Although it was only July 3, the Arizona Diamondbacks brought the fireworks early as they defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers, 12-4, setting up a Fourth of July rubber match.

Gavin Stone made the start, and he turned in his worst outing of the year. Stone struggled right from the start, and didn’t find much more success as he continued to pitch into the game.

Corbin Carroll started the game with a single, and two one-out walks to Joc Pederson and Christian Walker loaded the bases. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.

Thankfully, Stone was able to limit the damage there. The second proved to be a scoreless frame, but he still gave up a double, single and walk to load the bases before Joc Pederson struck out to end the inning.

That luck did not remain in the third. Stone allowed a single, double and home run that resulted in three more runs scoring.

That brought Stone’s day to an end as he went just three innings, allowing four runs on seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts. It was the first time in 11 straight starts that Stone failed to pitch at least five innings.

The Dodgers’ bullpen was not much better. Ryan Yarbrough and Yohan Ramírez combined to allow four more runs, including a home run and double to Walker that was nearly a homer.

But that wasn’t all for Walker as he also hit a three-run shot in the ninth inning.

Walker now has seven home runs in eight games at Dodger Stadium this year, and his 17 homers by a visitor at Dodger Stadium since 2018 are six more than the next closest player during that span.

Walker finished the game 4-for-5 with two home runs, three runs scored and four RBI.

While the D-Backs dominated for most of the game, it didn’t always look like that would be the case. In the first inning, the Dodgers scored four runs in their first four at-bats.

Shohei Ohtani singled and Will Smith took a walk. Freddie Freeman followed with a three-run homer, and Teoscar Hernández hit one as well to make it back-to-back blasts.

That was the 6th time the #Dodgers have gone back-to-back this year, and Freeman has been involved in all of them.

Dodgers honor Eric Gagné before the game

Prior to the game, the Dodgers welcomed former closer Eric Gagné back to the stadium to throw out the first pitch. July 2 marked the 20th anniversary of Gagné’s 84th consecutive save, which is an MLB record that still stands.

Gagné said all the emotions came back to him, and he was able to catch up with a few of the Dodgers coaches, including Dave Roberts and Dino Ebel.