C Mathis paired with slumping starter

CINCINNATI – Looking to get lefty Robbie Ray back on track, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo is following the blueprint he used with lefty Patrick Corbin: He’s matching up Ray with catcher Jeff Mathis.

After Corbin went through a rough stretch in June, Lovullo paired him with Mathis, and Lovullo believes Corbin’s immediate turnaround – he allowed a combined four runs over his next four starts – was no coincidence.

Ray has endured his own stretch of inconsistency, and Lovullo figures there’s no harm in seeing if Mathis can have a similar effect.

“I just wanted to give him a different look,” Lovullo said. “Jeff is a very experienced catcher that can make adjustments on the fly. I feel like Robbie would benefit from having somebody else catching him and maybe add some new weapons or a new thought process to his equation.”

Lovullo believes Mathis helped Corbin utilize his fastball to both sides of the plate, work in his changeup more and go to his breaking balls in better counts, particularly with two strikes.

As to what impact he can have on Ray, Mathis downplayed it prior to Saturday’s game.

“We (the catchers) all talk about and prepare for guys the same way,” Mathis said. “Both of the other guys are capable of taking care of him, as well. It hasn’t worked out where I’ve caught Robbie lately.”

Wild throws

Diamondbacks pitchers have been charged with four errors in the past 2 1/2 weeks, the most recent coming when Clay Buchholz threw a ball down the right-field line after fielding a bunt by the Reds’ Billy Hamilton in the seventh inning on Friday night.

Despite that and other mistakes – two by newly acquired reliever Jake Diekman, another by lefty T.J. McFarland – Lovullo doesn’t see it as a major concern.

“We work at it, but I don’t think it’s a big issue,” Lovullo said. “There are small concerns and I want to make sure we don’t let that happen. Those type of things don’t happen a lot here, and we’ve got to make sure we address those.”

He doesn’t think the errors need to be addressed by, say, extra fielding practice, but more about making sure his pitchers are aware of the situation. On Friday, for example, he thinks Buchholz would have been better served by not throwing it and letting Hamilton take first.

“The parts of the equation that bothered me from the past are not backing up the bases and doing the things that a good team does for their teammates,” Lovullo said. “Giving up an extra 90 feet or, in one case two runs on one play – I think that was probably a little bit more disturbing to me than anything.”

That was a reference to the play on Tuesday night against the Phillies, when right fielder Steven Souza Jr. picked up a ball down the right-field line and threw wildly to third, where no one was backing up the play.

Short hop

Lovullo said the Diamondbacks are likely to stick with their current roster composition rather than add a pure slugger to serve as the designated hitter next week in Texas. He intimated that he might have first baseman Paul Goldschmidt as the DH once, if not twice, which would essentially give him one or two half-days of work.