Time to drop Corbin Carroll in the lineup? DBacks weigh options after loss to Giants
SAN FRANCISCO — Corbin Carroll walked back to the dugout, his head down, his bat in his hand. During his resplendent rookie season, Carroll was often seen racing around the bases, his helmet sometimes flying off as he reached top speeds. In the early weeks of his second full season in the majors, lonely treks back to the dugout have been the more common sight.
The Diamondbacks lost, 7-3, lost to the San Francisco Giants on Saturday afternoon. It was a game that got away from them for more reasons than one. Right-hander Zac Gallen struggled for the first time this year. The bullpen couldn’t keep it close late. The Diamondbacks’ offense was limited by the Giants’ top relievers.
But it also was another day in which Carroll was a non-factor at the plate. And it seems to have been enough to get his manager thinking more seriously about ways to take the pressure off his struggling star.
“For sure,” Torey Lovullo said, when asked if a day off or a new spot in the lineup might be in order. “I don’t know what I’ll do. But I’ll begin with conversations with everybody around me and figure out the best thing moving forward.”
Through 21 games, Carroll owns a .224/.327/.282 line. He has just three extra-base hits in 85 at-bats. His struggles look obvious to anyone watching, not just in the action during the game but in the moments in-between.
“We’re all seeing the same thing,” Lovullo said. “The body language isn’t great. This is a hard game. He’s being challenged right now. He’s going to figure it out. He’s an easy bet to figure it out.”
In the third, Carroll raced in from center field in pursuit of a shallow bloop by Patrick Bailey. The ball dropped in front of him, then rolled past him as the ball bounced under his glove. Thinking back on it later, Lovullo said he wondered if it was a case of a player taking his at-bats into the field with him.
“For sure,” Lovullo said. “I watch that stuff very carefully. The coaches do. Everybody does. Corbin is grinding right now. It’s no mystery. But he’s a competitor and he’s going to figure this out.”
Gallen gave up five runs in five innings. He allowed a homer to Jung Hoo Lee to lead off the bottom of the first and gave up another to Bailey, a two-run shot, in the fifth. In between, he mixed a healthy amount of swing and miss with occasional hard contact. The outing, he said, felt better than his numbers would suggest.
“I felt like I had better stuff than the line showed,” Gallen said. “A lot of soft contact and then you make one mistake at the end of the game.”
A day after tying a franchise record with 22 hits, the Diamondbacks offense was relatively quiet. They scattered seven hits. They worked only one walk. They had just five at-bats with a runner in scoring position. It was the fourth time in the past six games they scored three times or less.
It is on days like this that Carroll’s slow start is hardest to overlook. His speed and athleticism helped forge the Diamondbacks’ identity, helped carry them to the World Series last October. When he is quiet — and when others, like Alek Thomas and Geraldo Perdomo are out — the offense is less recognizable.
Though Carroll rarely struggled during his breakout rookie year, he actually went through a 21-game stretch that was worse than the one in which he finds himself now. From late July to the middle August, he hit just .182 with a .523 OPS. The difference is that Carroll had started his season on such an upswing that his downturn was harder to spot.
Carroll has taken swings in recent days that have sparked hope that he is close to snapping out of his funk — a liner to right, a deep drive to center, a hard smash to the shortstop — but thus far he has been unable to carry it into the next day’s worth of at-bats.
Pitch selection was the first thing Lovullo mentioned when asked what believes might be at the heart of the issue. On Saturday, Carroll expanded the zone with uncharacteristic frequency, chasing at least a half-dozen pitches that might have been balls.
Two days ago, Lovullo said he did not think the time was right to drop Carroll in the lineup, but after going 0 for 4 on Saturday, the manager wanted to talk about it with his staff.
“I want to get as much input as I possibly can,” Lovullo said. “I’m always considering different moves to help players, help this lineup, help this team. That’s kind of what my job is. I’ll have conversations.”
Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald faces hitters for first time since injury
SAN FRANCISCO — Closer Paul Sewald took what might be his final step before going on a minor league rehab assignment on Friday, facing hitters in an extended spring training game at Salt River Fields. Sewald threw 15 pitches and worked 1-1/3 innings, manager Torey Lovullo said.
For Sewald, it was his first time facing hitters since straining his left oblique late in spring training.
It is unclear how soon Sewald could head to a minor league affiliate or how many outings the Diamondbacks would want him to get before reinstating him from the injured list.
But given the ups and downs the bullpen has experienced, the Diamondbacks will be hoping he can have the same calming effect on the unit that he had when he was acquired at the trade deadline last year.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: DBacks, Corbin Carroll quiet at plate in loss to Giants
