Sedona Red Recap: Corbin’s shortest outing of season leads to Arizona’s second straight loss

On Monday afternoon, the Arizona Diamondbacks jumped out to a first inning lead on the Houston Astros, but it slipped away as their starting pitcher allowed seven earned runs over 3.1 innings.

On Tuesday afternoon, the D-backs jumped out to a first inning lead on the Astros, but it slipped away as their starting pitcher allowed seven earned runs over 3.1 innings.

See the pattern here?

Eight different Houston batters finished with at least one hit, five finished with at least one run scored and George Springer drove in four as the Astros knocked off Arizona by a final of 8-5 in front of 15,556 at Chase Field, in the second game of this home-and-home series.

The Diamondbacks have now dropped two straight, and the damage was done early in this one. In fact, Springer was just a triple shy of hitting for the cycle by the fourth inning. A day after manager Chip Hale reiterated the importance of Arizona’s starting pitchers going deeper into games, Patrick Corbin was forced to exit in the fourth inning.

That’s a lot to ask of the bullpen. In fact, D-back relievers have had to eat up 11.1 innings in the last two days.

They’ve pitched pretty well, yielding just one earned run in that stretch, but they’re going to need a rest at some point. And that means the club could really use a strong performance from Robbie Ray on Wednesday.

With the loss, Arizona is now 23-31 this season – and 9-20 at home.

THE GOOD

-Michael Bourn made an acrobatic catch that likely prevented a big first inning for Houston. With runners on first and second – and just one out – Evan Gattis lifted one towards the wall in center field. Bourn sprinted towards his right and made a nice grab across his body to stop two runs from scoring. He also recorded the second out in the process, and Corbin was able to escape the inning by fanning the next batter.

-In just his third appearance of 2016, Josh Collmenter gave the D-backs 2.0 innings of scoreless ball. That’s the second straight day he’s done that.

-Paul Goldschmidt is hitting .404 (19-for-47) over his last 14 games.

THE BAD

-Arizona has a total of three wins over the last three weeks in games started by anyone not named Zack Greinke. While Greinke has settled in, the rest of the starting rotation has struggled.

-With the bullpen being taxed pretty heavily, the D-backs now have two games in Houston on the schedule, followed by three in Wrigley against the high-scoring Cubs. Not exactly the teams you want to be facing in this scenario.

-Arizona relievers walked the leadoff batter in each of the final three innings.

STAT OF THE GAME

61: Total number of runs the Diamondbacks have allowed over the last eight contests. That’s an average of 7.6 per game. Taking it further, they’ve given up 51 runs in their six losses over that stretch (8.5 per game).

HE SAID IT

“I think there’s a level of concern with every part of our game right now. Starting pitching’s not giving us the length we need, for the most part. Zack’s settled in, obviously, but other than that, we’re not getting the consistency that we thought we were going to get. So we’re just going to have to keep working. That’s just the way it goes. Sometimes you get a good outing and you can get some good feeling and keep following it up, so Robbie Ray’s the guy tomorrow to get us going on that roll.” – Chip Hale

NOTED

-The Diamondbacks are now exactly one third of the way through their regular season schedule.

UP NEXT

These two clubs will head to Houston to play the final two games of this home-and-home series at Minute Maid Park. First pitch on Wednesday will be at 5:10 p.m., with pregame coverage beginning at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN Phoenix 620.

Robbie Ray (2-4) will take the mound for Arizona, looking to bounce back from a rough outing against the Padres on May 27. He allowed five runs on nine hits over just 4.2 innings in that one.

The 24-year old lefty is sporting a 4.65 ERA overall, and has picked up just one win in his last five decisions. He’s been strong on the road this season though, posting a 2.63 ERA in five starts away from Chase Field.

The Astros will counter with Mike Fiers (3-3), who is coming off back-to-back losses. On May 21, he was the tough-luck loser, surrendering just two runs over 7.0 innings in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Rangers. On May 27, however, he was touched up by the Angels to the tune of seven runs in 3.2 innings.

In three career starts against the Diamondbacks, the 30-year old righty is 1-2 with a 5.63 ERA.

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