Record: 60-66. Pace: 77-85. Change on 2024: -10.
Any hopes that the D-backs would be able to shake off the malaise that infected them over the weekend in Colorado proved sadly unfulfilled. The offense basically no-showed until Geraldo Perdomo’s RBI triple with two outs in the ninth inning, and while Zac Gallen didn’t exactly pitch badly, his problem remained more or less what is has been all year. A pair of home-runs gave Cleveland all the offense they would need. Arizona dropped to 0-4 since the report on Thursday night about rumblings in the clubhouse regarding Ketel Marte. Much as I imagine we would like to deny any correlation, tonight’s performance will have done nothing to counter such whispers.
Worth noting, perhaps, that the attendance at Chase Field was clearly very light. It was notable even from the television coverage that beyond the first couple of rows in the outfield, there were an awful lot of empty seats. And so it proved, with the official attendance tonight only 16,815. As ’Hacks noted in the GDT, that’s the second-lowest home crowd of the season, ahead only of the 16,100 for a Wednesday game against the Rays on April 23. The Guardians are never exactly going to be a huge draw, but tonight’s crowd would suggest that local fans might be checking out of the 2025 Diamondbacks season. Again, recent reporting might draw clicks, but probably not at the turnstiles.
Gallen did deliver a quality start, albeit of the bare minimum category in both departments, working six innings and allowing three earned runs. He allowed five hits, but didn’t walk a batter; however, he only struck out three. While the overall numbers in August have been decent for Zac, with an ERA across his four starts of 3.52, three of those being quality starts, it seems to have come at the expense of swing and miss. Of the 97 batters Gallen has faced this month, in 23 innings, he has only 13 strikeouts. His overall K-rate for 2025 is down to 8.0 per nine IP – his career figure before this season was 9.8. It’s not fatal, but another thought-provoking point of data.
Tonight, though, it was the two home-runs which resulted in Zac being tagged with his 13th loss of the year. From 2022-24 combined, he only lost nineteen games in 93 starts. His HR rate for the year, of 1.6 per nine IP, is also easily a career high: the career figure was only 0.9 coming into this campaign. Tonight, it was a solo shot in the second, and a two-run homer in the fifth. It leaves him on 26, just one off the major-league lead for HR, currently shared between Tyler Anderson (LAA), Jake Irvin (WAS) and Zack Littell (CIN). The losses are also one behind the MLB worst for defeats of 14, currently owned – unsurprisingly – by a Rockies pitcher, Antonio Senzatela.
Good news! The bullpen threw three scoreless innings, between a pair for John Curtiss, and a ninth by Kyle Backhus. Together, they retired all nine batters faced. Wish they could have done that over the weekend in Coors Field – y’know, when it actually mattered. But tonight, there was no hiding from the ineptness of the Arizona offense e.g. going 2-for-14 with RISP in Sunday’s one-run defeat. They were 0-for-8 there until Perdomo flipped a pitch beyond the despairing dive of the right fielder in the ninth, to end the shutout and bring Ketel Marte to the plate as the tying run. But as yesterday, he ended the game in underwhelming fashion, striking out with two swings at pitches nowhere near to the zone.
Though it would certainly be wrong to pick out Marte for particular criticism, since there were plenty of underwhelming at-bats to pick from. Before the ninth, the Diamondbacks’ best chance to score had come in the sixth, when Corbin Carroll had a one-out infield single, then went to third on a hit and run, off a single by Lourdes Gurriell. That sent the Guardians to their bullpen, and Tyler Locklear came off the bench to replace Pavin Smith and face the left-hander. Three pitches and three swinging strikes later, he was carrying his pristine bat back to the dugout. Smith went 0-for-2, as was the other player recalled today, Ildemaro Vargas – both of his outs came with runners in scoring position. All told, Arizona left ten on base to Cleveland’s two.
Perdomo had two of the D-backs’ six hits, Carroll walked in addition to his single, and Blaze Alexander drew a pair of walks. But Alek Thomas was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, and all told, this was a painfully lackluster showing from the Diamondbacks at the plate. Far too many at-bats were simply not competitive, and the bottom of the order once again turned into a collective black hole. Tonight, the five through nine spots in the order went a combined 1-for-17, continuing the trend we saw against the Rockies. Again, I’m not going to say KetelGate IS to blame. But if there were to be a rampant distraction running around the clubhouse, the results would probably look not too different from tonight.
[Click to enlarge, at Fangraphs.com]
Front 242: Blaze Alexander, +5.4%
Skinny Puppy: Alek Thomas, -11.9%
Wumpscut: Ildemaro Vargas, -11.1%
The general sense of ennui which seemed to have infected the game was also apparent in the Gameday Thread, which ended at 143 comments. There were a few which went Sedona Red (or whatever is the equivalent these days), but I’m going to invoke executive privilege and go with this one by kilnborn, simply because it made me laugh. Amusement was severely in short supply this evening.
I saw Basic Instinct in 1992. The week after was a vacay trip to San Francisco. I am advised to redact the rest of the story. 🙂 Anyway, same two teams tomorrow night, with a 6:40 pm first pitch again at Chase Field. Eduardo Rodriguez will be on the mound for the Diamondbacks as they seek to avoid losing their fifth in a row.