Los Angeles: Yasiel Puig homered and drove in four runs, helping the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome a sloppy defensive game to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-4 on Saturday night.
Alex Wood (1-0) pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief to earn the win and Kenley Jansen got the last four outs for his third save of the season.
Los Angeles went ahead 5-4 in the fifth on Arizona catcher Chris Herrmann’s throwing error -one of five errors in the game — and Puig padded the lead with a three-run shot in the eighth off closer Fernando Rodney, his fourth homer of the season.
Austin Barnes also went deep for the Dodgers, getting his first career homer. Nick Ahmed homered and drove in four runs for Arizona.
Diamondbacks starter Patrick Corbin (1-2) struggled in his six innings, giving up five runs — three earned — and nine hits with three walks.
Kenta Maeda lasted only four innings for the Dodgers, allowing four runs and four hits with a walk. He went only five innings in each of his first two starts.
With runners on the corners in the fifth and the score tied 4-4, Scott Van Slyke broke from first on a steal attempt. Herrmann faked a throw to second and had Enrique Hernandez caught drifting down the third-base line, but his throw to third hit Hernandez in the back and went into left field and Hernandez scored.
Puig’s homer in the eighth came after Corey Seager doubled and Justin Turner was hit by a pitch.
The Dodgers opened the scoring with two runs in the first. Logan Forsythe doubled and scored on Seager’s single to center. After Turner’s league-best seventh double, Seager scored on Puig’s sacrifice fly. Barnes’ homer made it 3-0 in the second.
The Diamondbacks tied it in the top of the third on Ahmed’s three-run shot, his first home run of the season.
Arizona took a brief 4-3 lead in the fourth when Brandon Drury doubled and scored on Ahmed’s single up the middle.
However, the Dodgers tied it back up in the bottom of the inning with an unearned run. Van Slyke reached on Ahmed’s throwing error, moved to third on Forsythe’s single to center and scored on Seager’s sacrifice fly. Los Angeles had the bases loaded with two outs, but Adrian Gonzalez grounded out to shortston Ahmed to end the inning.
