Weaver finds groove in LA, retires 14 straight

Luke Weaver continued to make progress, tossing 5 1/3 quality innings Thursday night, but it was not enough as the Dodgers beat the D-backs, 5-1, at Dodger Stadium.

The loss was the 13th in the last 14 games for the D-backs.

• Box score

Weaver gave up a pair of runs in the first inning, thanks in part to a throwing error by first baseman Christian Walker, but he settled in nicely after that. The right-hander did not allow a hit after Chris Taylor’s RBI single in the first and retired 14 straight batters until Corey Seager collected a one-out single in the sixth.

Meanwhile, Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw tossed a gem as he took a no-hitter into the sixth before Walker beat out an infield single with two outs.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

1. Weaver seems to have turned a corner
Three of Weaver’s last four starts have been really good and the one that wasn’t -- he allowed four runs in three innings to the Giants in the start before Thursday -- he had good stuff but just struggled with his location.

That has led to a noticeable rise in Weaver’s confidence on the mound.

Thursday’s start seemed to only add to that.

“I think it's a huge positive, obviously,” Weaver said. “It’s one I'm going to try to build off of and just keep that attack mode going in back-to-back outings. That’s been a real goal, to just try to do what I could do to control the controllables. So, I think just really staying on top of that stuff has been important.”

For Weaver, the final few starts of the year will be big ones. If he continues to pitch well, he won’t as easily remember the poor start to the season and will have some momentum to carry into the offseason.

2. The kids are going to get a chance
While the D-backs aren’t throwing the towel in on the 2020 season, they are going to play their younger players and give them a look for '21 and beyond.

Thursday’s lineup was an example of that as rookies Daulton Varsho and Andy Young were in there as well as second-year player Josh Rojas. It didn’t matter that both Varsho and Rojas were left-handed hitters and lefty Clayton Kershaw was on the mound.

In addition, three relievers -- Travis Bergen, Joe Mantiply and Artie Lewicki -- made their D-backs debuts Thursday while Keury Mella made his second Arizona appearance.

Bergen was acquired Monday from the Blue Jays in exchange for Robbie Ray and the D-backs want to see if he can be a fit going forward as a left-hander in their bullpen.

The others, too, could be contributors in the future if they make the most of this opportunity.

3. They need to tighten up the fundamentals
If there is one thing that D-backs manager Torey Lovullo takes pride in as a manager, it’s that his teams play solid, fundamental defense.

That’s something that has gotten away from them a bit during these last few weeks and it’s causing some sleepless nights for the manager.

“I'm used to looking up there in that last column and we take a lot of pride in that, that there’s a zero there on most nights,” Lovullo said referring to the error column. “When you compound things and you add in extra baserunners by not executing or making plays not just tonight, but overall, you're going to start to play the type of games that aren't going to have a very good outcome. These are things we talk about all the time here. It’s what we preach. It's who I am at my core -- picking up the baseball and executing.”