Diamondbacks offense goes silent again in dismal loss to Marlins

Eugenio Suarez did not offer much of a reaction his 60th strikeout in 52 games. He dropped his head, paced towards the Diamondbacks dugout and briefly glanced out towards center field, where the scoreboard listed his .220 batting average and .608 OPS. More incriminating, it listed another Diamondbacks loss, this one coming 3-1 against the lowly Marlins.

The defeat ended with another empty swing from Suarez, an imbalanced hack over a slider that, with a little more discipline, could have been ball four. The Diamondbacks, though, did not lose because of one bad swing. They lost because of another game full of them.

Swings like the pitch prior, when Suarez could only foul off a fastball down the middle. Swings like the at-bat prior, when Gabriel Moreno turned a center-cut slider into a routine groundout. Swings even like the one that produced their only run — a first-pitch cutter that Lourdes Gurriel hit for an RBI groundout, scoring a runner but squandering momentum.

Squandering momentum, of course, was the theme of the weekend.

Four days ago, Torey Lovullo stood in front of reporters at Dodger Stadium, praising his team’s recent performances. “We’ve been looking for something like this,” Lovullo said then, referring to the series win over the Dodgers. At the time, it felt like the Diamondbacks’ best series of the year and a natural turning point.

On Sunday, he was left to explain perhaps their worst series of the year, as they fell to 25-28.

“When we were slugging the way we did in Dodger Stadium, we were squaring up the pitch we were looking for,” Lovullo said. “That didn't happen that often in this series.”

Over their three games against the Marlins, the Diamondbacks managed just four runs on 15 hits. At one point, they went 13 innings without a run and 14 without an extra-base hit. Some of it came against quality pitching, like Friday’s shutout from Braxton Garrett. But the Diamondbacks also couldn’t do damage against a couple relievers with ERAs over 5.00. On Sunday, they were shut down by Ryan Weathers, who entered with a 5.25 ERA in 56 career appearances.

It came as they got many of the other necessary ingredients for a win. Blake Walston worked 4 2/3 scoreless innings and Justin Martinez got them through the sixth unscathed. But a throwing error from Kevin Newman helped Kevin Ginkel allow three unearned runs in the seventh, and the offense was never able to so much as threaten a comeback.

The unit’s struggles are not isolated to this weekend. It’s difficult to remember now, but at one point this year, the Diamondbacks possessed an explosive offense — the type of group that could stoke momentum, not squash it. In late April, they led baseball in runs scored by a healthy margin.

But over the past month, that unit has tanked. Since April 24, they rank last in runs scored. Their on-base percentage (.287) and slugging percentage (.361) in that span do not suggest that the lack of runs are a fluke.

Neither do the performances of many of their key hitters.

In a silent Diamondbacks clubhouse Sunday afternoon, Kevin Newman pointed out the inherent difficult in assessing a prolonged, team-wide offensive slump. “It's hard to lump all those games into one answer,” Newman said. “If I had the answer, I'd probably be sharing it with the guys.”

Indeed, the Diamondbacks’ struggles cannot be distilled down to a single game or a single player. They’re a product of those games and players coming together to form the totality of the ugly picture.

In the Diamondbacks’ lineup, that reality is easy to see. They could produce with one or two key hitters struggling. They’ve been unable to produce with four key hitters struggling.

And since that same demarcation point — April 24 — Corbin Carroll is hitting .163/.217/.288. Suarez is hitting .186/.238/.268. For Moreno, it’s .193/.286/.258. Gurriel is at .168/.200/.248.

That’s four important offensive pieces, all hitting like backup catchers.

“I can't (explain it),” Lovullo said. “And that's what's causing me that frustration. Cause they are proven hitters and they are very solid workers. And I wish I could snap my fingers and have an answer and tell you that it's gonna get better tomorrow.”

Only every time it looks like it’s going to get better tomorrow, it never does.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks offense goes silent again in dismal loss to Marlins