It took all of two batters to realize that Wednesday night’s game between the Dodgers and the National League West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks was going to be a weird one.

After getting Dbacks leadoff hitter Chris Owings to pop out to Dodgers first baseman Cody Bellinger to start the game, Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood gave up a rare inside-the-park home run to light-hitting (.228) Dbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed, as Dodgers center fielder Kiké Hernandez misplayed a ball off the wall that caromed away from him to allow the speedy Ahmed to score well ahead of the throw to the plate to give Arizona a (very) early 1-0 lead.

You knew it was going to be a weird one when the second batter of the night, Diamondback’s shortstop Nick Ahmed, hit an inside-the-park home run off of Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood. (Photo courtesy of MLB.com)

But that wasn’t the most unusual thing that would happen on the night – not by any stretch of the imagination.

The weirdness continued in the bottom of the fourth inning when Dbacks starter Patrick Corbin, who had not allow a hit through his first three innings of work, finally did so to Dodgers leadoff man Chris Taylor, who singled to center and stole second on the very first pitch to Hernandez. Kiké would then fly out to left for the first out of the inning. Corbin then issued back-to-back walks to Dodgers left fielder Matt Kemp, the team’s best hitter, and Yasmani Grandal, the team’s home run leader to load the bases with one out.

After striking out Bellinger, Corbin uncorked a wild pitch to Dodgers second baseman Austin Barnes, allowing Taylor to score from third to tie the game 1-1. However, Corbin then managed to escape the inning inning without further damage by striking out Barnes.

But the real weirdness occurred in the bottom of the sixth inning, which began with a leadoff single by Grandal off of Dbacks right-hander Fernando Salas, which was followed by another Bellinger strikeout. Salas then gave up back-to-back singles to Barnes and Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig to load the bases. With one out, Dodgers third baseman Kyle Farmer hit a sacrifice fly to left to allow Grandal to tag up and score from third to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead and bring pinch-hitter Max Muncy (for Pedro Baez) to the plate which, in turn, caused Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo to counter by bringing in left-hander Andrew Chafin.

Things did not go well for Chafin, who walked Muncy, the only man he would face to again load the bases, still with only one out. Dbacks right-hander Silvino Bracho replaced Chafin and immediately hit Chris Taylor with a pitch to score Barnes to make it a 3-1 game and again load the bases.

But wait, there’s more.

Silvino then uncorked yet another wild pitch allowing Puig to score to make it 4-1 Dodgers. Silvino then struck out Hernandez to (finally) bring an end to what was arguably the weirdest inning of the season for the Dodgers.

To sum up the scoring to this point of the game, you had an inside-the-park home run, a wild pitch, a sacrifice fly, a hit batsman, and another wild pitch.

Weird indeed.

Not being a team to give up, the Dbacks made things interesting again when they scored two in the top of the seventh to make it a 4-3 ballgame. But in the bottom half of the eighth, the Dodgers managed to finally score two runs in a more conventional manner on a clutch two-run bases loaded pinch-hit double by the man affectionately known as “The Man”, aka: “The Silver Fox”, aka: 39-year-old Dodgers infielder Chase Utley.

Utley’s clutch eighth-inning pinch-hit double gave the Dodgers two insurance runs to put the game out of reach and cap off the weirdest game of the season for the Dodgers.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

Utley’s double made it a 6-3 game and set the stage for Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, who ended the game on nine pitches and picked up his sixth save of the season. In doing so, the Dodgers finished the brief two-game series with Arizona, who (thankfully) they will not see again until the end of August, with a split.

Worthy of mention is Yasiel Puig’s absolutely outstanding eight-pitch at-bat in the bottom of the eighth that helped set up Utley’s clutch two-RBI double.

Puig, who had just returned from the 10-day disabled list for a bruised left hip pointer, finished the night going 3-for-4 and was barreling up the ball very well. And even though the oft-controversial and always entertaining 27-year-old Cienfuegos, Cuba native has yet to hit his first home run of the now 36-game-old season, it appears that he is on the cusp of breaking out of his near-Mendoza-line (.217) early season slump.

Puig capped off his outstanding eight-pitch at-bat in the eighth inning with a sharp single to left. His 3-for-4 night suggests that he may finally be coming out of his near-season-long slump.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

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