Dodgers, and Kenta Maeda, get rocked again in 11-5 loss to Diamondbacks

He wanted excellence, but he was willing to settle for competence. After exhausting his bullpen the previous evening, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sought a steady outing from the shakiest member of his starting rotation Saturday. Worry about Kenta Maeda gnawed at Roberts from the moment he arrived at Chase Field. The concern was well-founded.

The fourth outing of Maeda’s season resembled the first three, only more incendiary. In an 11-5 meltdown to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Maeda gave up six runs and four homers. He lasted only five innings. Forced into extended duty, Chris Hatcher yielded three runs in the seventh inning. Ross Stripling gave up two runs in the eighth.

The latest combustion by Maeda (1-2, 8.05 earned-run average) offers another setback for a Dodgers team that has stumbled through April. The team has not won a series since the four-game opener against San Diego. Both the Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies, upstarts in the National League West, have landed heavy jabs early in the season.

This team has recovered from slow starts in years past. But the concern about Maeda cannot be chalked up to the jitters of April. He is in the midst of a decline that dates back to last summer, one which has caught the eye of both rival evaluators and Dodgers staffers. No longer can Maeda be considered a reliable performer every fifth day.

The next step for Maeda is difficult to discern. After the game, Roberts suggested the Dodgers could skip Maeda’s next outing.

“We’re definitely going to hang with him,” Roberts said. “But we’re going to talk through some things, and see what’s best for Kenta.”

Yet the club still leaned upon him Saturday. With Rich Hill on the disabled list and Julio Urias in the minor leagues, Maeda qualifies as one of the organization’s better available starters. His status may change after Saturday.

Roberts fielded a lineup composed mostly of reserves. With Arizona left-hander Robbie Ray on the mound, Roberts sat Corey Seager, Adrian Gonzalez, Yasmani Grandal and Chase Utley. The only left-handed batter in the lineup was Joc Pederson. Enrique Hernandez started at shortstop. Roberts referred to the group as “a more athletic-looking lineup.” Defense was at a premium with Maeda on the mound. Maeda gave up three runs in his first start and four in both of his next two games. He has yet to throw a pitch in the sixth.

Yet despite the extra rest, Maeda began to founder in July. In his first 18 starts as a Dodger, he posted a 2.95 ERA. In his next 21 games, including three disasters in last year’s playoffs and the four this season, his ERA has boomed to 5.22. The key difference, in Roberts’ mind, is Maeda attempting to generate extra velocity on his fastball. That effort translates to poor location — and flyballs soaring in the opposite direction.

Maeda buoyed the Dodgers rotation in 2016. He was the only starting pitcher not to miss a game. When Clayton Kershaw injured his back and Scott Kazmir faltered, Roberts could count on Maeda. The team rearranged its starters so Maeda could benefit from extra days of rest, to mimic the schedule he followed in Japan.

“Kenta is a guy who has great feel, and has the ability to locate the baseball,” Roberts said. “In his starts this year, he hasn’t located that fastball.”

The first inning on Saturday underscored the issue. Hernandez handed Maeda a one-run lead with a leadoff homer that soared over the left-field fence. Maeda coughed up the advantage in four at-bats. After a booming double by outfielder David Peralta, Maeda fed third baseman Jake Lamb a 92-mph fastball on the inner half. Lamb smashed it out of the park.

The pitch fit into a pattern for Maeda: Too many fastballs, with credible but less than overpowering velocity, left in the middle of the plate. At this level, hitters feast on those mistakes. And the Diamondbacks were hungry. “They made us pay for the pitches we missed,” catcher Austin Barnes said.

The next batter was outfielder Yasmany Tomas. Maeda toyed with sliders away from the plate. After four in a row, he tried a fastball. Tomas powered the pitch over the fence.

Hernandez helped scrape together a run in the third when he walked, took second on a single by Chris Taylor and scored on Justin Turner’s single. Maeda did not benefit from the aid. After a two-inning interlude, Maeda went back to serving up hittable fastballs.

“I threw too many pitches in the heart of the plate,” Maeda said. “And the hitters took advantage of that.”

In the fourth, Arizona catcher Chris Herrmann connected on a two-run shot. It was the first homer of his season, and the 13th of his six-year career. He capitalized on a 90-mph fastball.

An inning later, Tomas crushed a hanging slider. It took seven starts for Maeda to allow five home runs at the start of 2016. He reached that total in five innings on Saturday.

The performance placed the offense in a sizable hole. The group rallied in the sixth inning, but itwas not enough to offset the hole dug by Maeda.

andy.mccullough@latimes.com

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