D-Backs fall as Nats thump Ray early
The Diamondbacks’ season has been filled with starring roles from supporting actors, players who stepped in to give a regular a day off and delivered big games. Manager Torey Lovullo was hoping for more such contributions on Sunday. He did not receive them.
The Washington Nationals’ 6-2 win completed another series loss for the Diamondbacks. It was their 14th loss in the past 20 games. By the end of the night, their wild-card lead was reduced to 4 1/2 games.
This loss felt particularly frustrating. They had lefty Robbie Ray, one of their top starters, on the mound, but watched as he was hit around in the first inning. They had to face right-hander Stephen Strasburg for just two innings – he was lifted because he was having trouble getting loose – but managed just two runs in seven innings against a belea-
guered Nationals bullpen.
They had a slew of scoring opportunities in the middle-to-late innings that went uncashed. And they lost for the second consecutive day without unleashing their best lineup.
On Saturday, slugger Paul Goldschmidt was left out of the starting lineup. Third baseman Jake Lamb and center fielder A.J. Pollock were on the bench Sunday. The days off haven’t been out of the ordinary with Lovullo in charge; what was unusual was the team’s inability to overcome them.
“There’s times when we’re going to be minus guys because of the off days, because of the day game after the night game,” Lovullo said. “Sometimes you can’t avoid moments like today where we miss a couple of really good players.”
The Diamondbacks went hitless in their last seven at-bats with men in scoring position over the final five innings. With two runs already in, they had first and third with one out in the fifth but couldn’t add on. They had second and third with one out an inning later but came up empty. Then in the seventh, they had two on and two out but again couldn’t find a big hit.
“You can’t expect to get it done 100 percent of the time,” said Pollock, who entered the game in the sixth as part of a double-switch and struck out in a key moment later that inning. “Obviously, you want to get the job done and expect to get the job done, but you have to get back at it the next time.”
The Diamondbacks trailed from the first batter of the game. Brian Goodwin led off with a 448-foot homer off Ray to straightaway center field. After a walk and four more hits, the Nationals had made it 4-0, capitalizing on Ray’s shoddy command.
“I feel like my timing was just a little off today and it just allowed me to not be able to hit my spots,” Ray said. “In the bullpen, everything was clicking, it went well, and then sometimes it’s going to happen where you get in a game, and you’re not going to be able to find it.”
The four runs were the most Ray had allowed in an inning all season. He finished with five runs in five innings, managing to last that long despite needing 39 pitches in the first.
For the Diamondbacks, perhaps the day’s most encouraging development came when J.D. Martinez drew a walk as a pinch-hitter in the seventh, his first game action since being hit by a pitch on the left hand on Wednesday night in Cincinnati.
In Lovullo’s eyes, it was a sign of what’s to come. He hopes to write Martinez’s name into his lineup on Monday night against the Atlanta Braves, perhaps running out the sort of fully charged group of hitters the club envisioned when it acquired the slugger from Detroit in a blockbuster deal last week.
But Lovullo believes the absences of Goldschmidt, Lamb and Pollock the past two days, though perhaps detrimental in the short term, will pay off over the long haul.
“I know we’re getting very close to being at full strength,” Lovullo said. “We’ll see what type of dividends that rest gives us this coming week.’’