D-backs Continue to Play Frustrating Baseball

The Arizona Diamondbacks dropped their series opener to the Miami Marlins 9-8 at Chase Field. They’re now 41-40 and are 3.5 games back of the Giants for the 3rd Wild Card spot.

If you came here expecting some hard-hitting analysis or deep-rooted explanation about what went wrong for the Diamondbacks last night, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Instead of a breakdown of what went wrong, I will share what I felt as it went by. Since I no longer have a publication, perhaps a topic worth opening up about in the future, there’s no reason to hold back or worry about “Who reads this garbage?”

In my 10-plus years writing about the team, I’ve assembled hundreds of game stories. Some have been a straight recap, while others have had an acceptable combination of analysis, narrative, and quotes woven in. Sometimes they work, most of the time it’s a hot mess of disjointed paragraphs.

Anyways, getting back to the game. I wrote a brief scouting report about Merrill Kelly against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday. It was a piece that didn’t necessarily have any purpose or intent behind it, but rather I was aiming to see how just publishing something would work.

On paper, it was supposed to be a matchup where Kelly was going to put up a quality start. It looked that way, as he retired the first 11 hitters of the game. At that point, the D-backs had a 1-0 lead and were grinding down Eury Pérez offensively.

Then all of a sudden, the game got away. Back-to-back doubles happen sometimes, especially considering how well Agustín Ramírez has been crushing baseballs this year. The game was tied but it was still a decent game up to that point.

As mentioned in the scouting report piece I published Wednesday, Stowers was going to be the toughest matchup for Kelly. Sometimes, I hate being right when I predict negative things. Especially since my negative predictions have resulted in me writing a piece on Substack that comes off as narcissistic by nature to anyone who still cares.

Stowers crushed a 108 MPH drive to straightaway center, with Alek Thomas being a step too slow to catch up to it. Thomas was shaded towards left center, so he had a long way to go.

Thomas’ defense had been an issue earlier in the season, but he’s improved with a healthier hamstring and better reaction time. There’s still an issue with his burst and route efficiency, although I recommend taking these metrics with a grain of salt. While he’s not a Gold Glove candidate, he’s played an acceptable level of defense at a premium defensive position. Statcast has him at +1 Outs Above Average and +2 Fielding Run Value. He’s done the bare minimum to hold onto the center field job.

Then the fifth inning happened. I walked away from that inning completely frustrated at how easily the whole team fell apart. It was a 2-1 game, and it was tiny mistakes that did them in.

Josh Naylor dropped a ball at first base after a good play by Geraldo Perdomo in the hole. Kelly committed a disengagement violation, penalized with a balk after his third throw to first failed to pick off Connor Norby. A four-pitch walk to the No. 9 hitter, a Cardinal sin by any pitcher, put another runner on base.

The frustrating part is Kelly also got in his own way. Xavier Edwards hit what should have been a tailor-made 6-3 double play, but Kelly stuck his glove up and deflected it away from Perdomo enough that no out was made. Despite that, Kelly had a chance to get out of it with minimal damage. He fielded a swinging bunt, and instead of eating it and conceding just one run, made the worst play I’ve ever seen by a D-backs pitcher and missed first base by 50 feet on the throw. It was so bad, I thought it hit something and deflected off-target.

Two terrible defensive plays cost the team two runs. That’s been the story of their season. While the offense is certainly good enough to carry the team, their pitching and defense have not been up to standard. Especially considering strong defense is a hallmark of a Torey Lovullo-run team. That’s not his fault, but there’s a clear problem with how this team executes on that side of the ball.

Despite all of that, the Diamondbacks’ offense put them right back in the game. Jake McCarthy clobbered a center-cut fastball from Pérez 111.0 MPH to right field for his first homer of the season. I had been tracking McCarthy’s progress in Reno, and he had been hitting the ball decently well down there. That was a good sign for him.

Then as the lineup turned over, thanks to a walk by José Herrera that ended Pérez’s night. Again, walking the No. 9 hitter, one that’s batting .174, is a Cardinal sin for a pitcher. Like with Arizona, that blew up against the Marlins as Perdomo greeted the Marlins’ first reliever with a pool shot to tie the game.

Like clockwork, the pitching gave it up again. Kelly served up a home run to Stowers to start the 6th. That ended his night and put the Marlins back in front. I don’t know how frustrating that is for the hitters to watch all their work undone in one pitch. That’s how I feel watching this team and the bullpen try to keep games close. With a league-average bullpen, this team is good enough to occupy a playoff spot despite the flaws with their rotation.

The bullpen came in, Juan Morillo gave up a run in the 6th. Morillo had been pitching well of late, so that was a bit of a shock. Even with that hiccup, I still think he’s the best closer candidate on the current active roster. They just need to start moving him towards the 9th inning in the second half of the year, especially if they deal Shelby Miller at the deadline.

I stopped watching at that point, confident this game was lost. I closed the MLB.tv tab for the game and started focusing on other things. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to write about this game, but I figured it was better to write crap with zero expectations and see where it goes, so here we are. If you want to leave at this point, I don’t blame you.

Tayler Scott, who I don’t know why he’s still on the team, gave up three more in the 9th. I guess they ran out of arms in Triple-A Reno, although it’s only a matter of time before Andrew Saalfrank will be needed.

Even with the bullpen having a bad game, the D-backs’ offense nearly rescued the game. Alek Thomas homered in the seventh. Thomas has three homers in June, hopefully a sign that he’ll hit for some power in the future to offset his poor plate discipline and on-base abilities.

They loaded the bases with no outs and Perdomo at the plate. In true Perdomo fashion, it was a long at-bat that ended in a walk to make it 9-6. Pavin Smith, who has been very mediocre with runners in scoring position all season, got a big knock to make it 9-8 and get the tying run to third. However, Tim Tawa could not give them the at-bat they needed and hit into a game-ending double play. Because that’s exactly what the 2025 Diamondbacks were going to do in that situation: come up short with the game on the line.

If you walked away from this game frustrated because the same things that have held this team back all season. I don’t blame your frustrations, this team has underachieved and will likely not come close to sniffing the playoffs. However, that was the case before their roster disintegrated due to the injuries.

Now that my rant is over, time to move on to the next game. Brandon Pfaadt will try not to get his teeth knocked in against the Marlins. There were some promising signs from his last start, so hopefully in a more neutral offensive environment he’ll get better results. First pitch is at 1:10 p.m. MST.

Writer Note: I might consider opening up a chat during the game if anyone is interested. Just as a warning, what I would post in a chat is going to be more blunt and honest than what I would post on X. I’ll put up a poll in the morning and it will require a 75% yes vote to consider doing.