Pitching collapses and a stagnant offense have pushed the Arizona Diamondbacks below .500, leaving them fighting to salvage a series split after squandering their early momentum against the San Diego Padres.
After a brilliant start to their series against the San Diego Padres, the Arizona Diamondbacks have dropped their second straight.
Now 45-47, this team sits 15.0 games back in the National League West. They're in sole possession of third place, currently one game behind the 46-46 Padres.
Thankfully for the Diamondbacks, they have a chance to salvage this four-game series. After taking game one, 8-0, the Padres took games two and three, 4-1 and 10-4, respectively.
Rookie Jose Cabrera took the loss on Wednesday, July 8. He gave up four earned runs on four hits in 4.1 innings, and from there the bullpen looked worse than it has all year.
Pitching struggles continue
The night prior, struggling veteran Zac Gallen once again took his team out of a game. The Diamondbacks offense couldn't' recover from his rough first inning, and while Cabrera weathered an early storm, Arizona allowed at least one run from the third to the seventh inning.
Again, Arizona jumped out to a 1-0 lead, but it led to nothing. They didn't score again until the seventh and eighth, but by the end of the sixth inning they trailed 8-1.
Cabrera gave up his four runs, but both Taylor Clarke and Juan Morillo struggled mightily. Neither have an ERA that's through the roof, but things just didn't work out in this game as Clarke allowed three runs on five hits while Morillo allowed two runs on three hits.
Clarke needed 27 pitches to get out of his inning. Together, he and Morillo combined for 41 pitches, 33 of which were strikes. There's no doubt they were pounding the strike zone, but it came at quite the cost and the Padres made sure to make them pay.
Silent two games for the offense
It seems like game one of this series took everything out of the Diamondbacks offense. After putting up eight runs, the team has managed to score just five in their last two games.
Arizona had no shortage of hits, 10 to be exact, but the Padres managed to score six more runs on just three more hits.
Nolan Arenado looked great with his three hits, and it was ninth-place hitter Tommy Troy who crushed his fourth home run of the season. Max Kepler stayed hot with a double, but the Diamondbacks left six runners on base and were just 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
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