Diamondbacks inch closer to .500 as slide continues in loss to Mariners
Manager Torey Lovullo observed this week about how hard the Diamondbacks have to work to win a baseball game these days. The opposite felt true on Friday night in how easily they seemed to lose.
Over the span of 15 pitches in the first inning, Diamondbacks left-hander Tommy Henry allowed three doubles, a single and a walk. Four runs scored. The game was out of hand in no time, but it was long enough for another loss.
In falling to the Seattle Mariners, 5-2, at Chase Field, the Diamondbacks lost for the seventh time in the past eight games. Over the past month, they have lost 17 times in 24 games.
At 55-49, the Diamondbacks are just six games over .500 for the first time since May 27, and they remain on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoff picture. They are one game out of a wild card with four teams ahead of them for three spots.
“We’ve got to find a way to just keep grinding, keep fighting,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We’re going to find our way out of this one way or another because that’s a very talented group of players inside of that clubhouse. But it’s not going to happen with just words. We got to match the words with actions.”
The Diamondbacks collected 10 hits and three walks but had only a handful of legitimate scoring opportunities. They went hitless in seven at-bats with a runner in scoring position, and their only two runs of the night scored on the same wild pitch.
The Mariners wasted little time against Henry in the first. J.P. Crawford hit the first pitch he saw for a double to right, and Julio Rodriguez followed by hitting a 1-0 change-up into left for a broken-bat single.
After striking out Eugenio Suarez, Henry fell behind Teoscar Hernandez, 3-0, before putting him on intentionally. Cal Raleigh and Tom Murphy followed with back-to-back two-run doubles. Just like that, it was 4-0.
Not only was Henry’s rough first inning too much to overcome, the Diamondbacks might have missed a couple of chances to bail him out of trouble. Rodriguez stole second after his walk, but second baseman Ketel Marte appeared to have a chance to secure the throw from catcher Jose Herrera. Instead, the ball squirted away, and Rodriguez slide in safely.
Then on the Raleigh double to left, the Diamondbacks missed a chance at a free out on the bases. Hernandez, who started the play at first, got a late stop sign at third, but he was able to scramble back to the bag when shortstop Geraldo Perdomo’s relay throw to Emmanuel Rivera was off target.
“There’s a couple of potential outs,” Lovullo said. “When I talk about those little things inside of a game that we do really well, when they start showing up, those are two outs that we collect and we’re out of the inning. But we didn’t get it done today. Those margins — I expect us to win. We’ll find a way to win them next time.”
Henry thought the Mariners were sitting on his secondary pitches early and he was a little too slow to make the adjustment.
“It happened really quick,” he said. “Honestly, I felt like I made decent pitches, not great, but I think it was one of those things where they came out with the right game plan.”
After losing a series earlier this week to a St. Louis Cardinals team that is expected to sell heavily before next week’s deadline, the Diamondbacks now find themselves on the verge of dropping another series to another potential seller.
“As I've told you before, these are situations that happen in baseball,” Lovullo said of his team’s miserable stretch. “Not going to say every team goes through them, but several do. I think it builds character and toughness. And once we do come out the other end, I think we're going to be a much, much better baseball team and a much more equipped baseball team. But it's part of growing up. It's part of the maturing and it's part of the baseball season.”
Said Henry: “I think there's plenty of talent in this locker room. I think that it'll swing in our direction sooner rather than later. But I think we just got to stick to the things that we can control and kind of ride it out.”
—Nick Piecoro
Diamondbacks’ Drey Jameson opts not to have elbow surgery
Diamondbacks right-hander Drey Jameson will not undergo Tommy John surgery, the hope being that the rest-and-rehab route will allow him to avoid the procedure, manager Torey Lovullo said Friday.
“He is going to start the plyometric phase, where he’s going to get a ball in his hand, throw some things against the wall and see how it feels,” Lovullo said. “Hopefully start to ramp up. It’ll be Day 1 of a return-to-throw program.”
That said, Lovullo acknowledged the possibility that in the coming weeks or months Jameson could determine that his elbow has not improved enough to the point that he ends up having the surgery anyway.
Jameson, 25, a rookie who bounced between starting and relieving this season, posted a 3.32 ERA in 40 2/3 innings. He was diagnosed with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament and has not pitched since July 6.
There does not appear to be much urgency for Jameson to make a decision on surgery. Whether he has the procedure now or in six months, he would be expected to miss all of next season. In recent years, pitchers have routinely taken longer than 12 months to return from Tommy John surgery.
—Nick Piecoro
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks inch closer to .500 as slide continues in loss to Mariners
