Dodgers’ two solo homers enough to top D’backs

The trade wasn’t expected to play out like this.

Adrian Gonzalez was supposed to hit. Why wouldn’t he? He always hit.

If there was a question mark, it was Josh Beckett, the declining and controversial pitcher the Boston Red Sox essentially forced the Dodgers to take in order to get Gonzalez.

But as Gonzalez continued to slump on Saturday, Beckett earned a win in his second start with their new team, limiting the Arizona Diamondbacks to one run over 62/3 electrifying innings.

Beckett struck out a season-high nine batters in the 2-1 victory, which kept the Dodgers 41/2 games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants in the National League West. The win was the Dodgers’ third in eight games since the blockbuster trade with the Red Sox.

All three runs scored in Beckett’s home debut with the Dodgers came on solo home runs. Hanley Ramirez went deep for the Dodgers in the second inning, and Justin Upton tied the game for the Diamondbacks in the third with a mammoth blast that cleared the home bullpen. Andre Ethier broke the tie in the sixth inning.

Live-armed Brandon League earned his first save since May 23 -- soon after he lost his job as the Seattle Mariners closer.

Beckett isn’t the same pitcher who used to visit Dodger Stadium as a member of the Marlins before his 2007 move to the Red Sox.

“I don’t have the stuff that I used to have,” Beckett said. “I have to locate a little bit better.... I can’t miss out over the plate as I used to be able to.”

Because he was unfamiliar with the Diamondbacks lineup, Beckett relied heavily on catcher A.J. Ellis.

Mattingly says he isn’t surprised by anything Beckett has done.

“I’ve seen him too long,” Mattingly said. “He’s a guy who makes pitches, locates, changes speeds, isn’t afraid.”

Meanwhile, Gonzalez had his third consecutive hitless game. He was 0 for 4, extending his hitless streak to 15 at-bats. He is batting .182 with the Dodgers.

In recent days, he has been working to hit the ball more to left-center field. He hit some balls hard, lining out to center field in the first inning and driving a ball to the warning track in left-center in the fifth.

But he failed to drive in Shane Victorino from third base with no outs in the eighth inning, flying out to shallow left field. Victorino never scored.

“For whatever reason, I came into this year and from Day One, there were a lot of bad habits in my swing,” Gonzalez said. “It’s basically been a yearlong process of trying to work through it.”

Gonzalez hasn’t snapped a bat over his knee, thrown a helmet or attacked a bat rack. And he probably never will. But make no mistake: He has been frustrated.

“That’s just my personality,” Gonzalez said. “Trust me, there’s a lot of frustration inside me after every out that I make.”

Gonzalez has only reached the postseason once in his career, in 2006 with the San Diego Padres. Even if his body language hasn’t shown it, Gonzalez said he is desperate to get back there. The proof is in the work he does out of public view: in the video room and batting cages.

“I know I care,” he said.

So much so, he said, that he has tried to do too much.

Gonzalez doesn’t want his outward appearance to be misinterpreted as apathy.

“In moments when you’re trying to come up with that big hit to win the game and it doesn’t come through, I wish those emotions would come out of me, but they don’t,” he said. “I can’t force them for the sake of forcing them, to show that I care. If I was to show those kinds of emotions, it’s almost, in a way, fake. That’s not who I am.”

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com