D-backs offense remains flat in 1st game back from deadline, a loss to LAD

The Arizona Diamondbacks have some new faces in and some old ones gone in their first game after the trade deadline on Tuesday, but the result of the game was still familiar.

The offense only managed only one run in the first eight innings and the pitching wasn’t consistent in a 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“It seems to be the same theme,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said.

Alex Young had control issues throughout the night. He loaded the bases with one out in the first inning, and his second walk of the inning to Chris Taylor brought in the first run.

He limited the damage there, and only two of his four runs on the night were earned due to a throwing error by Eduardo Escobar in the fifth and a passed ball by Carson Kelly in the sixth. The Dodgers got a sacrifice fly in the fifth and a RBI double by Taylor in the sixth off those two occurrences.

Over 89 pitches in 5.0 innings, Young walked five and gave up six hits.

Lovullo and general manager Mike Hazen have emphasized the past few days the team’s lack of a good approach at the plate, and even though the D-backs are aware of the problem, they can’t fix it.

Through six innings, Arizona batters saw more than five pitches in only two of its 22 at-bats, and none of those got to a three-ball count.

Andy Young, taking the 25th Diamondbacks plate appearance of the game, works the team's first three-ball count. Then he strikes out. It is 6-1 Dodgers heading to the bottom of the seventh.

— Zach Buchanan (@ZHBuchanan) September 2, 2020

As usual, getting runners in scoring position, let alone taking advantage of it, was once again an issue. Singles by Tim Locastro and Ketel Marte in the third put Locastro on third with one out, and he stayed there. That was the only time in the game a D-backs runner was in scoring position.

The next time a D-backs hitter would reach base was when Locastro was hit by a pitch in the eighth. That ended a streak of 16 straight outs.

Kelly’s solo homer in the third inning and Nick Ahmed’s two-run dinger in the ninth produced the team’s three runs.

In his third appearance of the year, Joel Payamps gave up two earned runs in two innings before the recently called up Keury Mella threw a scoreless eighth.

UP NEXT

The D-backs play game two of their series against the Dodgers on Wednesday, with first pitch slated for 6:40 p.m. on Arizona Sports.

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