D-backs' top pitching prospect drops in for gem

PHOENIX -- It was a long day for everyone wearing a D-backs or Cubs jersey, but no one had it rougher than Arizona right-hander Jon Duplantier.

Called up from Triple-A Reno earlier in the day, he experienced a flight delay and got to Chase Field just before Sunday’s series finale with the Cubs started.

Five hours, 36 minutes and 15 innings later, the D-backs were saddled with a 6-5 loss, and Duplantier, who had thrown four scoreless innings, was packing his bags, having been optioned back to Reno.

“Long day,” Duplantier said. “But I’m never going to pass up an opportunity to come up here and help the team out. Happy for the experience, for sure.”

Pitching on three days’ rest, Duplantier worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the 12th by retiring Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and David Bote in order.

In the 13th, he was facing runners on the corners when he kept his composure and caught Willson Contreras trying to steal home for the final out of the frame. It was an example of the maturity that has him ranked as the organization’s top pitching prospect by MLB Pipeline.

“That was an unusual play,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “We never talked about it or prepared for it. For him to turn around and throw the ball and execute the right way was pretty impressive. He has a tremendous mound presence. I’ve seen that since the day I saw him for the first time on a mound on the back fields at Salt River. He’s mature beyond his years, and he’s ready for this environment.”

Duplantier has thrown eight scoreless innings over his two stints in the big leagues this year, but he’ll go back to Reno so he can get stretched out as a starter.

It’s a process that was delayed by an illness during Spring Training and then by the fact that he was needed in relief in the big leagues at the start of April following a bullpen-taxing, six-hour game in Los Angeles.

When he went back to Reno in early April, Duplantier had a good outing to start with, but he was so efficient he had only thrown 37 pitches in over three innings.

Desperate to get himself stretched out with the Aces, Duplantier focused on that instead of just pitching his game, and the result was four walks in 2 2/3 innings. It was a learning experience.

“It was the wrong way to go about it,” Duplantier said. “So this time around, I can only control what I can control and go out and pitch my game. If I go four innings and 40 pitches and they say ,‘We can’t rationally progress you,’ then so be it. It’s a long season and hopefully it’s a really long career. It is what it is. The goal is to go down there and get consistently better at pitching and doing my job. My job isn’t necessarily to speed along a progression.”

Duplantier threw 58 pitches on Sunday, a couple shy of what the team had targeted as a maximum for him.

Fellow reliever Matt Andriese, however, was not as fortunate.

Lovullo wanted to stay away from Andriese except in an emergency after he threw 43 pitches over three innings on Friday night. But when the 14th inning rolled around, the D-backs were short on options.

“He was going to put his hard hat on and go to work,” Lovullo said. “He gave us everything he could.”

Andriese pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the 14th, but the Cubs finally got to him in the 15th, when Ben Zobrist drove home a pair of runs with a double, then scored on Kris Bryant’s sacrifice fly.

“In that situation, you just go out and you grind,” Andriese said. “It’s late in the game, and you give it all you got. At that point, it’s a battle. Every pitch is a battle at that point. Going off of one day’s rest and throwing three innings, [43] pitches, I mean, I gave it all I got.”

So did his teammates, who pushed home a couple of runs in the bottom of the 15th only to come up just short.