TL;DR: An ineffective offense failed to capitalize on opportunities, the bullpen imploded again as the rubber match went awry.
I recently heard the term “swing game” from another baseball broadcast when referring to a game that could be a hinge point for a team’s season. The broadcaster intended it to mean a game where a win could provide some much-needed momentum while a loss could blunt it instead. I think that’s an apropos way to describe today’s game for the D-Backs as they were coming off an “exhausting” road trip out east and staring down the opening of their season series against the hated Dodgers tomorrow. Unfortunately, the D-Backs continued their maddening inconsistency by displaying all of the same faults they’ve exhibited this season: iffy fielding, poor baserunning, and an inconsistent offense. Added together, it’s not exactly a shocker to look up and see the team sitting just one game over .500 six weeks into the season.
The D-Backs offense had plenty of early scoring opportunities as Kodai Senga was uncharacteristically erratic, passing out five walks through the first two-plus innings. But the D-Backs failed to plate a single one through seemingly every possible combination: a caught stealing in the first by Corbin Carroll, a bad bunt from Geraldo Perdomo and a double play ball from Pavin Smith in the third, and a perfect relay throw to nab Eugenio Suarez at home in the second.
Meanwhile, Merrill Kelly extended the run of solid starting pitching we’ve seen from the Arizona rotation that stretches back to the final game in Philadelphia. Through the first five-plus innings, Kelly only allowed two hits and an error until finally allowing an absolute mammoth home run from Juan Soto to dead center that finally broke the scoreless tie and gave the Mets a 1-0 lead. Understandably, with an absolutely gassed and bruised bullpen Torey Lovullo elected to keep Kelly in the game to start the seventh inning even after he allowed a leadoff double to Luis Torrens. He still stuck with him after Luisangel Acuna’s RBI-single and stolen base. It wasn’t until Jeff McNeil’s RBI-triple that Lovullo finally relented and brought in Jalen Beeks who tidily ended the inning on a groundout and lineout to limit the damage at a 3-0 Mets lead.
Sadly, it was just the beginning of the onslaught as New York would score in each of the final four frames. The eighth saw another home run from Soto that extended the lead, but it was the ninth that provided the real emotional dagger from the Mets. In another effort to preserve a bullpen that has been leaned on far too much, Lovullo decided to keep Jose Castillo on the bump after he finished the visiting half of the eighth. After retiring Acuna, Castillo handed out consecutive walks to the eight and nine-hitters Jose Azocar and Tyrone Taylor ahead of Francisco Lindor who turned a chest-high fastball into a two-run double down the line. Soto would add one more RBI to his stat sheet for the night on a sacrifice fly to left after Lindor waltzed into third on “defensive indifference” for the final Mets’ run.
There was little life from the Arizona offense from start to finish with Carroll providing the lone bright spot. In fact, of the team’s six total hits, he and Alek Thomas provided four of them with the duo combining for a 4-for-6 day with a pair of walks to Carroll. The rest of the lineup went a collective 2-for-24 on the afternoon with six strikeouts as the team stranded seven runners on base and hit 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position. Honestly, the only reason the team was even in a competitive position was due to Kelly’s stellar performance, collecting 12 swings and misses for the game.
Towards the end of today’s broadcast, Steve Berthiaume brought out another unhappy statistic that stuck out to me. In the team’s first six series, they went 4-1-1 while in their next six series including this one, they have gone just 1-5 with their only series win ironically coming against these same Mets last week in Queens. On a macro level, that’s not a sustainable pattern – especially when faced with the depth and competitiveness that the National League has demonstrated so far this season. I’m in no means suggesting that anyone should be overly concerned, but the team desperately needs to clean up its quality of play if they want to stay in contention this season.
