{"id":765488,"date":"2026-07-30T15:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/765488\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T15:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:12:15","slug":"diamondbacks-secure-tie-breaker-split-against-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/765488\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks secure tie breaker split against Pirates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Diamondbacks are going to play the matchups with a bullpen that has been deeper than in previous seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI\u2019ve made an adjustment,\u201d Lovullo told Diamondbacks broadcaster Todd Walsh on the postgame show. \u201cI\u2019m going to mix up some roles a little bit and get Paul back on his feet. \u2026 We\u2019re going to have roles, matchups to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Manager Torey Lovullo did note that, for now, the D-backs would likely go based on matchups. But a closer-by-committee tends to be more successful when there is one or two primary closers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Arizona currently carries eight relievers. They\u2019ve all had some level of success this year and have overperformed as a group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">With the exceptions of Sewald and of right-hander Gerardo Carrillo \u2014 who is a rookie, and currently the long man of the bullpen \u2014 let\u2019s take a look at the potential closer committee members<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Diamondbacks are only $6-7 million away from facing luxury tax penalties for the first time in franchise history, Arizona Sports\u2019 John Gambadoro reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The club will not set off those penalties, which include an increasing tax rate and the loss of money it receives from redistribution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The move was announced minutes before the Angels and <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/mlb\/teams\/houston\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Astros<\/a> were set to start the third game of their series in Anaheim. O\u2019Hoppe, who started behind the plate in the Angels\u2019 3-2 loss on Tuesday, was not in the lineup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Skubal made history early in his start on Wednesday. He entered the game with 999 career strikeouts and fanned Taylor Ward, the game\u2019s first hitter, to join the 1,000-strikeout club. Skubal got there in 857 career innings, far and away the fewest in Tigers history. The previous franchise record holder, Max Scherzer, recorded his 1,000th strikeout in 944 \u2154 innings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">As the Tigers (51-58) fade in the AL Central and Wild Card races, Sabathia believes now is the ideal time for Detroit to acquire \u201call the pieces\u201d it needs to replenish its farm system and MLB roster. A potential deal for Skubal could see the Tigers \u201crun through\u201d a team\u2019s farm, with multiple top prospects and MLB-ready talent likely coming back to Detroit in any deal for the two-time defending AL Cy Young Award winner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">That\u2019s why Sabathia is adamant about the rare opportunity Detroit has in front of it, saying it \u201cmakes no sense\u201d to keep Skubal when the chance to re-tool on the fly is on the table.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Boston Red Sox infielder Curtis Mead is tentatively expected to miss 6-8 weeks due to the wrist fracture he sustained in his first game with the team, Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The timeline threatens to sideline Mead for most if not all of the remainder of the regular season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Diamondbacks are going to play the matchups with a bullpen that has been deeper than in previous&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,14273,4314,5,38,4,39029],"class_list":["post-765488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizona-diamondbacks-news","tag-arizonadiamondbacks","tag-baseball","tag-diamondbacks","tag-mlb","tag-snake-bytes"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117009576319873089","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}