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Arizona Diamondbacks left-hander Jalen Beeks (68) hands the ball to manager Torey Lovullo as he is pulled from the game against the Miami Marlins at Chase Field on Saturday, June 28, 2025. Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

How Diamondbacks Beat Themselves in Sweep by Marlins

Originally posted on Arizona Diamondbacks on SI
By Jack Sommers | Last updated Jun 29, 2025 8:43 PM ET

The Arizona Diamondbacks suffered a disastrous sweep at the hands of the Miami Marlins at home this weekend, dropping their record to 41-42. These are the three main series takeaways:

Arizona Diamondbacks' Bullpen, Again

The losses in all three games this series can be directly attributed to the ongoing failures of the bullpen. Friday night a 5-4 Marlins lead got stretched to a 9-5 lead in the late innings, putting the game out of reach despite a ninth-inning rally by the Diamondbacks.

In game two the D-backs held a 7-3 lead going into the eighth. They lost 8-7 in 10 innings. Then on Sunday a 2-1 lead in the eighth was turned into a 6-2 deficit. The D-backs fought back, but fell short, losing 6-4.

The pitching line for the bullpen this series was eye-wateringly bad, even for a unit that already ranked near the bottom of the league: 12.2 IP, 15, H, 14 ER, 9 BB, 17 K, 3 HR. For the year, the D-backs' reliever ERA now stands at 5.31 — 28th in MLB.

We are well beyond making excuses for the injuries to A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez. There is just no plausible explanation for why the bullpen is this bad. What's clear however is it's wearing on everyone, the front office, the manager, the players, and the fans.

Diamondbacks Torey Lovullo on late blown leads impacting his players mindset and at bats, causing them to sometimes give up hope

"It's a real thing" pic.twitter.com/Wl4xZNSHmp
— Diamondbacks On SI (@DbacksOnSI) June 28, 2025

Arizona Diamondbacks Defense Continues to Struggle

The D-backs made five errors in the series and gave up four unearned runs in the first two contests, both one-run losses.

Two errors committed in the final game, both by Eugenio Suarez, didn't result in any unearned runs, but did increase Eduardo Rodriguez's pitch count, causing his outing to be truncated at 5.1 innings and prematurely turning it over to the struggling bullpen.

Suarez's defense has been an issue since the beginning of the year. His two errors in Sunday's series finale brought his season total to 11, tied for the second-most in MLB.

While the advanced metrics show him as being only one or two runs below average in total, the errors have often came at inopportune times, leading directly to runs.

Torey Lovullo addressed his footwork and said that he was stabbing at the ball, rather than "dancing with the ball" in an honest breakdown of what he's seeing.

Torey Lovullo on Eugenio Suárez's Defense

Diamondbacks Standings Challenges Growing Large

The Diamondbacks are now 5.0 games out of the third NL Wild Card spot with four teams in front of them. Sunday's results show just how difficult climbing past those teams is going to be.

Just as the Padres and Giants start to stumble, both falling out of Wild Card positions, the Cardinals have won three straight to vault past them into the third spot.

The Reds meanwhile, who walked off the Padres Sunday, have a 2.5-game lead over the D-backs and also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker advantage at the moment, having swept Arizona earlier in the year.

The Diamondbacks are not going to be able to count on getting any help. Their only path to true contention before the July 31 trade deadline is to get at least four or five games over .500 and within a game or two of a Wild Card spot with nobody else in front of them.

Barring that, it's hard to see Mike Hazen getting overly aggressive with things as they stand right now.

If Hazen doesn't buy, then he'll either sell, or conduct some sort of hybrid version of buy-and-sell like he did in 2019. That team looked out of it at the trade deadline and actually played their way back into contention before collapsing in September to miss the Postseason.