Dbacks avoid the sweep in Toronto despite their middle relief making the game a little too interesting in the late innings.
The Dbacks were leading the series finale today 9-1 in the 7th inning, and they still had to bring in closer Shelby Miller to close this game out.
Ryne Nelson came up huge for the Dbacks today going 5.2 strong innings and holding the Blue Jays offense to just 1 run. Nelson averaged 22” of IVB on his 4 seamer today and threw it for strikes almost 80% of the time. That will absolutely play! Unfortunately with the way Nelson has been shortened up, he was pulled after just 83 pitches today, a decision I can completely understand especially with all the arm injuries this team has had and having a 9-1 lead.
The Dbacks offense was led by a strong showing from Eugenio Suarez who drove in 4 runs with a home run and a double. His 2 run home run in the second inning and his 2 run double in the very next inning gave the Dbacks a nice early cushion in the series finale. Pavin Smith’s 2 run home run in the 5th inning would ultimately be the deciding runs for the Dbacks. If Pavin Smith were to get red hot for a couple of weeks, that would really represent a shot in the arm for this team as the DH role as a whole has suffered a steep drop off in production following the first couple of weeks of the season.
The Dbacks bullpen has struggled in about every single way conceivable, but especially the bridge guys in the middle innings. As I mentioned earlier, usually when you have an 8 run lead going into the 7th inning the closer is taking their cleats off, putting on the flip flops, and kicking back and enjoying the end of the game. Not with this bullpen. New pickup Anthony Desclefani promptly came in and allowed 4 runs in the subsequent 2 innings on 2 home runs to put the Blue Jays back into slam range.
Ultimately the Dbacks were able to avoid being swept and are back to .500 heading into a very winnable upcoming series against the Colorado Rockies. Lets see if they can capitalize and go on a run!