Frustrated Diamondbacks’ path to October narrows with series loss to Giants

PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks were crushed by the San Francisco Giants 11-0 on Tuesday, dropping a home series against a .500 ballclub while clinging onto a Wild Card spot in the final week of the regular season.

The two straight losses to San Francisco further muck up Arizona’s path to the postseason at a half-game back of the New York Mets for the second Wild Card spot and a half-game up (tied in the loss column) with the Atlanta Braves for the third slot.

The D-backs (87-71) still control their own destiny with four games left, but the pressure is on to turn the page quickly after three straight defeats, including the 8-0 blown lead Sunday in Milwaukee.

“Usually I try to filter things the right way, come up with something that’s gonna sound a little bit positive, but I don’t think there’s much positive that came from this game,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “I don’t want to sit here and hammer away at things, because you guys saw what I saw.

“We got to play better baseball. We got to play more focused baseball. It’s all built off pitching, that makes the game look crisp and gets the flow and keeps everybody engaged when you’re attacking the zone.”

Lovullo’s response to a question about reading the Riot Act to his club: “I probably just did it.”

D-backs starter Brandon Pfaadt followed up a complete gem in Milwaukee with a dud, lasting 2.2 innings and giving up five runs (four earned) on a pair of crushed home runs by Patrick Bailey and Michael Conforto. Mike Yastrzemski nearly hit a three-run shot of his own, but Corbin Carroll robbed him at the fence.

Make that two of Pfaadt’s last three starts in which he failed to get out of the third inning and three straight Diamondbacks starts that ended before the fifth frame concluded.

“I think at the beginning of this year we talked about being consistent. That hasn’t been the case lately,” Pfaadt said. “We’re just going to flush those two outings and move on, and if we’re called upon to pitch that last game, then we’ll be ready.”

Blake Walston did not fare well either, giving up another three homers in relief. The Giants had All-Star Logan Webb, who has given the D-backs fits before, on the bump, and he threw six scoreless innings. Webb delivered 13 shutout frames against Arizona this season.

Consistent quality pitching has been an issue all season for the Diamondbacks, from the injury-plagued first four months to a disappointing output since the rotation became whole in August. The team ERA is 4.66 overall, which ranks No. 27 in MLB ahead of the bottom-dwelling Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies. Looking at only September, the team ERA was dead last before Tuesday’s game at 5.61 — 4.91 from starters and 6.58 from relievers.

The D-backs came into Tuesday with a 73.1% chance to make the postseason, per FanGraphs projections. The Braves defeated the Mets 5-1 on Tuesday, knocking Arizona’s probability to 67.8%. By the end of the night, those odds dropped to 53%. Take the numbers for what they are, but they show a visual that the path is getting narrower.

“Ultimately, it comes down to these guys linking up 26 strong and saying this is go time,” Lovullo said. “I’ve said it last year, you gotta stay connected. When you’re connected, you’re dangerous. These guys are connected, but we haven’t had great results. I think there’s a little bit of frustration that’s been building inside of this clubhouse for the past couple days.”

The Diamondbacks, as Carroll pointed out, have been through extreme waves of ups and downs this season, showing a resilience that pushed them past an injury-marred first half where .500 seemed elusive and building the top-scoring offense in the league.

“I think everything this team’s been through this year — there’s been plenty of lulls, there’s been plenty of great runs with great stretches — I just think all of it adds up to a team that’s able to keep some level-headedness, regardless of the situation,” Carroll said. “I’ve just got confidence in us as a team to go out there and be able to just put our best effort.”

Arizona’s odds sat as high as 96.8% after the D-backs swept Boston for their sixth straight win a month ago, but since then the Diamondbacks have put up a mediocre 12-15 record while other wild card teams have made up ground, particularly the Mets, who are 19-7 since then.

The NL Wild Card race is very different from last year in terms of win totals. The 2024 D-backs have three more wins than the 2023 D-backs with four games to play. Yet this time, the race may be to 90 wins, which is hard enough to do without giving up six runs per game.

The Mets and Braves have two more games this week, which helps to an extent. Both NL East clubs own the tiebreaker over Arizona. The San Diego Padres, who finish the season at Chase Field, clinched a postseason berth on Tuesday and sit two games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL West. The D-backs may get a Padres squad that is going all-out for the division on Friday — San Diego defeated Los Angeles Tuesday on a game-ending triple play.

“There’s no two ways to look at it, we want to play postseason ball, and in order to do that, we got to take care of business in these next four games,” Carroll said. “Got to leave it all out there. That’s what we plan to do.”

As hard as it can be to find silver linings in a blowout loss, the D-backs are set up very well for Wednesday. Zac Gallen gets the start and needs to be the stopper. Arizona’s positive-role bullpen has had a couple days rest. The Giants, who have won seven of eight games, are turning to right-hander Mason Black, who has a 5.88 ERA this season.

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