Diamondbacks Clubhouse Reaction After Another Frustrating Loss

Torey Lovullo, ever the player's manager, was there for his young rookie right after the play, trying to encourage him and build him back up. It did seem to help, as Tawa made a nice running grab up the middle, and spun to make a jump throw to nab the batter at first base. Lovullo described that encounter below

Zac Gallen was also accountable for his difficult evening. His command was off all evening, as he threw just 50 of 96 pitches for strikes and walked four batters. When asked if he thought he was out of the inning on the ball to Tawa, the pitcher responded "I've just got to make a better pitch"

Asked if he had spoken to Tawa about the play, Gallen said he hadn't, but said "This isn't about that. This is about me backing myself into a corner and not giving myself a chance to stay out there longer. It just comes down to executing, not giving out free passes, getting behind in the count, things like that."

Gallen gave some insight into his approach to hitters in tight situations. He was having difficulty getting the Orioles hitters to chase. But he viewed the walks early in the game different than the two he issued in the fifth.

"Maybe some of the walks earlier in the game were them laying off pitches. The walks in the fifth were more just me trying to make some good pitches. I was in a tight spot there, so I was trying to look for weak contact, look for swing and miss.

"When you get runners on base and you have walks, to me it's a little bit different than just walks early in the game with nobody one out or two outs."

Silent Bats

Despite Gallen's rough outing and Tawa's miscue, the fact is the D-backs scored just one run. 17 of the last 18 hitters were retired by Baltimore pitchers, with just one single breaking up that stretch. they had just five hits and were 0-6 with runners in scoring position. The only way to win a game when you hit like that is to toss a shutout.

The approaches seemed lacking in some of those at bats, especially over the final five innings. Asked if he was satisfied with the approaches, Lovullo did not sugar coat it.

"Not all the time. I'm not. I think we have to counter punch, have an off field approach. We hit some balls hard, we barreled up some balls. But I think handing one at bat off to the next and just understanding what the person before you has done, the pitches that you've seen, maybe see something, and continue to drive up the pitch count for a starting pitcher and get in the bullpen as soon as possible...that didn't happen"

Ryne Nelson

Ryne Nelson pitched the seventh through ninth innings, retiring all nine batters faced while striking out two. He was extremely efficient, needing just 31 pitches. This is Nelson's third outing of the season out of the bullpen.

The right-hander threw 50 pitches in his first game and 33 in his second. Now down to 31 pitches the third time out, Lovullo was asked if Nelson was still considered "stretched out" enough to step into a start if need be. He initially deferred to pitching coach Brian Kaplan, but also offered his opinion.

"I still feel like we have him stretched out. If something were to happen to one of our starters we could dump [Nelson] into that role and we'll see. We'll take it week by week with [Nelson]. We know he's going to need a little rest to recover. In three or four days we'll gas him up again and see how far he can go and then figure out the next week.

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