Darkness engulfed Dodger Stadium. Then flashing lights ushered in Timmy Trumpet’s “Narco” over the speakers. And the ballpark sat in uneasy anticipation.
Edwin Díaz’s walk-in music once had been a rallying cry for fans thrilled to see the Dodgers’ newest star take the mound. But with his shaky return from arthroscopic elbow surgery leading to three blown saves in four appearances, the crowd tempered their enthusiasm appropriately.
On Friday, however, as the Dodgers evened the series with a 3-1 win against the Milwaukee Brewers, history didn’t repeat itself.
“It was a tough one,” said Díaz, who turned in a scoreless ninth inning despite two walks and hitting a batter. “But at the end of the day, I made my pitches, got the three outs, got the W. So that’s the most important thing.”
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The four-game series against the Brewers set up a compelling battle for the top record in the National League. It’s a matchup between two teams with opposing identities.
The Dodgers are the large-market powerhouse loaded with star power seeking their third straight World Series trophy. The Brewers are the small-market overachievers, who somehow have retained their little-engine-that-could persona despite owning the best regular-season record in baseball last year.
With the victory, the Dodgers (74-49) trimmed the Brewers’ (75-48) lead to one game.
The more pressing problem for the Dodgers’ postseason outlook, however, is getting their closer back on track. Díaz, who likely won’t be available for the rest of the series after pitching consecutive days, at least was pleased with his progress.
“It wasn’t pretty,” said manager Dave Roberts, who has kept Díaz in the closer role despite his struggles. “I watched the inning too. But he found a way to make a pitch when he needed to.”
Díaz’s focus in his early work Friday was fixing his posture. He’d been leaning to the side and wanted to be more upright. He sees that as the root of his change in arm angle, which has dropped four degrees this season compared to last year, according to Statcast.
“One of my years in New York, I think I had that problem, and it was difficult for me to fix it,” he said. “But now I’m more mature, I know what I have to do.”
Of course, he didn’t stumble upon a magic fix Friday. By his second pitch, a ball well off the plate that put him behind 2-0, the crowd was feeling déjà vu and made it known with a smattering of boos. Five pitches later, he hit Andrew Vaughn, and the boos intensified.
First baseman Kiké Hernández stepped in to give Díaz a quick pep talk.
“He told me, ‘You’re the best pitcher in the world. We’ve got you, we’ve got your back. Make pitches, go slowly,’” Díaz recounted.
He was right, Díaz realized, he was rushing. Díaz bounced back by striking out Christian Yelich. But then he walked William Contreras.
Díaz gave up a rocketed ground ball to Luis Lara, but Tommy Edman, manning second base, went to a knee to snag it for the second out. Díaz then walked David Hamilton to load the bases.
“For me personally, I prefer to miss glove side than miss right in the middle like I was missing [Thursday],” Díaz said. “So I think I’m going in a good direction right now.”
Díaz, teetering on the edge of another disaster, threw three straight fastballs to Joey Ortiz: one down the middle for a called strike, one well inside, and one on the inner edge of the plate to induce him to ground out to shortstop Mookie Betts to end the game.
“Hopefully with a couple days kind of off to work through [adjustments], we’ll see a better version going forward,” Roberts said.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
