The Diamondbacks dropped the second game of the series to the Houston Astros by an 11-5 score at Minute Maid Park. A pair of big innings, with the Astros scoring four in the fourth and five in the sixth, ultimately did Arizona in for their second straight blowout loss. They’ve now lost eight of their past 12 games.
“We got to play nine of our best innings and we can’t take it for granted,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo in his postgame breakdown with Todd Walsh on the TV broadcast. “We didn’t execute at some very critical times on the mound, we made some mistakes defensively. Just a couple of things we can pinpoint that will show up as it did today with a big crooked numbers and a big score against a team like this when you don’t play to the level you’re capable of playing.”
Eduardo Rodríguez got off to a solid start, allowing just one run in the first three innings. He was hitting his spots on the edge of the strike zone and needed only 41 pitches. The only run the Astros scored came in the third, in which Rodríguez limited the damage with a key double play ball.
But then, the fourth inning happened. With the Diamondbacks leading 3-1, Rodríguez put three straight batters on base with one out. There were a couple of tight calls on his first walk to Victor Caratini, but then he hit Jake Meyers on a 1-2 count and walked Ben Gamel to load the bases for Chaz McCormick. McCormick singled through the left side of the infield to tie the game.
The inning continued to unravel from there. After getting Jose Altuve to pop out to shortstop, Rodríguez was only one pitch away from getting out of the inning. However, he left a sinker in the middle of the zone to Yordan Alvarez, who ripped a single into right to give the Astros the lead. Eugenio Suárez booted a slow grounder to third base and a bases-loaded walk to Alex Bregman pushed Houston’s lead to two runs. By the time Rodríguez got out of the inning, he threw 44 pitches and was knocked out of the game.
“It looked like his location got away from him,” said Lovullo. “The command of all of his pitches was just a little off. I just think he has to command the ball better in those critical times the way that he can and lock it back in. I thought he was pretty good, it was just too much at that time.”
Even with the disaster inning from their starter, it was still a winnable game. Suárez made up for his error with a home run that cut the deficit down to one run. While they were facing an uphill battle, they still had a chance against the Houston bullpen with three innings to go.
But the bullpen did not deliver. Dylan Floro pitched a clean fifth inning but got battered in the sixth. McCormick and Altuve opened the inning with back-to-back singles to set up another RBI opportunity for Alvarez. Floro would get Alvarez on a soft line drive to right but gave up three straight hits, including the back-breaking three-run home run from Jeremy Peña that made it 10-4, to salt this one away.
The shame about this game is the pitching wasted a solid offensive performance. The Diamondbacks pounded out 10 hits and two home runs, with Kevin Newman joining Suárez in the home run parade, consistently putting traffic on the bases against the Astros pitching. However, they failed to capitalize further in run-scoring situations, as they were 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base. With a struggling pitching staff, missed opportunities have haunted them.
With the number of games left in the season dwindling, there are very few opportunities left to lock in a postseason spot. They have 19 games left in the season and are tied with the Braves and the Mets in the loss column at 64. Depending on how those games go, their lead for a postseason spot could only be half a game. But Lovullo doesn’t want his way to focus too much on that.
“If I could say something to them right now, it would be that we’re going to be okay. But we got to go out and play our game and do things the way we can. Not get sidetracked, not get distracted. Focus, lock it in, commit, and go 1-0 today. That’s been our mindset every single day. There are times to be distracted in this game, we know it’s there in front of us, but we can’t worry about that. We got to lock in for nine of our best innings.”
The Diamondbacks will try to salvage the series finale against the Astros to try to stay ahead of the Mets in the Wild Card race. Arizona will send red-hot right-hander Ryne Nelson (10-6, 4.15 ERA) against Justin Verlander (3-5, 4.52 ERA). First pitch at Minute Maid Park is at 4:10 P.M. MST and will be broadcast on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.
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