Starters lift ailing pitching staff
Pair of solid efforts gives tired bullpen a break
is perhaps the word that can best describe most of Robbie Ray's outings this season.
The Diamondbacks left-hander has the pitches in his repertoire to be one of baseball's best but more often than not, he works too deep into the count to too many hitters, which means his pitch count rises faster than manager Torey Lovullo would like.
In 13 starts this season, he has pitched less than six innings nine times. That has presented a problem for Lovullo because he's had short outings from other starters, as well, not to mention trouble settling on a No. 5 starter once Zack Godley was dispatched to the bullpen.
Throw in some extra-inning games and a recent four-game road trip to Colorado, and you have a pitching staff that had been taxed and a bullpen that had been both overused and exposed.
But a couple of quality outings from Merrill Kelly on Sunday against the New York Mets and then Ray on Monday in the series opener against the division rival Dodgers has the rotation back in sync and roles in the bullpen more defined.
Taylor Clarke (1-1, 5.19) was on the mound Tuesday night at Chase Field in the second game of the series, opposed by the Dodgers' Hyun-Jin Ryu (8-1, 1.48), holder of MLB's lowest ERA.
"That's the common denominator to us winning baseball games," Lovullo said of starters turning in quality games. "It's not just getting things caught up in the bullpen, it establishes a cleaner game and allows a bullpen to go into a game when they're fully rested and not playing catch up for five or six games."
Kelly was superb on Sunday, going 7 2/3 innings and allowing just a run. Archie Bradley needed just one pitch to get the final out in the eighth and Stefon Crichton, sent back to Triple-A Reno Monday, pitched a clean ninth in a 7-1 Diamondbacks victory.
Ray followed up Kelly's gem with one of his own on Monday. He turned in his best outing for the season, needing just 98 pitches to get through seven innings for the first time this season. He struck out nine, gave up six hits and one walk, but one of those hits was a three-run home run by Corey Seager that proved the difference in the contest.
Ray was outdueled by Dodgers counterpart Walker Buehler, who was just a tad better, and the Dodgers prevailed 3-1.
Despite coming out on the wrong side of the ledger, Ray was pleased with his outing and knows he needs to repeat that effort moving forward.
"I went out there and just tried to pound the zone and attack the hitters because in the past guys were just being patient and waiting me out," he said. "It was important for me to get ahead and then put batters away. It's going to be even more important as the season goes on. You don't want to keep putting that kind of burden on the bullpen."
Getting off to a good start this week was also important because Jon Duplantier is slated to start the Wednesday afternoon matinee game to round out the series. He is taking the spot in the rotation formerly occupied by inInefficient jured starter Luke Weaver but has been back and forth from Triple-A Reno four times.
He went five innings (77 pitches) in his last outing and is just getting stretched out enough to be given a full complement of pitches.
"We put a lot on the starters here but they can handle that because they're caught up and they're all rested," Lovullo said. "We were able to make a pitching move with Crichton (on Sunday) because we felt like we got caught up. You go into a four-game series in Colorado sometimes things like that happen. We felt like we would get caught up but it happened a little faster because of what our starters were able to do the last few days."
The Diamondbacks have an off day coming up on Thursday before heading out on a 10-day road trip with games in Toronto, Philadelphia and Washington. Lovullo said he'll decide in the next day whether adjustments would be made to the starting rotation factoring in that day off.