Diamondbacks’ struggles vs. Mets continue with baserunning mistakes, blown lead

PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks’ lack of execution in critical spots on Thursday led to a series loss against the New York Mets, who have claimed four straight sets at Chase Field dating back to 2019.

The Mets took a 3-2 lead in the ninth inning after New York’s Jose Iglesias punched a 101.5 mph sinker from Justin Martinez up the middle for an RBI single. Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo dove to get a glove on the ball but failed to come up with it.

New York closer Edwin Diaz, a day after he served up a game-winning grand slam to Corbin Carroll, rebounded to earn the save.

This was a game in which the Diamondbacks (76-58) were picked off twice by Mets starter David Peterson and recorded another out on the bases from a Joc Pederson caught stealing to end the eighth inning.

With Lourdes Gurriel Jr. up 3-1 in the count, manager Torey Lovullo said he banked on ball four or for Gurriel to put a fastball in play. Gurriel took a slider for a strike and Pederson was thrown out easily. It was not a hit-and-run, but the D-backs did not anticipate the slider from Jose Butto.

David Peterson’s second pickoff of the day! pic.twitter.com/jnhSvNvWeY

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 29, 2024

“We highlighted his move, his step-off move in particular,” Lovullo said of Jake McCarthy and Randal Grichuk getting picked off. “We talked about it. Video was seen by these players. We just got clipped. … We gave them an inning’s worth of outs on the bases. We traditionally don’t do that, but it happened, and it could have been the difference in the game.”

Arizona has been picked off 15 times this season compared to 11 last year.

Those outs loomed large over a quiet day offensively (seven hits), as did a Kevin Newman inning-ending double play with runners on the corners in the seventh against Peterson. New York’s starter finished with seven innings and two earned runs from a Grichuk homer in the third.

Even D-backs starter Ryne Nelson, who secured a fourth straight quality start (6.1 innings, two earned runs), said he came close to a really good outing but two home runs nagged at him. Notably, Mets star Francisco Lindor worked an 11-pitch at-bat in the sixth inning that ended with a game-tying home run off a changeup up in the zone.

“Really tough at-bat,” Nelson said. “I think there were some pitches where I didn’t quite hit my spot, and I think we could have been out of that a little quicker. … We were trying to go fastball down-and-away a couple times to freeze him after a changeup and ended up yanking it across the plate.”

Nelson otherwise limited damage and continued to give the D-backs chances to win, as did relievers A.J. Puk and Ryan Thompson. Mets outfielder Jesse Winker went the other way on a 3-1 sinker from Martinez to reach second base in the ninth inning to set up the winning run.

Perdomo took responsibility for the Iglesias game-winner, as he explained moving over to his left as his instincts told him to would have made that play routine. Perdomo said Lovullo trusts him to make those adjustments even with given alignments.

The typically reliable shortstop called this a “disaster” series, as he finished 0-for-9 and committed an error (arguably could have been two or three) on Tuesday.

“Everybody knows Justin throws 100-102 and I don’t think a guy like Iglesias is gonna pull the ball, a hard sinker,” Perdomo said. “Right before the last two pitches, something told me to move to the left side. I don’t know why I didn’t, but that’s why I told my team that was on me, a couple days ago too that happened … I just need to move on.”

Geraldo Perdomo took responsibility for the Mets’ game-winning hit, saying his instincts told him to play further up the middle. pic.twitter.com/cD15m0fY6O

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) August 29, 2024

Diamondbacks have trouble versus lefties

New York’s left-handed starters Sean Manaea and Peterson found success against a Diamondbacks lineup that is missing three right-handed boppers in Ketel Marte, Christian Walker and Gabriel Moreno.

Lovullo said he expects his current team to beat quality starting pitching, but this is a matchup in which the injuries are most obvious. Arizona has not faced many left-handed starters over the past couple weeks, but the Mets reconfigured their rotation to move Peterson up a day. The Los Angeles Dodgers come to town on Friday, and future Hall of Fame left-hander Clayton Kershaw will start the opener.

“We’ve been noticing we haven’t been hitting left-hand pitching very well. We’ve got the projected rotations, it seems like every team is reversing their rotation to throw lefties at us, and we got to get better,” Lovullo said.

“We’re missing three capable right-handed hitters. We get that, but whether it’s approach-based, whether it’s pitch selection, whether it’s a vulnerability to the changeup, there’s a few things, but we have a bunch of really good hitters, right-handed hitters specifically, that are able to do the damage or have the quality at-bat that we need them to.”

The D-backs entered play on Thursday 14th in MLB with a .724 OPS against lefties in August. But tracking the last two weeks, since the start of Arizona’s nine-game road trip, that OPS has dropped to .590 (24th in MLB).

Diamondbacks turn attention from Mets to Dodgers

The Mets have won every season series against Arizona since 2018 and are six games back of the D-backs for the top wild card spot.

Turning the page, the Diamondbacks will host the Dodgers for four games starting on Friday with a marquee pitching matchup of Zac Gallen against Kershaw. L.A. entered Thursday’s slate ahead of Arizona by three games in the NL West.

With a split, the D-backs can clinch a season series victory and the tiebreaker over the Dodgers, but the matchup presents a greater opportunity to set up a close race entering the final month.

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