D-backs revel in 'special' atmosphere vs. Dodgers

This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert's D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Friday night didn't go the way Diamondbacks fans were hoping, but they sure got their money's worth in a back-and-forth 10-9 loss to the Dodgers.

It was the first of a four-game set between these two teams, and the Dodgers came into it with a four-game lead over the D-backs in the NL West. Of course, as Arizona showed last year with its run to the World Series, you don't need to win your division to do well in the postseason.

Still, the thought of somehow besting Los Angeles in the NL West is something that Arizona fans have been craving since it last happened in 2011.

Since then, to say that the Dodgers have had the upper hand in the rivalry would be an understatement. In fact, though D-backs fans look at the Dodgers as a rival, it's hard to have a rivalry when one team consistently beats the other.

The last time the D-backs had a winning record against the Dodgers was in 2018 when Arizona was 11-8 against Los Angeles. They were reasonably competitive against the Dodgers in 2019, but from '20-22, the D-backs were 10-38 against them.

Last year, the D-backs began to turn things around against the Dodgers in the regular season, going 5-8 against them, and even though L.A. once again won the division, the D-backs manhandled them in sweeping the NL Division Series in three games.

"I think the easy answer is it’s just gotten more competitive," D-backs outfielder Corbin Carroll said. "They’ve always been that juggernaut in our division and I think we’ve started to play them pretty well these last couple years. They’re definitely games that I look forward to and I think our fans do as well."

The NLDS sweep is not something the Dodgers were expecting and not something that they've forgotten.

“Disappointing is certainly an understatement [to describe] how it ended [last season] and this is sort of the scene of the crime, so it’s very fresh in my mind," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in the visitor's dugout before Friday night's game. "And although there are some different pieces to this ballclub, a lot of the same guys are still here that felt the pain of last year, and this is a big series. We all say they are all big, but when you’re playing a division rival that’s trailing but on the cusp, it’s a big series. So we gotta play well. We gotta win baseball games.”

The D-backs are expecting big crowds all weekend, and Friday the announced attendance was 36,606. While there was still a healthy dose of Dodgers fans in that mix, the Arizona fans were loud and it made for a festive, postseason-like feel.

"I’m excited for the turnout," Carroll said. "I feel like these series, in the past, used to be really dominated by Dodgers fans showing up. It seemed like during the playoffs we saw our fans really hold their own and sort of brush their fans off. It was cool."

The atmosphere was something all the Arizona players noticed, including Josh Bell, who the D-backs acquired at the Trade Deadline from the Marlins.

"That was special," Bell said after Friday's game. "You know, coming from Miami, it was definitely a different atmosphere for me. I know me and Kevin [Newman] were looking up -- I forget what pitching change it was, but it was the sixth or the seventh -- and just looking up, like, 'Wow.' Like, this feels like the postseason. So it's definitely special baseball. And, you know, I feel like this group earned it. Earned the right to have a packed stadium like we had tonight."