D-backs analyst: Bullpen struggles take a toll on a team

Arizona Diamondbacks color commentator Tom Candiotti knows the effect some of the losses the team has suffered of late can have on a clubhouse.

Sure, the D-backs have held late leads, yet they have routinely coughed them up.

“That’s the thing that I think a lot of people don’t get,” Candiotti told Arizona Sports 620’s Doug and Wolf Friday. “When the game’s over, you lose a game like that at the very end — you have control of the game, you get a blown save, then you lose the game — and you walk into that locker room and everyone is fried, they’re just mad.

“You’re taught as players you don’t want to finger point, you’re in this as a team, you’ve got different elements of the team. You know, we’re all in this together. But it’s a devastating loss when that happens, and then when it’s happened a few times it becomes almost to the point you’re thinking ‘alright, what’s going to happen this time?'”

The Diamondbacks are entering their game Friday night with a 15-13 record, which is good enough for third in the NL West. They own a league-worst 10 blown saves, though are 6-4 in those games.

However, the uncertainty now when the game gets handed over to the bullpen is real, and it’s not easy to deal with. Because now, Candiotti said, it’s tough to be confident that once David Hernandez, J.J. Putz, Heath Bell and company come into the game then the win is practically locked up.

“So far they haven’t been lights out this year,” he said.

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