Duvall dooms D-Backs again as Marlins get series sweep,
The pitch, clocked at 93 mph, struck Madison Bumgarner on his right wrist in the second inning on Thursday night. He hardly winced. He remained in the game. And he continued to pitch well, as he has done for nearly three weeks now.
But Bumgarner’s wrist hurt more than he let on, and by the time his spot in the order came around for a third time in the seventh inning, it seemed there was agreement — or at least no argument — about what manager Torey Lovullo decided to do. Bumgarner’s night was over. He was sent for X-rays, which came back negative.
For the Diamondbacks, however, the decision seemed to quickly change the tone of the evening. The Marlins went to work against the Diamondbacks bullpen, quickly scoring a pair of runs, and they went on to a 3-1 victory, completing a three-game sweep.
Right-hander J.B. Bukauskas took the loss, the latest ineffective performance by a Diamondbacks reliever. But for the third consecutive evening during the Diamondbacks’ stay in Miami the bulk of the blame probably belonged elsewhere.
In three games against the Marlins, the Diamondbacks hit .188 with one home run. They scored a total of four runs. They went 2 for 28 with runners in scoring position.
The Marlins pitching staff, a group that entered Thursday with the fourthbest ERA in the league, deserves credit. The Diamondbacks faced two of their better starters and struggled. They faced
a parade of relievers and struggled. They were an offense that had been rolling. They were turned into one that rarely hit balls hard.
“It was just a tough three-day series,” Lovullo said. “We’re going to be fine.”
Bumgarner will be, too, it seems. The pitch that got him was the first one he saw during his first at-bat of the night, a fastball up and in from Marlins righthander Pablo Lopez. Bumgarner couldn’t
get out of the way.
“We all collectively held our breath,” Lovullo said.
But Bumgarner was checked by trainers, and Lovullo said the medical staff continued to check Bumgarner’s grip strength throughout the game. It did not seem to affect his performance on the mound. For the fourth consecutive game, Bumgarner rolled through his outing.
After allowing a leadoff homer to Miguel
Rojas in the first, Bumgarner retired 17 consecutive batters before Rojas snapped the streak with a single. By the time Bumgarner finished the sixth, he had allowed just two hits with no walks, seven strikeouts and only 85 pitches.
With Bumgarner’s spot due to lead off the seventh, Lovullo decided he had asked enough of his starter — and that it was time to find out what was going on inside his wrist.
“I just figured it was the best thing to do to get him out of there,” Lovullo said. “He was fine. That was my decision to make that change.”
Said Bumgarner: “I was curious to know about it. … Sometimes you’ve got to be smart about stuff.”
Bumgarner said he didn’t think it was broken, but he also wasn’t overly confident.
“I don’t have a ton of experience,” he said. “But usually you can tell if it’s broken or not. I didn’t know on this one. I wasn’t sure enough to say one way or another.”
Things quickly shifted for the Marlins. The top of the seventh ended with center fielder Magneuris Sierra making a leaping, juggling catch at the wall to rob Asdrubal Cabrera of a home run.
And the bottom of the inning began with Bukauskas serving up a home run to Adam Duvall on the second pitch of his outing.
The Marlins added another run in the inning and went on to hand the Diamondbacks their 10th loss in 15 games in Miami since the start of the 2017 season. His team’s play in that ballpark has left Lovullo at a loss.