PHOENIX -- The first sentence out of Torey Lovullo¡¯s mouth when he sat down behind the microphone after Thursday night¡¯s game was: ¡°We¡¯re a good baseball team.¡±
There was a but coming.
¡°But when we do things like we did tonight ¡¡±
The things that Lovullo was referring to included three errors and some sloppy play, which all added up to a 7-4 loss to the Rays in 10 innings.
With the loss, the Diamondbacks dropped two of three to the Rays with losses on consecutive nights in extra innings after they held leads late in the game. Some of that can be blamed on relievers who were unavailable, but a lot of it comes down to making plays that should be made.
¡°We've got to tighten a few things down,¡± Lovullo said. ¡°I'm not used to looking up there and seeing three errors in the error column. You know, those errors lead to extra pitches, more baserunners, more run-scoring potential.¡±
The Diamondbacks built a 3-0 lead behind Corbin Burnes, who cruised through four scoreless innings before allowing a run in the fifth.
In the sixth, though, it was an error by Burnes on a chopper back to him that led to a pair of unearned runs scoring and it ended his night before he could complete the inning.
That was key because the Diamondbacks are short-handed in the bullpen. An injury to co-closer A.J. Puk is part of the issue and the other is that co-closer Justin Martinez has been experiencing some fatigue, so after using Martinez in Wednesday night¡¯s game, Lovullo was not going to use him for a second straight night.
¡°It just wasn¡¯t fair to him given the fatigue factor he¡¯s been feeling,¡± Lovullo said of potentially using Martinez on Thursday. ¡°It was just a little bit of a tough pill to swallow.¡±
Lovullo had also hoped to stay away from Shelby Miller, who has been worked hard of late with Puk and Martinez unavailable.
So after Burnes left in the sixth with a lead, the plan was to use lefty Jalen Beeks to get the final two outs of the sixth and then to pitch the seventh.
But those plans took a hit when Beeks was struck in the left forearm by a line drive to open the seventh. X-rays were negative and Beeks isn¡¯t expected to miss any time, but the forearm began to swell immediately and he had to be removed from the game.
Ryne Nelson came on and got the final two outs of the seventh and tossed a scoreless eighth before Lovullo asked him to try to close things out in the ninth with a 4-3 lead.
¡°Nellie I thought threw the ball really, really good and deserved that chance to go out and close it out,¡± Lovullo said. ¡°But we just couldn¡¯t get that final piece to close it out.¡±
The Diamondbacks committed two errors with Nelson in the game but he managed to keep them from coming around to score. But, as Lovullo pointed out, the throwing error by third baseman Eugenio Suarez and fielding miscue by shortstop Geraldo Perdomo had a cumulative effect.
¡°It changes who's coming up,¡± Lovullo said. ¡°It changes who's leading off, who's not leading off, adds pitches to the pitch total for the pitcher, puts stress on the pitcher. So it all adds up.¡±
Thursday night, the errors and pitching injuries all added up to a frustrating night.