There is a new entry in the handbook of toxic Arizona sports terms: Bullpen game.
It blew up our chances to win the 2023 World Series. And on Thursday, it might’ve ended the Diamondbacks’ unlikely push to the 2025 postseason.
The bullpen game was an unexpected twist in a season full of them. With 10 games remaining, the Diamondbacks announced they were going to a four-man rotation, to ride their best horses to the finish line. Six games later, they suddenly abandoned the plan before a pivotal matchup against the Dodgers.
It was the organization’s riskiest pitching decision since the 2023 World Series, when Joe Mantiply started Game 4 at Chase Field, and the Rangers led 10-0 after three innings.
This one wasn’t much better.
Left-hander Jalen Beeks looked great in the first inning, only to surrender a second-inning leadoff home run to Freddie Freeman, a left-handed hitter and noted Diamondbacks assassin. On script, manager Torey Lovullo went to his designated “bulk” reliever – Nabil Crismatt – and Andy Pages promptly launched another home run into the left-field bleachers. The opponent kept pouring it on until the champagne flowed in the visitor’s clubhouse, where the dreaded Dodgers celebrated another National League West title.
It was a bad deal for Crismatt, who was pummeled in his assigned role on Thursday. You hope it doesn’t eclipse his string of late-season heroics.
Lovullo indicated that both Zac Gallen and Eduardo Rodriguez each felt less than stellar, and that each could benefit from an additional day off. He added that Gallen has battled through an illness in his previous two starts, even though Gallen’s results have been terrific.
What a shame. The bullpen game occurred about 14 hours after another gut punch, a night when the Diamondbacks could almost touch and taste the postseason. Corbin Carroll electrified the crowd by throwing out a runner at home plate in the 10th inning, but just when victory seemed imminent and uproarious, Lovullo asked Geraldo Perdomo to sacrifice the ghost runner to start the inning.
The logic was baffling. Bunting to get a runner to third base with fewer than two outs is a good strategy with poor to mediocre hitters. It’s a terrible strategy with a MVP candidate like Perdomo, and it effectively handed the chessboard to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. Lovullo said his decision was based on analytics, but it took the bat out of Perdomo’s hands and the hands of Corbin Carroll and Gabriel Moreno. Roberts simply chose to walk his way down the lineup and let Jake McCarthy beat him, and McCarthy again failed to deliver in the clutch.
The Diamondbacks are not eliminated just yet. Lovullo correctly noted before the game that “we are in the land of nothing making sense.” No one will argue with that.
But Lovullo also correctly noted that the Diamondbacks were flying by the seat of their pants on Thursday, and unfortunately, that method of travel doesn’t guarantee a safe or smooth landing. And it can be a hard landing to a baseball season.
Reach Bickley at dbickley@arizonasports.com. Listen to Bickley & Marotta weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.
