Bryan Woo's Dominant Start Raises Concerns Over Diamondbacks Offense

The Diamondbacks had no answer for Woo, who pounded the strike zone and collected a combination of both swing-and-miss and soft-contact outs. Arizona could not even muster a base hit against the Seattle ace until the fifth inning.

The Diamondbacks picked up two hits off Woo — a single off the bat of DH Adrian Del Castillo and a 103 MPH line drive by first baseman Ildemaro Vargas. Those hits happened back-to-back in the fifth frame, and the baserunners were immediately stranded.

Arizona went down in order for two more innings against Woo, allowing the right-hander to throw seven dominant innings on two hits and zero walks. Arizona struck out nine times, with their 1-4 hitters going without a base knock.

Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll, Geraldo Perdomo and Gabriel Moreno combined to go 0-for-15 with one walk (by Perdomo in the ninth inning) and five strikeouts. Arizona did not record an extra-base hit on the night, with Ryan Waldschmidt providing the other base hit of the night — off the Seattle bullpen.

Part of Saturday night's poor effort can be attributed to an excellent performance and gameplan by Woo and the Mariners. Woo has a career ERA of 3.24, and lowered his season ERA to 3.44 with the seven shutout innings.

But the Diamondbacks' offense, which went an ugly 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position during Friday night's loss, simply looked out of sorts. They scratched their only run across in the ninth inning, as a passed ball by catcher Mitch Garver allowed Perdomo to score all the way from second base.

It's not so much a concern to be shut down by an elite pitcher. But the Diamondbacks failed to string together enough quality at-bats to force Woo's pitch count up and dig deep into a taxed Mariners bullpen. With as talented a top-four group of hitters as Arizona has, it's a bit concerning to see them struggle against the first truly dominant opposing pitcher they've seen since the soft spot in their schedule began.

With four games against the Los Angeles Dodgers and their stacked pitching staff coming up, Arizona will have to find a way to make noise against tougher starting pitching.