‘Gassed’ bullpen costs D-Backs in loss to Cards
David Peralta stood on deck with a bat in his hands, but when the ninth spot in the Diamondbacks’ order rolled around in the top of the sixth on Monday night, Peralta retreated to the dugout. Alex Young, the club’s lefty reliever, came to the plate instead.
It was, to say the least, an odd situation for a reliever to be taking an atbat: bases loaded, two out, tie game. But to hear manager Torey Lovullo explain it, he did not have much choice, not with a bullpen that could offer only three more innings in a game that had four to go. Young struck out, then proceeded to cough up six runs in the seventh inning of what turned out to be a 7-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
It was the Diamondbacks’ 41st consecutive loss in a game in which they scored four or fewer runs, giving them another ignominious modern-day record as they passed the 1943 Philadelphia Athletics’ 40-game skid, according to research by Sportradar. The Diamondbacks are 1-43 in those games this season, their lone victory coming in a 3-1 win vs. the San Diego Padres on April 4.
Lovullo’s lack of options in the sixth was the result of a combination of factors: a tired bullpen; a rotation that has not gone deep into games; and a 40man roster beset by pitching injuries in an organization that lacks the depth to withstand them.
On Friday in San Diego, right-hander Corbin Martin turned in a disastrous outing against the Padres, lasting just one-third of an inning. Two days later, right-hander Zac Gallen, his pitch count still limited, went just 4 2/3 innings. On Monday, right-hander Jake Faria gave them just four innings. He threw well, but he was deemed unfit for a high pitch count after working in relief the past two weeks.
It added up to giving Lovullo little available in his bullpen on Monday. He had Young, who hadn’t thrown in eight days. He also had right-handers Brett de Geus and Joakim Soria and lefty Joe Mantiply, each of whom could have gone one inning apiece.
Beyond that, Lovullo said, the Diamondbacks had no other relievers “we were comfortable using.” Sending Peralta on deck in the sixth was a decoy, Lovullo said. After taking three consecutive strikes to leave the bases loaded, Young worked a second consecutive scoreless inning in the bottom of the inning. But the Cardinals were all over him in the seventh, collecting two doubles, a homer and three singles to blow the game open.
The loss drops the Diamondbacks to a major league-worst 22-58. They are 745 in their past 52 games.