PHOENIX -- The Arizona Diamondbacks don't need perspective two series into the season. They were a forgettable 1-7 at the same point last season.
First-year manager Chip Hale also won't feel sorry for his D-backs, even though the three losses in six games to start 2015 have been settled after promising displays of late-game fight.
The Diamondbacks fell 7-4 on Sunday in a series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers but trailed 7-0 heading into the ninth inning. A four-run rally once again vaulted to the forefront a theme to this early snippet of the season.
Hale's team will make good out of bad situations and won't quit after a few lumps.
"They're battling," he said. "That's the one thing we knew coming out of spring training we would. We saw some really good at-bats against really good pitchers."
The D-backs find themselves in the thick of what, so far, appears to be a more competitive National League West than many anticipated. It's led by the surprising 4-2 Colorado Rockies. The other four teams -- who all expected to exceed Arizona and Colorado -- hold records from 4-3 to 3-4.
Like the takeaway was for Josh Collmenter in his first start Opening Day, it could've been worse on Sunday. He gave up a run in the third, fourth and fifth innings. He also stranded the bases loaded in the fourth, and stranded runners on third base in the third and fifth innings.
"There's times you need to make pitches in a game and I was able to make them today, just need to make them before I put myself in those positions," Collmenter said.
To open the scoring for Los Angeles, Dodgers outfielder Joc Peterson doubled to open the third inning and on a sacrifice bunt reached third before Jimmy Rollins' flyout to center scored him.
Collmenter again got into trouble in the fourth, allowing four straight hits with one out as L.A. extended the lead to 2-0 when Alex Guerrero knocked in Yasmani Grandal for his first major league RBI. With the bases loaded, Collmenter struck out Greinke and got Rollins on a groundout.
Collmenter's command issues continued into the fifth, when Yasiel Puig cranked a solo home run into left on a 3-2 count.
Collmenter lasted five innings, allowing nine hits and three earned runs. He struggled with location, but after 74 pitches was pulled not because of his pitching. Hale went to Aaron Hill as a pinch hitter with two men on in the bottom of the fifth, because the D-backs needed an offensive spark against Zack Greinke, who went seven innings, struck out seven and allowed five hits.
"Greinke was so good we knew we weren't going to get many shots at him," Hale said. "When it came around to that time, I wanted to use a pinch hitter. (Collmenter) could've kept going. He definitely limited the damage, it could've been a lot worse."
The Dodgers pushed the lead to 4-0 when A.J. Schugel, in his major league debut, hung one over the plate in the sixth and Joc Pederson connected for his first major league homer.
"It was trying to go in, I don't think it got there well enough," Schugel said.
Schugel went three innings, allowing five hits and two earned runs.
Guerrero hit his first major-league homer in the ninth, a two-run shot against D-backs closer Oliver Perez to give the Dodgers a 7-0 lead, but Arizona's stingy hitting would appear during their final attempt at a rally.
There, shortstop Chris Owings got his first hit of the year, doubling to right to advance Jake Lamb to third. A walk of Cliff Pennington later put three men on, and an out later, the Diamondbacks had a two-out RBI by pinch-hitter Jordan Pacheco. A.J. Pollock would make it 7-4 with a bases-clearing hit to provide hope. But Ender Inciarte put together a 10-pitch at-bat before a deep fly-out fell short of dropping over the left-center wall.
"It was fun to see us claw back in a game like this," Collmenter said. "We're not afraid of anybody, in this locker room. Just because we're down seven doesn't mean we're out of a game. It's good to see that fight in this clubhouse."
Added Pollock: "You never want to roll over and get to the next game. You want to get the momentum."
D-backs fans who especially distaste the Dodgers might want to reserve some future boos for this guy. Rookie Joc Pederson closed in on a cycle with a single, double and homer, but with an opportunity to triple in his fourth at-bat was intentionally walked.
14 - The number of at-bats Owings went before recording his first hit of the season.
* A.J. Schugel found was called up late Saturday night and found himself called upon in the sixth. As Hale anticipated, Schugel succeeded by earning his first seven outs by way of ground-outs -- it would've been eight had Nick Ahmed not erred in throwing a ball to first. "That first inning, (Schugel) struggled with his location and his ability to throw his breaking ball and changeup for strikes," Hale said. "Once he was able to do that, yeah, I liked what I saw. It's just, you never know what you're going to get in that first go-round."
* Ahmed finally got the bat going on Sunday, earning two singles as the top of the lineup struggled against Greinke. Nonetheless, the infield positions could continue seeing changes on a nightly basis. While Jake Lamb will start at third quite a bit with a string of right-handed pitchers upcoming, Ahmed, Owings and Hill will be in and out at shortstop and second base, Hale said. Owings planned to play only second with Ahmed at shortstop, but he could see more time at short considering Hill has played well. Hill was named a bench player but his hitting to start this year has been superior to that of Owings or Ahmed. "Obviously, Nick and Chris aren't hitting like we think they can at this point, but they're not slacking off in the aggressiveness and the defense isn't suffering for it," Hale said. "It's just tough. When you don't start off hot, people start to panic around you. We're not panicking, they're not panicking. It's hard to look up there and not see good numbers."
*Arizona recorded 10 hits on the day, but until Pollock's three-run double in the bottom of the ninth, its top-of-the-order of Pollock, Inciarte, Paul Goldschmidt and David Peralta went 1-for-16 on the day. "I'm trying to think of a couple pitches I could've done damage with," Pollock said. "(Greinke) did an excellent job of slider on the corners, I guess they call it a changeup. I mean, that thing drops off of the table."
Former @UA_Softball & @ASAUSASoftball pitcher @JennieFinch showed us she can bring the heat with the hardball too. pic.twitter.com/fOyPCYbpDP
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 12, 2015
Jennie Finch, the former Arizona softball great and wife of former D-backs pitcher Casey Daigle, threw the game's ceremonial first pitch -- overhand, by the way -- and went through a question-answer session with fans after the game.
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