Arizona Diamondbacks: Loss to Marlins prevents champagne party

Despite losing, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ magic number for the post-season is reduced to one.

Keep the champagne on ice.

In a game uncharacteristic of the way manager Torey Lovullo would like his Arizona Diamondbacks to engage, the Diamondbacks will have to wait to at least one more day to pop their champagne corks.

A combination of walks and errors helped the visiting Miami Marlins delay the Diamondbacks’ bubble bath. Aided by three errors and two on consecutive plays from starting pitcher Taijuan Walker, six walks overall and a hit batter, the Marlins managed a 12-6 victory over Arizona before 39,259 in Chase Field.

Despite a loss by the St. Louis Cardinals to the Pittsburgh Pirates which reduced their magic number to one, the Diamondbacks could not take advantage of clinching their first spot in post-season play since 2011.

While losses are expected in any protracted baseball season, it was the way the Diamondbacks gave this one away which irked Lovullo. At the same time, Diamondbacks’ pitching staff has given up 23 runs in the first two games of this series to the Marlins.

After the defeat, Lovullo told Call to the Pen his team has not lost its focus.

"“We’re aware of what’s going on around us,” he said in reference to losses by the Cardinals and Rockies Saturday. “There’s still some excitement. We didn’t close the deal (Saturday) the way we wanted. We’ll come out (Sunday) and do things right.”"

Before Saturday’s game, Lovullo was asked about his recent struggles of his starters. Highlighted was the uneven outing experienced by Zack Greinke on Friday night against the Marlins, Greinke went only four innings and allowed eight runs.

To that point, Lovullo told Call to the Pen that a baseball season transpires in cycles and that his starters are, in the last number of starts, experienced a down-turn. That continued Saturday when Walker struggled with his pitch count and fielding.

More from Arizona Diamondbacks

• Can we expect late-season runs for the Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks?
• MLB rumors: Arizona Diamondbacks taking less aggressive approach at MLB trade deadline
• Trade deadline: NL West for sale, plus Dodgers, Giants, Diamondbacks wish list
• Arizona Diamondbacks: Are they a pretender or contender for the NL West and more?
• Mike Hazen’s impact on the Arizona Diamondbacks: An interim grade

On a night when the Diamondbacks had champagned iced and their ticket to post-season stamped, Walker seemed the party to place a celebration on hold.

After tossing 41 pitches in the third inning and another 34 in the fourth before he was pulled, Walker told Call to the Pen he was simply unproductive. Add two errors on two plays in the third by Walker, he was candid in his explanation why things went south quickly.

"“When you throw that many pitches in one inning (the 41 in the third), you get tired and frustrated,” he said. “I didn’t do my job, and did not have the shut-down inning which could allow us to come back.”"

Down 7-5 in the fifth, the Diamondbacks reached to within one on a one-out homer from J. D. Martinez. That was Martinez’s 14^th blast this month, and that set a club record for most homers in one calendar month.

That pulled the Diamondbacks to within one, but that was the final Arizona hit of the game. From that point, the Diamondbacks managed only two base runners. One was a lead-off walk to Jake Lamb in the sixth, and Paul Goldschmidt reached on an error from Miami third baseman Brian Anderson with one out in the seventh.

Been there, done that

Miami Marlins’ manager Don Mattingly is used to clinching post-season positions in Chase Field.

As manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mattingly guided L. A. to three straight NL Western Division crowns before separating from the team. In a 14-year career with the New York Yankees, he never appeared in a World Series game, and finished with a .307 career batting average.

The most noted of Mattingly’s clinchers was in 2013. That’s when many Dodgers celebrated their trip to the post-season,  jumped into the Chase Field pool and caused concern. Speaking with Call to the Pen before Saturday’s game, Mattingly recalled the moment, and buffered his comments with a sense of liberation.

"“The sense of winning is great, and you play your entire career for a moment like that,” he said. “That relief is something special, and the players at that time recognized that moment.”"

Going forward …

Before Saturday’s game, manager Torey Lovullo told Call to the Pen that his rotation will stay the same for the rest of the regular season, and he will not change methods nor the process. That was in reference leading up the wild card game that is slated for Wednesday Oct. 4.

With that approach guiding his club, Lovullo named lefty Patrick Corbin (14-13, 4.14 ERA) to start on Sunday against the Marlins, and help clinch a spot in post-season play.

That creates a unit of Zack Godley, Robbie Ray and Zack Greinke to face the San Francisco Giants in the final home series of the season. With Greinke starting Wednesday afternoon, that sets up the veteran right-hander to start the wild card game for Arizona on Oct 4, likely in Chase Field.

Next: Blue Jays need to move on from Tulo

Should the Diamondbacks prevail in the wild card contest, that allows Robbie Ray to open the NL Division Series against the Dodgers in Dodger Stadium, a venue where the flame-throwing lefty has pitched well.