Brett Anderson, Dodgers stumble in 8-4 loss to Diamondbacks

On the way to the Dodgers storming to a third consecutive division title, there is this:

They just lost their third consecutive game.

OK, so not part of their blueprint for capturing the National League West. The latest setback to the champagne spraying came Monday, the Dodgers getting handled 8-4 by the Diamondbacks before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 38,791.

Because the Giants had the day off, that left the Dodgers’ magic number for clinching the division at seven. The Mets, however, won, reducing the Dodgers’ lead for homefield advantage in the playoffs to half a game.

The Dodgers looked rather flat for a team on the verge of a division title. Right-hander Jhoulys Chacin had something to do with that, though it could be argued Dodgers’ left-hander Brett Anderson had plenty more impact.

Anderson (9-9) suffered one of his worst outings of the season, lasting just 4 2/3 innings and surrendering five runs on 10 hits. The major’s best at inducing groundouts, he mostly gave up a lot of line drives against the Diamondbacks.

The left-hander had looked ready to assume the No. 3 spot in the playoff rotation in his last two starts, but Monday was a step in the opposite direction.

The Diamondbacks have already been eliminated and were losers of 11 of 15 games to the Dodgers this season, but they were clearly not going through the motions in the four-game-series opener.

After Adrian Gonzalez homered off the glove of leaping center fielder A.J. Pollock in the first, singles by Howie Kendrick and Andre Ethier preceded a run-scoring double by Corey Seager. The rookie has now safely reached base in each of his 16 starts.

But after that nice start, things quickly slipped away. The Diamondbacks scored single runs in the third and fourth and then took the lead with a three-run fifth to chase Anderson. Aaron Hill started it with another home run after Yosmany Tomas hit one in the fourth inning.

Joel Peralta gave up another solo homer, this one in the eighth to Paul Goldschmidt that bounced off the left-field foul pole. The Dodgers got two runs back in the bottom of the inning on a Yasmani Grandal homer. It was his career-high 16th on the season and first since Aug. 1.

Arizona just added two more in the ninth. The Dodgers are left stuck on seven for the second consecutive day, with 13 games left to storm to the finish.