LOS ANGELES — Things were going so bad for Arizona lately — after going so well over the previous week — that you’d have expected the Diamondbacks to lick their lips for their three-game set at Los Angeles this week.
Instead, most Arizona players didn’t even realize the Dodgers were on deck, the same Los Angeles squad that the Diamondbacks have swallowed whole in recent years.
By the end of a big win, they remembered.
In a matchup of slumping teams, the Diamondbacks snapped out of their funk with a 9-2 win over the Dodgers on Monday night at Dodger Stadium.
“You just show up each day and see what happens,” Goldschmidt said. “We’d won five of six, and the Giants had lost five in a row and they came in and swept us. I didn’t know the Dodgers weren’t playing well until the Vin Scully pregame thing. This is a weird game. You can lose 10 in a row and then win 10 in a row or vice versa.
“All of a sudden, you get one cheap hit and you’re on fire.”
That seems to happen often for the Diamondbacks in Los Angeles.
After winning five of six in late April, Arizona entered the game losers of five of six, mired in a May malaise. The Dodgers were also in a hole, losers of four straight, but the Diamondbacks had won 12 of 18 at Dodger Stadium since 2011 and had room for optimism.
For a brief period, it appeared as if Los Angeles could overcome its recent curse, as the Dodgers claimed a 1-0 first-inning lead.
Then Arizona pounced and didn’t stop.
The Diamondbacks punished Los Angeles starter Chris Capuano — fresh off the disabled list — with six runs in four-plus innings, then added three ninth-inning runs off reliever Javy Guerra.
“Some days it’s just clicking; some days you can’t do anything right,” center fielder A.J. Pollock said. “I think we did a good job today; we were disappointed in our showing yesterday and it gave us a little fire. We were clicking today. Something happens, it sparks something else and it happened a bunch of times today.”
So often on Monday, that spark was Goldschmidt.
Goldschmidt had four hits, including a home run, and A.J. Pollock, Cody Ross, Miguel Montero and Martin Prado each had two hits for Arizona, which totaled 15 for the game.
Arizona had five players with multiple hits, and the Diamondbacks had three separate three-run rallies, including one in the ninth to put the game away.
“We’ve been kind of up-and-down, and it’s nice to have a consistent nine innings,” Goldschmidt said. “The last inning was pretty big to add on — we’ve had some games where we score a few runs, but there’s six innings in a row where we don’t score. To add on at the end was real nice.”
The extra padding let Diamondbacks starter Trevor Cahill (2-3) settle into a groove. Cahill threw seven innings of two-run, six-hit ball to lower his ERA to 2.10 in 51 1/3 innings against the Dodgers.
“We were swinging the bats real good today, and I could tell,” Cahill said. “You get a couple three-run innings and it just makes your job a little easier. You don’t have to be so fine.”
Los Angeles gifted the Diamondbacks three runs in the fifth inning to boost Arizona’s lead to 6-2. First, Carl Crawford dropped the ball while catching a routine fly, and then Goldschmidt and Cody Ross smacked back-to-back home runs off Capuano (0-2). Goldschmidt went 3-for-3 against Capuano, lifting his career average against the lefty to .800 (12-for-15) with three home runs and nine RBIs.
Crawford homered to right field in the bottom of the third inning to cut the Dodgers’ deficit to 3-2.
Arizona took the lead in the second inning after the Dodgers got on the board with a Matt Kemp sacrifice fly in the first inning.
Cahill hit a surprising two-RBI triple, scoring Gerardo Parra and Josh Wilson, and A.J. Pollock followed with an RBI double that scored Cahill.
The Dodgers continued offensive struggles were enough to frustrate manager Don Mattingly.
“We got (two) runs; we didn’t do enough to win the game,” Mattingly said. “They ended up putting nine on the board? We didn’t deserve to win that game.”
NOTES: To make room for Capuano, the Dodgers placed 2B Mark Ellis on the 15-day disabled list (retroactive to April 27) with a strained right quad. … Capuano had been on the DL since April 17 with a left calf strain. … Gonzalez had an MRI that revealed a strained neck muscle, but he played after skipping batting practice. … The Diamondbacks have hit home runs in seven straight games, their longest streak since July 2012. … Arizona has won 13 of its past 16 games against Los Angeles.