Torey Lovullo after 3rd loss to Padres: 'Unacceptable'
Second baseman Ketel Marte ranged to his right, reached out and came up empty, the ball scooting under his glove and into center field. It was the start of another inning for the Diamondbacks that felt ripped from the pages of 2021.
Left-hander Caleb Smith proceeded to walk three batters and serve up a pair of homers, failing to retire any of the six batters he faced in the second inning Sunday afternoon. In the end, the Diamondbacks lost, 10-5, a score that did not accurately reflect how thoroughly they were outplayed by the San Diego Padres at Chase Field.
Some six months of baseball are left to be played this season, but the first four games did not provide many concrete reasons to believe the Diamondbacks will be a whole lot better than last year’s 52-110 team, at least not with an offense so lacking in punch and a defense so lacking in reliability.
Their 1-3 start already has manager Torey Lovullo taking a sharp tone with reporters in his postgame sessions. In years past, he has tended to focus more heavily on the positives, particularly this early in the season. He went a different direction on Sunday.
After walking into the interview room, Lovullo gave a sort of cursory mention to the positive developments before turning his focus on what went wrong.
“Let’s not be mistaken,” he said. “Let’s rewind this day a little bit and talk about some of the things that put us in that situation.”
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He then proceeded to comment on a pitching staff that couldn’t throw the ball over the plate. He termed his team’s defense “unacceptable." And he described his offense as having “staggered through” the first several innings of the game.
“That game should have been a lot closer than it was,” he said.
He added: “You guys watched the same game I did. We gave up 10 runs. It’s unacceptable. We’ve got to get better.”
Marte’s error opened the door for a five-run Padres second, with Smith issuing a pair of walks to load the bases before serving up consecutive home runs to Jurickson Profar (grand slam) and Jorge Alfaro. It came after a quick and effective top of the first, an inning that proceeded a dominant stretch of outings in spring training.
“I walked the first guy and then I started thinking, ‘Don’t walk him,’” Smith said. “That’s just the wrong mindset to have. If you start throwing to guys trying not to walk them, you stray away from your main focus and that’s to get them out.”
There were more mistakes to come, most of them in the fifth. The inning began with shortstop Geraldo Perdomo’s throwing error, a miscue that opened the door for the Padres to score two more runs, both of which came home on wild pitches by Corbin Martin that catcher Carson Kelly was unable to keep in front of him.
“I know we’re better than that,” Lovullo said.
In some ways, the series was tricky to unpack. Outside of the ninth innings on Thursday and Sunday, the offense scored a total of three runs — and yet the lineup maintained a patient approach throughout the four games. Their 19 walks are tied for the second-most in the majors.
“It’s too early to hit any panic buttons,” first baseman Christian Walker said. “To be honest, I like to think that there is no panic button. It’s just a matter of making adjustments and moving forward.”
On the flip side, their pitching staff leads the majors with 20 walks — and yet the Diamondbacks received encouraging starts from Madison Bumgarner, Merrill Kelly and Zach Davies. And the pitcher widely regarded as their best starter, right-hander Zac Gallen, has yet to take the ball. He will do so on Tuesday evening.
It is harder to alibi for the defense. That was an area of focus for the organization throughout spring training after it backed up so badly last season — and it failed them in key moments, particularly over the past two days. Marte’s struggles in the field stood out most; there were three ground balls he was unable to convert into outs over the past two games.
“You guys know how I feel; I’m pitching and defense in my core,” Lovullo said. “(Pitching and defense) is going to be the common denominator that’s going to help us stay in games and win baseball games. When they don’t work together, this is what happens. It is very bothersome to me because we’re better than that.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Torey Lovullo after 3rd loss to Padres: 'Unacceptable'
