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Alex Avila: 'Definitely owe' Deven Marrero after costing him homer

LOS ANGELES -- About the only thing that went wrong for Arizona in another win over the Dodgers was a baserunning blunder that took away a home run.

Diamondbacks third baseman Deven Marrero appeared to hit a three-run homer in the top of the fourth inning, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts argued that Marrero had passed Alex Avila between first and second. After a review, Marrero was credited with a single and ruled out for passing Avila, turning the hit into a two-run single.

"I definitely owe Deven, taking away a homer from him," said Avila after the 9-1 win Saturday night. "We'll talk about what I need to do to make it up to him. It's something we talk about on a daily basis, trying to be aggressive on tag ups on deep fly balls. It was just a brutal read on my part."

Arizona manager Torey Lovullo felt bad for Marrero.

"When I picked my head up, there was some space between the two of them, and I thought that, based on what I heard from the replay guys," Lovullo said. "They said there was enough space in there, but there was one angle they were a little uncomfortable with. It's the first time I've seen something like that. Luckily it didn't impact the game. I felt terrible for Deven. It was his first NL home run."

Dodgers starter Rich Hill also said he has never seen a play like that.

"I've never seen a play like that before," Hill said. "I understand the rule, but I was glad they got one less run out of it."

As bizarre as the play was, a similar incident actually occurred as recently as May 2016, when Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto's home run was overturned because he passed teammate Marcell Ozuna while rounding first base against the Brewers, according to Retrosheet.

Avila's blunder didn't matter for Arizona. A.J. Pollock homered twice, and Paul Goldschmidt and Avila also went deep for the Diamondbacks, who have won 11 straight regular-season games against the Dodgers. At 11-3, Arizona is off to the best start in franchise history.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.