Regulars will play more down final stretch of year
Diamondbacks fans who moaned and groaned every time manager Torey Lovullo rested one of his everyday players the first four months of the season can rest easy.
With the chase for a wild-card berth in full bloom, Lovullo plans to back off on having his players, well, back off.
“It’s definitely go time,” Lovullo said Thursday. “My anticipation is we’ll step on the gas pedal a little bit more than we have been for the first several months of the season and see where that leads us.”
There’s already evidence of Lovullo’s philosophical shifts. Center fielder A.J. Pollock, whom Lovullo has handled carefully because of his injury history, has started eight of the Diamondbacks’ last nine games. Left fielder David Peralta has been in the lineup 12 of the last 13. You have to go all the way back to July 22 to find the last time Paul Goldschmidt’s name wasn’t on the lineup card.
“No days off anymore,” Peralta said. “We have to keep playing.”
Even as he was being constantly
questioned about the time off he was giving his players, Lovullo never wavered from his convictions. He’s studied research that shows rested athletes can “go out and compete and stay at an elite level.” He recalled his own playing career, when he was the bench player who got the occasional Sunday start and how much the everyday player he was replacing in the lineup “always appreciated it.” He’s also seen teams wilt in August and September because “they’ve gone full throttle since Day 1.”
“So I relayed all those experiences, and the front office is aligned with some of those thoughts and they’ve encouraged a lot of off days as well,” Lovullo said. “Our team is still performing at the level I want them to, and that’s the most important thing.”
Goldschmidt is the D-Backs' only everyday player who ranks in the top 53 among major-league players in games played, having missed just one of Arizona’s 113 games heading into Thursday’s contest against the Dodgers. Jake Lamb was next at 107 games, with Peralta at 99 and Chris Owings and Brandon Drury at 97.
“Everybody needs a day off. We’re not machines,” Peralta said. “The way he has been working with us, giving us days off, has been really great. Right now, we feel really good and strong.”
Beyond his beliefs about the benefits of rest, there were practical reasons for Lovullo not to ride his players hard the first four months of the season. Because of injuries, Peralta played 48 games last season and Pollock just 12.
Asking them to play 150-plus games would have been the same as asking as pitcher who threw 80 innings one year to throw 140 the next.
“There’s a natural progression that the medical team has had and let me know as well,” Lovullo said.
But with September and a playoff berth staring the Diamondbacks in the face, practicality has given way to purpose.
“We’re right in the middle of this, we’ve earned it and we need to embrace it and try to win every single inning we possibly can,” Lovullo said. “There’s still going to be some off days, but I think as we’re moving forward these players feel very strong and physical, and that’s the way I want them.”