Walker Buehler sauntered off the mound at Chase Field, home of the worst team in major league baseball, on Saturday night to a standing ovation.
Halfway to the Dodgers’ dugout, Buehler looked up and raised his right hand to acknowledge the support, prompting the fans to reach another decibel level.
All the Diamondbacks could muster off Buehler through seven innings were two walks and a hit by pitch.
But David Peralta led off the eighth inning with a line-drive single to center field on Buehler’s 102nd pitch to prevent him from recording the 24th no-hitter in franchise history.
Two batters later, Nick Ahmed punched a single through the left side to coax Dodgers manager Dave Roberts from the dugout.
The Dodgers won Friday’s series opener, but their troubles against left-handed starting pitchers continued when Caleb Smith limited them to one hit over six scoreless innings.
He was healthy and ready out of spring training for a full workload as a major leaguer for the first time, and he was succeeding every time he got the ball.
On the other, the steady success surfaced despite producing fewer swing-and-misses than ever before in his major league career.
He generated 14 whiffs and 21 called strikes with his 108 pitches by striking breaking balls below the belt and firing fastballs up in the zone.
“For me, if I get through three, four innings, it creeps into the back of your mind and you try not to think about it at all,” Buehler said.
But Peralta quickly ended the bid on a cutter that caught too much of the plate, one of the few mistakes Buehler made.