Torey Lovullo Addresses Diamondbacks' Late-Inning Pitching Decision

The Arizona Diamondbacks took a tough loss on Friday night, dropping what looked like an initially-winnable contest by a score of 8-2 to the Philadelphia Phillies at Chase Field.

Arizona's already-thin playoff hopes take another hit, as they fall to 3.0 games out of a Wild Card berth with eight games left to play.

The D-backs faced a mere 3-2 deficit as late as late as the eighth inning, but right-hander Jake Woodford would give up five runs (four earned) over the final two frames.

Naturally, those types of results cause intense scrutiny. Following Friday's game, manager Torey Lovullo spoke about the decision to use Woodford in the eighth.

Arizona Diamondbacks' Torey Lovullo Explains Pitching Decision

"We were up against it," Lovullo said.

"We had a couple situations that we could have chosen a different path. I like the right-on-right matchups for Woodford, and we're trying to get [the Phillies] pushed in the right direction, and just made a slider mistake to a mistake slider hitter, and that was the difference in the ballgame for me."

Lovullo said his bullpen, despite the off day Thursday, was dealing with fatigue. Some of his usual options were unavailable.

"We're a little bit tired in the bullpen right now. Not everybody's available, I'll tell you that, but it was just a decision that was made," Lovullo said.

"We had some other options in there, but I wanted to save those guys for a situation in case we took the lead. Wanted to make sure that we were in a good spot there."

Lovullo said left-hander Andrew Saalfrank was among those unavailable arms. Saalfrank has been dealing with back-of-shoulder fatigue.

"We're trying to figure out exactly what the pattern is and the usage for him. He's not 100%. He was one of the relievers that was unavailable today," Lovullo said.

One bright spot, however, was the debut of left-handed rookie Philip Abner. Abner allowed a hit and a walk, but collected two strikeouts — including one to star DH Kyle Schwarber.

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"It was nice to see him," Lovullo said. "He got two huge outs against really good hitters and drove balls into the areas that we wanted him to and didn't back down. It was a good first step for him. Very proud of him."

Ultimately, Arizona simply could not execute offensively, as poor as some of the late-inning pitching was.

"We've got to find a way to digest this, and just keep digging in and moving on. That's all we can do," Lovullo said.

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