Diamondbacks fall back to earth as offense flounders in loss to Padres
Late Thursday night, the Diamondbacks talked about not giving in and playing hard until the end and grinding it out until the very last pitch. The narrative worked thanks to their last-minute heroics, which managed to overshadow an otherwise silent offense.
Unfortunately for the Diamondbacks, the same script unfolded on Friday night — only this time, minus the late-game exploits.
In falling to the San Diego Padres, 3-0, at Chase Field, the Diamondbacks again needed only one hand to count their hits for the night. They again watched as an opposing pitching staff flirted with a no-hitter late into a game. They had only two at-bats with a runner in scoring position.
“Once again, it was a grind, it was just a grind for us,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “I thought we got to that very pivotal pitch of the at-bat and then we just maybe went out of the zone. We didn’t complete the at-bats offensively.”
SCOREBOARD | STANDINGS | INJURIES
In two games, their best hitter, Ketel Marte, is 0 for 8. Daulton Varsho is 0 for 6 with a walk. Christian Walker and Carson Kelly also are in search of their first hits. The Diamondbacks finished with two hits on Friday, one fewer than they had on Thursday. In the two games, they are 5 for 55 (.091).
They got a solid, albeit truncated, performance from right-hander Merrill Kelly, who was throwing harder in his four scoreless innings than he had in the past. But with pitch counts limited by the three-week spring training, Kelly found himself overly impacted by one long inning, a 28-pitch first in which he struck out the side while working around a single and a walk.
“I would have liked to go a little bit deeper,” Kelly said, “but with a short spring that’s kind of where we’re at right now.”
After right-hander Yu Darvish turned in six hitless innings on Thursday, Padres left-hander Sean Manaea did him one better, finishing seven innings of no-hit ball and issuing just one walk.
The Padres are the first team in history to have starters in back-to-back games log at least six hitless innings, according to Stats Inc. (Teams have had starters flirt with no-hitters in consecutive games, but those pitchers always ended up allowing a hit before being removed.)
For the second night in a row, Padres lefty Tim Hill served up the first hit of the night. This time, the Diamondbacks’ David Peralta shot a single to center to lead off the eighth.
“We were trying to do our best to put good swings on the ball,” Peralta said. “(Manaea) was locating the ball very well, in the zone with his breaking balls. We hit some balls hard but weren’t able to find a hole. It’s one of those games we’ll have to turn the page and come ready for tomorrow.”
The Padres’ Jurickson Profar was in the middle of two of the more interesting plays of the night. First, in the sixth, he blasted a first-pitch fastball from Diamondbacks reliever Oliver Perez, sending it into the seats for a two-run shot that gave the Padres a 2-0 lead.
With a runner on second two innings later, he dropped a bunt down the line that third baseman Drew Ellis initially thought had a chance to go foul. But after hesitating he grabbed it and threw wildly to first. The ball ended up down the right-field line. Right fielder Pavin Smith picked it up and cut down Profar trying to advance to third.
Profar managed to upset the Diamondbacks on the play. As he slid into third, he seemed to take a swipe with his right arm at Ellis, who was applying the tag. Peralta, in from left field to back up the play, said something as Profar made his way off the field.
“I didn’t like it,” Peralta said. “I didn’t like the way he — it’s one thing to play hard, it’s another thing to play dirty. And he kind of — it’s not even like he was trying to knock the ball, he threw a punch. I was just letting him know, ‘Hey man, don’t play like that. You can hurt our teammate.’ I’m going to step up for my teammate. I was letting him know about that.
“He took it the wrong way. He was like, ‘I don’t care.’ But we don’t play that game. I’m not going to let anyone on the other team do that to my teammate. That’s the bottom line.”
The Diamondbacks had one real shot at getting back in the game, and just like the night before, it came down to Seth Beer. Left out of the starting lineup, Beer was sent up as a pinch-hitter face reliever Dinelson Lamet with two on and two out in the eighth. Beer flew to center on the first pitch.
“I was looking forward to that matchup,” Lovullo said. “I was going to try to get Seth in the game at some point with a really, really good matchup. It worked out as good as it possibly could. It just wasn’t a great result.”
Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks fall back to earth as offense flounders in loss to Padres
