Bickley Blast: Is it time to start worrying about the Arizona Diamondbacks’ vibes?

Bickley Blast: Is it time to start worrying about the Arizona Diamondbacks’ vibes?

and Marada boardings. Arizona sports, the local sports leader, Biggley Blast. It has become the most important question on the internet. So, who are you taking? The 100 humans or the gorilla? Or more locally, who are you taking? The 100 Diamondbacks or the one New York Met? Doesn’t seem so absurd now after the loss last night. the worst loss of the season. A game in which Eduardo Rodriguez gave up eight runs in the first four innings. A night when the Diamondbacks were never in the game, blown away from start to finish, which is usually the case whenever they play the Mets in City Field. By the way, it’s the first time Rod has allowed eight or more runs in nine years. It’s the first hammer and nail loss of the season, and I’m starting to get a little worried about the vibe of this team. After all, the Diamondbacks seem to be bringing out the magic in everyone else. Gino Suarez, four home runs in a game, and they still lose. 10-run rally in the eighth inning of Wrigley and they still lose. And last night, the Mets put together one of the best half innings of defense in history, flexing on us, the team that was supposed to be the Kings of Leather. Now, after the game, Tory Lavell said the Diamondback should be inspired by the Mets level of defense. But personally, I think it’s time for the manager to flip a table or two because all of this coddling is not working. And this idea of slow rolling your way into baseball season is getting very old very fast. All right, today’s Bickley Blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW. Make luxury attainable. Find them online at chapmanbmw.com. I’m kind of leaning towards you, Bick. Um, great time to flip a table, especially when you do it in somebody else’s ballpark, too. Oh, absolutely. That’s funny. That’s pretty good, right? There’s no real damage to your facility when that happens. Yeah, we saw, you mentioned it, too, maybe the the best half inning of defense we’ve seen in quite some time. And it was the polar opposite of what we saw in the fifth inning of game five of the World Series last year. That’s right. from the Yankees who were put to forth the worst defensive half inning I’ve ever seen when Aaron Judge couldn’t catch fly ball. But it was it was remarkable and those kind of plays are contagious and the Diamondbacks don’t typically make those plays right now or at least they’re not and we we’ve seen them be capable of that. Their defense has been incredibly disappointing so far this year. Very much so. And and again, this idea, how many times have we heard Tory Lavell talk about not going from 0 to 60, about you’re not going to blow guys out. I can’t do that. I’ve got to worry about their health. I listen, I I in a perfect world, I agree with Tory Lavell, but this isn’t a perfect world, and this hasn’t been a perfect start to the season. And by contrast, Corbin Carroll, the stories that have come out now on remember when he was asked, “Did you work out on Christmas Eve?” And his answer was, “If it was a Monday through a Saturday, then yes.” Remember that? Yeah. So there was nothing there’s nothing slow rolling about Corbin Carroll and he’s one of the best players in baseball. So with all due respect to Tory Lavell when I look at this baseball team I’m going to side with the hit the ground running. I’m not siding with a it just we just need to slow these we need to keep everyone health. We we just need No, you can’t be cautious and wait for games later in the season that might not be meaningful. Not when I’m seeing Corbin Carroll do exactly the opposite of what Tory Lavell is saying and having incredible success at it. Yeah, he’s arguably been the best player in baseball so far this year. So, uh, this is and maybe it’s my maybe it’s just my blood pressure spiking watching this team yesterday, but it just it was a non-competitive loss. Yeah. After the third inning, the Diamondbacks had a 3% chance of winning that game. We’ve not had games like that this year. No, you’re right. It was it was start to finish domination. But also to your point about easing into things too. I mean a lot of that lines up with schedule and the schedule they’re in the tough part of their schedule right now. Their next five series are all monsters and you know that’s where it didn’t jive with maybe easing guys in because they didn’t take advantage of softer spots on their schedule. The mo the most recent home stand is a perfect example. Tampa Bay, yeah, they’re kind of a you know a pest of a team. You should beat them two out of three. The Atlanta Braves were playing better baseball, but you got to win that series. Yes, you do. And now you’re in the thick of it and you’re playing a team that’s very, very hot. And last night, the difference in the team showed it. It’s And again, if if you if you haven’t seen the inning of defense the Mets put on the field. Top of the fourth inning, it was one incredible play after another. Right. So, first up, Randall Gritic hits a shot off the third baseman’s glove. It goes right to Francisco Lendor who throws in one motion to first base and and he gets Gritic out by about five steps. So it looked in one minute it looked like okay that’s going into left field and then he’s out like a half a second later. Yeah. Then the next batter Lordis Guriel Jr. gaps one and the Mets center fielder what’s his name again? Tyrone Taylor. Tyrone Taylor. Incredible diving catch going face first into the warning track which is not fun surface to slide on. makes an incredible grab. And then the next hitter, Gino Suarez, 118 mph exit velocity, one hopper, Francisco Lindor, was like nothing. It was like he was playing softball. Yeah. And he just picked it, threw it, and it was like that that is that’s elite level defense. And it’s not just the defense that that has plagued the Diamondbacks. I mean, certainly yesterday the biggest storyline was starting pitching. Eduardo Rodriguez was just not good. Didn’t give his chance team a chance to win the game, which as you pointed out has been rare. So that gets washed over offensively and maybe Rodriguez’s performance puts a band-aid on the def on the offensive struggles that some players are having, but Sammy asked it earlier. Lordis Goreiel Jr. his last six I mean he hasn’t been really productive all year, but his last six games he’s three for 22. He’s putting the ball in play. He’s only struck out once in that time in that time span, that’s a 136 average. And if he’s not hitting with the lack of offense and pop you’re going to get from your center field position, which is either going to be Thomas McCarthy or now Barrosa’s in the mix, not a whole lot of offensive production coming from those guys either. Lordis Gore Jr. really, really needs to pick it up at the plate. Totally agree with that. Uh the one bright spot out of last night was Ryan Nelson came in and gave the team a a handful of really really good innings. Uh I I hope we don’t get to the point in time where you we need to start thinking do they need to sub out one member of this starting rotation. Uh but they’re they’re doing their best to keep Ryan Nelson stretched out enough to the point where if if you know if there’s an injury that he’s going to be able to do it. It it was just good to see him be that effective last night. Yeah. I mean, I I agree with you and I had to look pretty hard for a bright spot last night. That would probably be it because he threw almost the exact same number of pitches that Rodriguez threw over four innings, scoreless innings. But how much of that was Mets in in, you know, coasting mode? I mean, they were up eight nothing. So, a good point. I mean, I think there’s a little psychology involved. Now, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a valuable situation for Ryan Nelson to get that success over four innings. And certainly it was valuable for the Diamondbacks who were in the efforts as you mentioned to keep Brian Nelson stretched out in case something happened. So they checked a couple boxes there. But I think the Mets were were pretty satisfied by the time Ryan Nelson got in in I think you’re right. I think you’re right. The other bit of good news and Sammy has used this in the trending and what’s trending is that AJ Puck is not going to have surgery. So he will be back at some point this season. When that is is up for grabs. So yeah, I mean I guess there’s that that that is good news. Kevin Ginkle didn’t get to use him last night, but having him back is is a big piece for that bullpen, too. And meanwhile, Justin Martinez claims his arm is fine, so I don’t know what happened to his fastball, but he claims he’s okay, so we’ll see. Weird season so far. You could say that again. Thanks for watching Bickley and Marada. Click to see the latest Bickley Blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

Dan Bickley says he is starting to worry about the Arizona Diamondbacks’ vibes on his Bickley Blast.

Subscribe to the Arizona Sports daily newsletter: https://bit.ly/3QWcj1x

Read articles from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/

Download the Arizona Sports app: https://arizonasports.com/the-arizona-sports-98-7-fm-app/

Sign up for texts from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/text-alerts/

Listen live to Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/listen-live/

Watch live: arizonasports.com/watch-live

Follow the team: https://bit.ly/3R0PIAJ

ARIZONA SPORTS SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaSports/

X: https://x.com/azsports

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@arizonasports987

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arizsports/

ARIZONA SPORTS PODCASTS: https://arizonasports.com/category/podcasts/

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports

#arizonadiamondbacks #dbacks #mlb