for error.

"You look back 27 hours ago, we were in it," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "Giving up a lead in the ninth inning and looking to lose the first two of the series, and you come away winning that one and then winning this one. So to find a way to win a series against that club within the division, I think there's certainly some momentum."

Said Burnes: "A couple better swings, or maybe a few different pitches, and we can come away with even a sweep here vs. losing the series. It’s going to be hard-fought games against these guys all year."

Now, the divisional rivals won't face each other again until the final weekend of August, when both teams could be in the middle of a heated postseason push.

The NL West has been one of the most competitive divisions in baseball, with the Dodgers (31-19), Giants (29-21), Padres (27-20) and D-backs (26-24) all sitting above .500. It's not a given that all four teams will still be in the mix at that point, but these early-season games have implications for the stretch run.

While the Dodgers are the favorites to come out on top, it won't be a cruise to the finish line. L.A. president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman recently spoke about how the competition in the NL West has already led to some urgency in the team's roster decisions, referencing when the Dodgers won 106 games in 2021 but finished second to the Giants.

"We have a tough division," Friedman said. "We've got some really good teams in our division who are playing well, and so for us, it's about doing everything we can each night to try to win a game."

After the D-backs eliminated the Dodgers in the 2023 postseason and went on to win the NL pennant, there was no changing of the guard. Arizona missed the playoffs in '24, while L.A. came away with the eighth World Series title in franchise history.

But this is a new year, and both teams will have to go through one another to get where they want to be.

"We came here to tell them that it's not going to be easy for them and they gotta play good baseball against us," D-backs third baseman Eugenio Suárez said. "And same for us, we gotta play good baseball against them because they have a really good team."