Another day, another home run by 25-year-old Dodgers outfielder James Outman, his third of the season tying him with Jason Heyward, Will Smith, and Trayce Thompson for the team lead, and second in his last two games.

His latest round-tripper (at least as of this moment) came with two outs in the top of the first inning on Saturday evening off of Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Zach Davies to (very) deep right-center field to give the Dodgers a then – albeit brief – 4-0 lead over Arizona.

It also prompted this post on Twitter from the Dodgers:

Unfortunately, and despite an additional home run by Heyward and an impressive 4-for-5 night by Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers lost the game by a lopsided score of 12-8 behind yet another poor outing by 30-year-old Dodgers right-hander Noah Syndergaard and a completely ineffective Dodgers bullpen.

“It was just poor execution on my pitches,” Syndergaard told SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson following his second loss of the season without a win, and after allowing six runs on eight hits, with two strikeouts and no walks in his 4.0 innings of work. “They capitalized on just about every one of my mistakes. It was kind of difficult to find a rhythm, and when I eventually did, I wasn’t able to… I wasn’t successful at. Super disappointing outing”

But as noted, Syndergaard receive zero help from his team’s beleaguered bullpen, which allowed an additional combined six runs on nine hits that included three runs and five hits by struggling right-hander Andre Jackson, who saw his previously perfect 0.00 ERA drop to an ugly 5.40 following his disastrous 2.0 innings pitched on Saturday night.

With the loss, coupled with the D-backs win and wins by the Padres and Giants, the race in the NL West is heating up, albeit after only nine games into the new season.

Stay tuned…

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