Torey Lovullo Had Honest Statement About D-backs' Ugly Meltdown

The Arizona Diamondbacks had a 3-0 lead on Monday night, facing San Francisco Giants ace righty Logan Webb. That lead lasted all of two innings, as the Giants would go on to belt five homers and win by a score of 11-5.

Manager Torey Lovullo, speaking with D-backs.TV's Todd Walsh postgame, had a simple message for his team.

Arizona Diamondbacks' Torey Lovullo Reacts to Meltdown Loss

"We've got to pitch better, we've got to execute, we've got to throw balls on both sides of the plate, finish off hitters, limit the bases on balls. Those are things that we talked about pregame," he said.

"Their ace is on the mound and we scored four quick runs on him. And you expect that to hold up, especially in this ballpark. But the way they started to slug the baseball, it didn't look like that was going to be the case."

It was not the case.

Starter Nabil Crismatt, who entered Monday's game with an exceptional 2.14 ERA in his firs four starts with the D-backs, suffered his first rough outing of the season.

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Crismatt gave up four runs on six hits and a walk. It was a pair of two-run homers that did all the damage. Despite the result, Lovullo said he thought Crismatt was putting the ball where he wanted to.

"He was executing. He's making some good pitches, but this team's hot. This team's swinging the bat extremely good. And I just felt like it was time to maneuver. There was a lot of hard contact, but he did his job," Lovullo said.

"It was four innings, kept us in the game. That's what our starting pitchers do. But I thought they executed a good game plan."

Unfortunately, for the second straight game, a defensive lapse cost the D-backs a big inning. Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo committed a throwing error that kicked off what would become a five-run ininng for San Francisco.

Perdomo's error might not have caused the entire inning, but it did continue a bothersome trend of poor defense at the wrong moments. For as often as Lovullo is known to be hard on his franchise shortstop, he had Perdomo's back on Monday night.

"He cares. He felt terrible. But I just think that the footwork got a little lengthy and he couldn't get that arm to catch up. It happens. He's an unbelievable shortstop and you've got to take the good with the bad sometimes," Lovullo said.

Arizona will get a chance to even the series on Tuesday, though time is running out for them to stay in an improbably Wild Card race.

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