PHOENIX — Sunday was an eventful day for the Arizona Diamondbacks with good news and bad news.
Ketel Marte was presented with his All-Star Game jersey pregame, while Corbin Carroll and Eugenio Suarez were selected to join him at the Midsummer Classic. Pavin Smith and Ryan Thompson hit the injured list, providing more adversity for an already banged-up team looking to stay competitive.
Finally, the Diamondbacks ended a 10-game homestand with a shutout loss to the Kansas City Royals, 4-0. They went 3-7 during this stretch at Chase Field to fall further behind in the National League Wild Card race.
“ The homestand was set up by a couple tough losses in the Miami series,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “It just continued to build frustration. That’s just the nature of the game and where we’re at right now. … You go 3-7 at home in a space we feel very comfortable playing in with great fans and it doesn’t work out? It’s really frustrating.”
The lineup did nothing on Sunday against Royals starter Michael Lorenzen, who threw seven scoreless innings with two hits and seven strikeouts. He struck out four of the first five batters.
Arizona’s first hit came in the fifth inning, a Randal Grichuk double. Its next hit was a Geraldo Perdomo single in the seventh.
The Diamondbacks (44-46) entered Sunday as the lone team in MLB with a single shutout loss, which came on April 11 against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Boston Red Sox have the next fewest at three.
The D-backs finished the game with three hits, which tied a season low.
On the mound, Anthony DeSclafani received the spot start for Arizona to give its rotation an extra day off during this 17 games in as many days stretch.
DeSclafani had been working in long relief, and he started the game with three hitless innings. The Royals got to him in the fourth on solo home runs from Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez.
Kansas City tacked on two more runs in the fifth, as DeSclafani finished with four earned runs in four innings pitched.
“You want to play downhill baseball and put a little pressure on them and (Kansas City) did,” Lovullo said. ”Overall just a frustrating day. It didn’t have any rhythm to it. If we had scored first, maybe it would’ve been a totally different outcome.”
Bryce Jarvis, who was recalled in place of Thompson, provided valuable length in the bullpen with four shutout innings.
Diamondbacks deny hitting Salvador Perez on purpose
The first pitch Perez saw on Sunday was a sinker that plunked him. When he came up to bat again, he crushed a ball “600 feet,” by DeSclafani’s estimation (415 feet officially). Perez appeared to talk during most of his way around the bases at multiple D-backs players.
These two teams had a heated moment last season when former D-backs reliever Humberto Castellanos hit Witt with a pitch when the young All-Star was a single shy of the cycle. Perez came up to the top step to voice his displeasure. After D-backs catcher Gabriel Moreno was later hit by a pitch, Lovullo and Perez exchanged words as Lovullo was ejected.
Fast forward to Sunday, and Perez told reporters he was just playing around while rounding the bases.
Salvador Perez was hit by a pitch in his first at bat.
He blasted a home run in his second.
He started jawing at the #Dbacks the second he hit it, including an animated convo with Ketel Marte.
Think he was telling DeSclafani to not pitch inside if he can’t control it. pic.twitter.com/mZArMJJbSb
— Jake García (@Jake_M_Garcia) July 6, 2025
“ Maybe he thinks we hit him on purpose. I don’t believe in it. We did not hit him on purpose,” Lovullo said. “I don’t know what happened on that pitch, but I don’t agree with anybody that says we did it on purpose. … If he feels like we hit him on purpose and then he rounded the bases and had some things to say, I have no problem with it.”
“ I know there were some guys questioning what he said,” DeSclafani added. “Once I saw the ball travel 600 feet, I just canceled everything else out. … Obviously there was no intent to hit him. Just trying to go in and got away and obviously you see what happens when it doesn’t go in.”
Up next for the Diamondbacks
The Diamondbacks will play seven road games in Southern California leading up to the All-Star break. They begin with four games at the San Diego Padres, a team they are chasing in the Wild Card push, followed by three games at the Los Angeles Angels.
Arizona is 2-1 this year against San Diego.
First pitch on Monday is at 6:40 p.m. MST with Zac Gallen on the mound for Arizona against San Diego veteran right-hander Yu Darvish. Darvish is making his first start of the season after he dealt with elbow issues to start the campaign.
“I don’t want anybody to look forward to the break,” Lovullo said. “I want us to play all the way through it. … We’re right in that critical point of determining which way our season will go.”
Catch Monday’s game on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app.
