The Mainstay was great but got pulled early again due to cramps and the offense left too many opportunities on the table to pick up the short-handed bullpen.
Game Summary
Merrill Kelly was excellent again. Until his body wasn’t. Merrill was cruising through 5 innings, needing only 60 pitches to get that far and limiting the Phils to only a single run. Unfortunately, during his warm up tosses before the 6th, Kelly appeared to cramp up and had to leave the game. This was unfortunate for him, of course, but it was also unfortunate for the bullpen as they were shorthanded tonight after being heavily utilized to finish out the Mets series and needed a breather if they could get it.
Juan Morrillo came on as the injury replacement and did the job to put a goose egg on the board, but Jose Castillo, in his first MLB action since 2023, came in to face a pocket of lefties in the 7th and gave up game-tying and go-ahead solo home runs to the only 2 lefties he would face (he did retire the 3 righties he went against).
Those 3 runs would be all the Phillies would need because Diamondbacks offense once again victimized themselves with missed opportunities. They finished the night 2-for-9 with RISP, leaving 7 men on base in total. They got at least one runner into scoring position in 5 of the first 6 innings but could only push a single runner across home in 2 of those innings. Whether it was untimely strikeouts or a spectacularly failed bunt attempt, the Snakes offense just could not cash in on their many early opportunities. As the game got late, those opportunities disappeared. After Perdomo ended the 6th inning with a pop out bunt turned double play, the Diamondbacks didn’t get another baserunner the rest of the game.
For the season, the Diamondbacks have the 4th most Plate Appearances with RISP in MLB, but they’re batting .234 in those situations which puts them 22nd in the league in that respect. Those numbers didn’t get any better tonight.
Tonight’s game was lost, but we didn’t lose the war. The A-bullpen got a breather so they will all be ready to go for tomorrow. Ketel Marte is back and Domo is back at the bottom of the lineup. The more those two are in their normal batting slots, the better it is for our team. Let’s go get ‘em tomorrow.
Loss Probability and Box Score
Outside the Box Score
- The DBacks started with 2 singles to start the game that couldn’t be more different. The first pitch of the game was smoked through the small hole between short and third by Ketel Marte (welcome back Ketel!). Corbin followed that up with a high chopper that was fielded directly behind the mound by the Phillies third baseman, Alec Bohm. A very slight bobble on the transfer by Bohm gave Corbin just enough time to get down the line and arrive safely at first. Unfortunately, with runners on first and second and no outs, the heart of the order went K-K-K to end the first inning with zero runs scored.
- Corbin worked a 10-pitch at bat against Luzardo to lead off the third, fouling off pitches and laying off some tough ones, but then got rung up on what should have been Ball 4. A pitch that was inches (plural) outside according to the on screen box. Real unfortunate start to the inning considering 2 of the next 3 Snakes got singles that would have scored Corbin.
- Lourdes Gurriel led off the fourth with his second hit of the night, grounder that luckily bounced multiple times on the chalk until it made it past the third base bag. Alek. Was able to move him over to third on a grounder to second, but he was unable to lay down a bunt (seems to be a recurring theme with the 2025 D-backs) so had to do it the hard way with 2 strike hitting. It’s a good thing he was able to move over because Domo’s single was a slow liner barely out of the reach of Trea Turner that Gurriel had to freeze on before scoring. No way he would have scored if he was still at second.
- Merrill had a little turbulence in the first, but set the Phillies down in order in the second and third. In the fourth, he gave up a leadoff single to Bryce Harper, then the dangerous Kyle Schwarber came up and hit a 109 mph bouncer right back at Merrill’s face. Merrill made a fantastic catch but was probably so amped up on adrenaline from the reaction that he spiked the throw to second. Domo made a great play to dive and land on second but couldn’t complete the relay to first for the double play. I did a little Statcast-sleuthing and found that was the fastest batted ball fielded by a pitcher to record an out this season (the next fastest was 103).
- Through 4 innings, the D-backs had done a great job building up Luzardo’s pitch count to 78. It looked like we could really push him out of the game with one more long inning but the Snakes’ hitters couldn’t oblige, going down in order in only 9 pitches to assure he would pitch into the 6th and keep the suspect Phillie bullpen out of the ballgame a little longer.
- UPON FURTHER REVIEW: Merrill got out of the fifth inning on a pickoff. Initially, the Phillie runner was ruled safe but replay showed Kelly had got him pretty easily. Man that pickoff is good.
- Gabi drilled his double in the sixth to just shy of the wall in centerfield. The Phillies were playing him so shallow that the CF (coincidentally the man who was just picked off first by Merrill) was in a full sprint all the way out to the warning track and couldn’t quite turn around in time to make the play and the ball bounced off the end of his glove. With Gabi later coming in to score, that made both of the first D-backs runs scored by runners who got on base through somewhat lucky hits (reminder of Gurriel’s chalk-hopping grounder in the 4th).
- Another bunt gone wrong for the D-backs to end the 6th. Domo came up with 1 out and runners and 1st and 2nd and tried to drop down a bunt. Instead, he popped out to JT Realmuto and Lourdes Gurriel must not have seen where the bunt was going and got halfway to third before finally turning back but it was too late as he was easily thrown out.
- Ketel Marte, in his first game back after missing several weeks due to a hamstring injury, was taking it noticeably easy on his balky hammy by jogging out a couple ground balls that he could have either beat out or made the play interesting if he actually tried to open it up. I’m perfectly happy with his decision to take the out and live to fight another day. No need to push for an infield single in May.
- Lourdes came up to lead off the ninth looking for his 4th hit in 4 at bats, but a spectacular catch by defensive replacement Johan Rojas in center field robbed him of the feat. Josh Collmenter reported it as a 10% catch probability on the broadcast and I believe it.
Player of the Game
Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. earns the nod in tonight’s series opener. He got hits in his first 3 at bats and nearly had a 4th to lead off the ninth if not for an outstanding play by the Phillies center fielder to rob him of it. He had a hand in each of the Diamondbacks runs, scoring one and knocking the other in.
Merrill Kelly probably would have run away with the POTG tonight if not for his always-returning cramps. It was another very good game where he wasn’t overpowering, but he was dominant, scattering 4 hits with no walks and keeping most of the contact against him weak and in play for his defense.
Comment of the Game
There were a total of 274 comments in the GDT at time of publishing. There were very few Sedona Red comments to choose from for COTN, but MikeMono had this statement that I definitely concur with regarding Corbin Carroll’s walk-turned-strikeout in the 3rd:
Coming Up
The D-backs face the Phillies in the second game of this three game set tomorrow at 3:05pm Arizona time. The Snakes’ best starter through the first month, Brandon Pfaadt, is scheduled to get the ball for the good guys and he will be opposed by veteran right-hander Aaron Nola who is scuffling to start 2025 with an 0-5 record with a 5.40 ERA.