For the first time since early June, the Diamondbacks have won three games in a row. Additionally, they are back above .500 for the first time since April 5th, when they held a 4-3 record.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!On Friday, with Arizona trailing the Blue Jays 4-2 in the 8th inning of their series opener, Alek Thomas stepped up to the plate with two outs and runners on second and third. On a 1-1 count, he perfectly placed a ball into left field, driving in a pair and evening the score at four apiece.
ALEK COMES THROUGH. ???? pic.twitter.com/V7b84ouZdM
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) July 13, 2024
Geraldo Perdomo then walked things off with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 9th.
On the Diamondbacks’ postgame TV broadcast, Torey Lovullo focused on grit again: “It was another gritty win, and that’s how we do it. That’s how we prepare to do it. That’s how sometimes we expect to do it, and we just didn’t shut down. We had some really frustrating moments where we were playing good baseball, gave up a lead, maybe had some runners in scoring position with two outs and couldn’t get that big hit. We just stayed with it.”
Speaking on Alek’s game-tying base knock in the 8th, Lovullo commented, “The key for me was setting up AT’s base hit that tied the score. It clearly gave us all the momentum and put us right back into the game.”
Setting up the big hit were a couple of drawn walks on six pitches from Geraldo Perdomo and Eugenio Suarez. They advanced on a pair of wild pitches. Regarding these at-bats, Lovullo noted, “That’s the type of team at-bats that I was talking about.”
The Diamondbacks’ skipper then spoke about Arizona finally getting back to .500 after a long couple of months dealing with a constant flow of injuries: “I’m proud of us for persevering and just keeping after it. It’s kind of what we do here. It’s not our final destination, but when you look at everything we’ve been through in the course of this first half, pre All-Star break, it’s been a lot. We’ve had to put up with a lot, we’ve had to deal with a lot, and being adaptable is a part of our culture.”
Stepping up recently amidst a handful of injuries to the Diamondbacks’ starting rotation has been Ryne Nelson. Improving his ERA from 5.69 to 4.92, Nelson has tossed three consecutive quality outings. This includes five innings against the Dodgers where he allowed one run, 6.2 innings against the Padres where he again allowed just one run, and seven innings against the Blue Jays on Friday where he allowed three runs.
The Diamondbacks have also received some help from the Padres over the past couple of days. Since the Padres walked off Arizona last weekend, they have lost five in a row. As a result, the D-backs are just one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the third and final Wild Card spot in the National League.
Despite injuries to three key arms in the rotation, the absence of Geraldo Perdomo and Alek Thomas for most of the year, and Corbin Carroll’s “Sophomore Slump,” the Diamondbacks could very well enter the All-Star break in a Wild Card spot if they close out their weekend series against the Blue Jays on a high note
