Diamondbacks sloppy play costly in loss to the Marlins

PHOENIX — The Diamondbacks had a chance to take the series finale against the Miami Marlins. Blake Walston was solid in his first major league start, but the hitters struggled to muster up any offense for the second time in this series. The defense wasn’t sharp in this game and one sloppy inning came back to bite them in a 3-1 loss.

Walston looked strong out of the gate, retiring the first three hitters of the game in impressive fashion. Despite dealing with traffic the rest of the way, he made the necessary pitches to keep the Marlins off the scoreboard. He finished with 4 2/3 scoreless innings, with just three hits, one walk, and five strikeouts. With a lot of uncertainty with the starting rotation, it was an encouraging start for the young left-hander.

Walston began to falter in the fifth. After retiring the first batter, he walked No. 9 hitter Nick Fortes then gave up a single to Dane Myers. Bryan De La Cruz hit a sharp ground ball up the middle, but Kevin Newman made a diving stop and a shovel toss to second to get the force on Myers. That became a pivotal play in the game and Walston’s final hitter of the day.

“Blake, for me, was more than efficient,” said Lovullo. “It looked like he was getting a little loose with his stuff. I don’t like to clip a starting pitcher that early, but I wanted to handle him with care. He did his job, stepped off the mound, kept us in the game.”

Justin Martinez entered with runners at the corners and fell behind Josh Bell 3-0, but retired the Marlins DH on a flyout to center. Martinez was in trouble again in the sixth following a leadoff walk to Jake Burger on four pitches. Still, he escaped the inning by striking out Emmanuel Rivera and Jazz Chisholm Jr. on splitters before retiring Tim Anderson on a broken-bat liner to short. The young right-hander continues to show improved strike-throwing ability and is slowly working towards a more impactful role in the bullpen.

The pivotal inning for the Marlins came against Kevin Ginkel in the seventh. Again, it was started by the No. 9 hitter reaching base as Fortes singled with one out. Pinch-hitter Jesus Sánchez exploited the open hole between first and second for the Marlins’ second baserunner of the inning. De La Cruz hit a ground ball to the hole at short, with Newman able to backhand and quickly release the ball but the throw was wide of the bag and hit Sánchez. Fortes scored from second on the play. A wild pitch preceded a two-run single by Jake Burger, which put the Diamondbacks down multiple runs.

“We kind of blinked first, we made an error, it was a tough play,” said Lovullo. “When the margins are that small and you’re grinding the way we are offensively, every little thing matters. It ends up leading to a bunch of unearned runs. Acknowledging that it was a tough play, but we typically don’t make mistakes in those scenarios. That’s what I want to focus on, how can we continue to win those little inches that don’t put us in the situation we ended up in.”

Arizona hasn’t shown much ability to recover from trailing multiple runs this season, and they are now 1-24 in such games in the 2024 season. At that point, they trailed by three runs and only had nine outs left. The Diamondbacks got an infield single from Gabriel Moreno in the seventh and a triple from Corbin Carroll in the eighth, but never got the potential tying run to the plate in their final three trips to the plate.

“Offensively, we just couldn’t get anything going,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo. “It’s causing me a great deal of frustration, because our guys are good hitters. They are talented, they are able to walk up with a game plan, they are able to execute that game plan. When you’re walking up there and thinking little, big things happen. We got to get back to that mindset.”

The Diamondbacks are off on Monday, but will travel to Arlington to play the Texas Rangers for the front half of a home-and-home series. Right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (2-3, 4.05 ERA), who has a five-start quality start streak, will take the mound for Arizona while the Rangers have not determined a starter just yet. First pitch at Globe Life Field will be at 5:05 PM MST.