The Diamondbacks had an opportunity to take the series against the Minnesota Twins, but completely unraveled in a six-run second inning and never recovered in a 13-6 loss.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Once again it was a missed chance to win a series against a team on track to play October baseball after taking the first game, continuing to add to the frustration of the 2024 Diamondbacks. With the St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, and New York Mets on a strong run, they’re quickly losing ground in the Wild Card race. Against teams with a winning record, they have won only two of eight series and an overall record of 16-25.
The Twins jumped all over Jordan Montgomery, with five hits against the first eight hitters. They loaded the bases with no outs to start the second. Montgomery punched out the No. 9 hitter, Kyle Farmer, to set himself up in a situation where a double play could have allowed him to escape the inning with no damage. He got his ground ball, but it was hit too deep in the hole at short for Geraldo Perdomo to make a play on.
From there, the inning completely unraveled. Jose Herrera committed catcher’s interference, allowing Minnesota to double their lead. Royce Lewis hit a high chopper down the third base line that Kevin Newman, in his first start at the position, had to range far to his right to glove. In his desperation to make a play, he airmailed the throw to second and two more runs came around to score. A sacrifice fly and a double extended the Twins lead to six, digging too deep a hole for the Diamondbacks to climb out of.
Montgomery came out again in the third, but it was clear he had nothing working on the day. Byron Buxton worked an eight-pitch at-bat before reaching on an infield hit to short. Willie Castro stung a ball to the left center gap for a triple. Manuel Margot drove in the Twins’ eighth run of the day on a sacrifice fly. A walk to Carlos Correa spelled the end of Montgomery’s start. His final like was eight runs allowed (four earned) on nine hits, one walk, and one strikeout over 2 2/3 innings.
Montgomery’s short start further stressed a bullpen that had to cover 5 1/3 innings the previous night. In the last two games, the bullpen has had to cover 12 innings. Scott McGough endured another rough outing, surrendering a three-run home run to Buxton in the fourth. Bryce Jarvis allowed two runs in the fifth but delivered three hard-earned innings to eat up most of the innings for the bullpen. Justin Martinez and Joe Mantiply each pitched a scoreless inning.
The Diamondbacks offense had no answers against David Festa for the first three innings. Festa was called up to start today in his major league debut in lieu of Chris Paddack, who was placed on the injured list with shoulder fatigue. Festa entered this game as the Twins’ top pitching prospect, and fifth highest overall, according to MLB. He opened the game with three hitless innings, his lone baserunner being a one-out walk to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in the second.
Ketel Marte broke the scoring drought in the fourth, launching his 17th home run of the season in the pool area at Chase Field. Later in the inning, the Diamondbacks strung together five consecutive two-out singles to score three more runs. They finished with six runs in the game, but were never able to get back into the game.
The Diamondbacks will play host to the Oakland Athletics at Chase Field over the weekend. Slade Cecconi (2-6, 5.74 ERA) takes the mound for Arizona while J.P. Sears (4-7, 5.04 ERA) pitches for Oakland. First pitch will be at 6:40 P.M. MST.
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Michael McDermott covers the Arizona Diamondbacks and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @MichaelMcDMLB
