Dodgers look flat in 3-0 loss to Diamondbacks

Now that was something of a letdown.

The night after the Dodgers’ emotional victory over the San Diego Padres, they flew to Arizona and looked anything but inspired.

They could not score a single run for Clayton Kershaw, wasting another strong performance from their healthy ace, and fell to the Diamondbacks, 3-0, Friday at Chase Field.

The Dodgers took the field knowing they had lost right-hander Zack Greinke for at least eight weeks with a broken collarbone suffered in his fight Thursday with Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin.

But they could get nothing going against Arizona’s young left-hander Patrick Corbin, who held them scoreless through his six innings, or relievers Brad Ziegler, David Hernandez or J.J. Putz.

Corbin, 23, is the player the Diamondbacks acquired from the Angels in the trade for Dan Haren.

Kershaw opened the season with 19 consecutive scoreless innings before Arizona scored the game’s first run when Paul Goldschmidt grounded into a double play in the fourth inning. It was the only run he allowed through seven innings.

The Dodgers, looking more deflated than inspired, only had a pair of scoring chances.

In the top of the fourth they got a pair of walks, and with two outs Diamondbacks shortstop Cliff Pennington made a nice backhanded stop on a Justin Sellers hard-hit bouncer to hold him to an infield single and prevent Juan Uribe from scoring. Second baseman Josh Wilson then made a nice stop of a Kershaw bouncer up the middle to end the inning.

In the eighth, Matt Kemp singled with one out and took second on a Hernandez wild pitch. A ball four to Adrian Gonzalez was another wild pitch, and Kemp took third. But throwing 96 mph fastballs, Hernandez struck out pinch-hitter Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier.

The Diamondbacks scratched their first run against Kershaw in the fourth after Gerardo Parra, the player he hit with a pitch in 2011 that emptied benches, opened with a single. On a run-and-hit play, Martin Prado singled past a hole vacated by Sellers at shortstop, who, for some reason, broke to cover second base on a hit-and-run with the right-handed hitting Prado batting.

Goldschmidt followed by bouncing into the double play to score Parra.

The Diamondbacks scored two more in the bottom of the eighth after they loaded the bases with one out against Kershaw on a pair of singles and a walk. Manager Don Mattingly then called on Shawn Tolleson, just called up that afternoon from triple-A when Greinke was placed on the disabled list.

Not a particularly good situation for a young pitcher, and Tolleson promptly walked two to force in a pair of runs. J.P. Howell came on to get the final two outs.

Kershaw struck out nine, leaving him one shy of becoming the 13thLos Angeles Dodger with 1,000 strikeouts. He gave up six hits and walked three and was charged with three runs.

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