In a quirky National League West schedule backloaded with division play, two of the division’s clubs will finally meet this weekend.

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks will open a four-game series in Phoenix on Thursday, when Los Angeles right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto (4-2, 0.90 ERA) is set to oppose Arizona right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (5-2, 3.79).

It will have taken 39 games for the Diamondbacks to play their first NL West game. The Dodgers have only played three, a home series against the Colorado Rockies in mid-April.

“The season is the season,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “There is a different spice to it when you are playing inside of your own division. We’re excited to see what’s inside of our own division. We know what’s there. We watch.

“We see how well everybody is playing. It’s going to be a great challenge for us.”

The Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants are three of the NL’s four teams with at least 23 victories. Arizona just got through facing the fourth, the New York Mets, falling 7-1 on Wednesday to lose the series two games to one.

The Dodgers lead the majors with 25 victories and have split the last four. They pounded the host Miami Marlins 10-1 on Wednesday behind Freddie Freeman’s three hits and four RBIs and James Outman’s three-run homer.

No lead may be safe in the upcoming series. The Dodgers lead the major leagues with 13 comeback victories. The D-backs have 12.

Outman hit his first homer of the year in his second game since being recalled to replace All-Star outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, who was placed on the injured list Tuesday with a Grade 1 adductor strain in his right thigh. Hernandez is out “certainly weeks,” according to manager Dave Roberts.

Yamamoto will pitch on five days’ rest for the first time this season after having at least six days’ rest in every outing as the Dodgers look for a way to work through injuries to Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw. Los Angeles leads the majors in relief innings.

Roberts called that model unsustainable, adding, “Absolutely not, we (don’t) want to lead the league in bullpen innings.”

Yamamoto would be a strong candidate for the NL Cy Young Award if he maintains his current level. He leads the major leagues in ERA through seven starts, and his peripheral stats are just as eye-popping.

Yamamoto has given up only 24 hits in 40 innings while striking out 49, and his rate of 5.4 hits per nine innings is the lowest in the National League. He has yielded one earned run in his last 32 innings, and he enters after a 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Friday, when he gave up one hit in six scoreless innings.

“I do believe Yamamoto has gotten to who he is, who he was in Japan, and I think he’s a better pitcher (than in 2024),” Roberts said.

He beat the D-backs twice last May with a pair of quality starts, allowing two runs while striking out 13 in 12 1/3 innings. Among active Arizona batters, only Ketel Marte (2-for-4) and Eugenio Suarez (1-for-6) have a hit off Yamamoto.

Pfaadt had a five-start winning streak broken in his latest outing, when he gave up seven runs (six earned) in 4 2/3 innings of a 7-2 loss at Philadelphia on Saturday. He is tied for the NL lead with five wins.

Pfaadt is 2-2 with a 6.20 ERA in four starts against the Dodgers, losing a pair in 2023 and winning two last season. He struck out 17 in 11 2/3 innings against Los Angeles in 2024. Freeman is 4-for-11 with a homer off Pfaadt, Michael Conforto is 3-for-7 with two homers, Enrique Hernandez is 3-for-8 with a home run, and Mookie Betts is 4-for-9.

–Field Level Media