Zack Godley suffers big inning that bites D-backs in loss to Mariners

PHOENIX — Dee Gordon took off for third base while catcher Alex Avila was throwing the baseball back to the mound.

D-backs starting pitcher Zack Godley looked over and quickly reacted by trying to pick off the Seattle runner on his stolen base attempt, but his throw sailed into foul territory over the head of Eduardo Escobar. Gordon scored for the first run of the game to make it 1-0 Mariners in the third inning.

Things unraveled from there.

Godley gave up four consecutive hits after that, followed by an RBI sac fly, in a four-run Mariners fourth inning. The D-backs (71-57) went on to lose Friday to the Mariners (73-56), 6-3.

.@FlashGJr, playmaker.#GoMariners pic.twitter.com/aM4XtvwObP

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 25, 2018

“It is fair to point to that [errant throw], for me,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “Maybe there was just a loss in focus and concentration after that by Zack, because I felt like … outside of that inning, before and after, he was very effective.”

Aside from that third inning, Godley allowed just one run. But his total of five on the night matched the number of innings he pitched, bringing his final line to 5.0 IP, five runs (all earned), seven hits, no walks and seven strikeouts. He threw 75 pitches.

Godley disagreed with the notion that the errant throw was to blame for the rough inning.

“Not at all. That’s one play and one run. What matters is what happened after that,” Godley said. “I made good pitches and they put good swings on the ball. I threw a good curveball to [Mitch] Haniger and he put a line drive up the middle, and then I got two ground balls that, one went just out of the range of [Ketel] Marte and one went just out of the range of Goldy.”

Denard Span hit an RBI double after that to make it 3-0, and Kyle Seager picked up an RBI sac fly to make it 4-0.

The other run Godley allowed came on a solo home run by former D-backs outfielder Mitch Haniger.

Lovullo acknowledged after the game that there could be a trend with Godley having trouble throwing to bases, but thought it was correctable.

Again, Godley brushed off the notion that it was an issue.

“Not at all. None whatsoever,” he said when asked if he was concerned. “Again, that’s one play in the whole scheme of the game. That’s one run. If I come back and get the next three guys out and we take a three-run lead, it’s irrelevant. So we move on from it.”

Arizona reliever Matt Andriese was responsible for the Mariners’ sixth run in his two innings of work.

On the offensive side, the D-backs didn’t get much off Erasmo Ramirez, who allowed three runs but only one was earned. Arizona got its first run on an A.J Pollock sac fly that scored Nick Ahmed in the fifth, but scored two more in the sixth when the Mariners made a pair of errors. The second of those two miscues came with two runners in scoring position, both of whom scored.

But that was all the D-backs would get.

On the season, Zack Godley’s ERA increases from 4.44 to 4.59.

UP NEXT

The Diamondbacks will play two more in this Players Weekend series against the Mariners before going on a seven-game road trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Saturday’s probables are Wade LeBlanc (7-3, 4.04 ERA) for Seattle and left-hander Robbie Ray (3-2, 4.91 ERA) on the mound for Arizona. Then on Sunday, former Sun Devil Mike Leake will pitch for the Mariners against the D-backs’ Zack Greinke.

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