Dodgers Grind Out Extra-Inning Win Over Diamondbacks, 2-1
Phoenix, Ariz. — Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026
For most of the evening, this game looked like it was going to be decided by whoever blinked first. Both offenses were cold — the Dodgers managed just six hits, the Diamondbacks seven — and it took until the eighth inning for either team to push a run across.
How it happened
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was terrific for L.A., working 5⅔ innings and allowing just three hits and no runs while striking out six against three walks. He kept Arizona's lineup off balance all night, and if there's a frustrating footnote to his outing, it's that the Dodgers' offense simply couldn't get him any support while he was out there.
Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt matched him nearly pitch for pitch, cruising through seven scoreless innings on just two hits allowed. It looked, for a long stretch, like this one was headed for a pitchers' duel that neither bullpen would want to blink in first.
Kyle Tucker finally broke through in the eighth, taking Jonathan Loáisiga deep for a solo home run to put the Dodgers up 1-0 — his lone hit of the night, but it was the one that mattered. Tucker finished the game 1-for-4 with two runs scored and continues to be a steady presence in the middle of this lineup.
Arizona answered right back in the bottom of the ninth against closer Edwin Díaz, who allowed a run to tie it at 1-1 and force extra innings. That set the stage for the automatic-runner rules to decide it in the tenth, and Los Angeles made the most of the opportunity — Shohei Ohtani drove in the go-ahead run, his lone RBI on a night where he went 1-for-5 at the plate.
From there, it was about locking the door. The Dodgers bullpen — Jack Dreyer, Díaz, Evan Phillips, Tanner Scott, Kyle Hurt and Alex Vesia — combined to cover 4⅓ innings after Yamamoto departed, and while it wasn't always clean (Díaz's blown save being the obvious blemish), the group got the final outs needed to close it out.
Andy Pages had a quietly nice night at the plate, going 2-for-5, while Hunter Feduccia and Teoscar Hernández each chipped in a hit. It was a lineup-wide grind more than a breakout offensive night — seven of the nine Dodgers hitters who started the game combined for just six hits on 34 at-bats — but against a Pfaadt performance like that, finding a way to win ugly counts for a lot.
Where the Dodgers stand
At 70-47, the Dodgers sit atop the National League West, holding a comfortable cushion over Arizona (62-56) and San Diego (61-57) as the calendar turns toward the stretch run. It's the kind of division lead that lets a team absorb a night like Friday's loss and an offensive slog like Saturday's without much hand-wringing — this club has built itself a real margin.
That said, it's been a season defined almost as much by who's been missing as by who's been playing. The pitching staff in particular has taken a beating on the injury front, and the Dodgers have had to piece together starts from a rotation that, on paper, looks nothing like the one they drew up in spring training.
Which is what makes the next couple of weeks worth paying attention to.
The cavalry is on the way
There's real reason for optimism here, and it starts on the mound. Tyler Glasnow, who's been out since early May with back spasms, is progressing through his rehab assignment and is lined up for his next outing on Sunday, Aug. 9. Before he went down, Glasnow had been arguably the best pitcher on the staff — a 2.72 ERA and 49 strikeouts over 39⅔ innings — and getting a healthy version of him back into the rotation in September would be a significant boost.
Right behind him is Blake Snell, who's targeting a return to the Dodgers' rotation on Tuesday, Aug. 11, after working his way back from an elbow injury that limited him to a single start all season. Snell wrapped up his rehab assignment last week, and while he's not going to walk back into ace form overnight, simply having a two-time Cy Young winner as an option changes the math for this staff down the stretch.
Add in word that Gavin Stone and Bobby Miller have both joined Triple-A Oklahoma City for rehab starts of their own — Stone's first appearance in nearly two years — and this is a Dodgers team that could look meaningfully different, and deeper, by September than it has for most of the summer.
What's next
The Dodgers and Diamondbacks close out this series Sunday afternoon in Phoenix (1:10 p.m. PT) before Los Angeles heads home to open a six-game homestand — three against the Royals starting Monday, Aug. 10, followed by three against the Brewers beginning Aug. 13.
That homestand lines up nicely with the returns of Glasnow and Snell, giving the Dodgers a chance to get both back into rhythm in front of the home crowd before the final sprint toward October. With the division lead in hand and reinforcements arriving, the version of this team that takes the field in September could look a lot more like the one everybody expected back in March.
