Sedona Red Recap: Pitching issues persist as Diamondbacks fall to Cardinals

PHOENIX — Few baseball teams score more often than the Arizona Diamondbacks and St. Louis Cardinals. So it should really come as no surprise that the bats have been on display in downtown Phoenix this week.

That trend continued on Wednesday night.

Aledmys Diaz homered, Adam Wainwright drove in three and Patrick Corbin was touched up for seven earned runs as the D-backs fell to the Cardinals 11-4 in front of 18,339 fans at Chase Field.

Arizona carried a 3-2 lead into the sixth inning, but that’s when the wheels came off. St. Louis sent all nine batters to the plate, tallying five runs on five hits and a walk to seize control of the evening.

The Diamondbacks got one back in the bottom half of the inning to cut the deficit to 7-4, but the Cardinals quickly responded with three more off Enrique Burgos in the seventh to put the game out of reach. In all, the two teams have now combined for 44 runs in the first three games of this series.

With the Dodgers’ loss to the Marlins in Los Angeles tonight, Arizona stays just a game and a half out of first place in the NL West. But the San Francisco Giants have now worked their way into sole possession of second in the division.

THE GOOD

-Brandon Drury deposited a 1-1 pitch from Wainwright into the left-center seats with two outs in the second to give the D-backs the early lead. It was the 23-year old’s second home run of the season and the fourth of his career.

-With that longball — and the one Paul Goldschmidt put over the center field wall in the fourth — the Diamondbacks have now homered in eight straight contests. They’ve also registered at least one extra base hit in all 23 games they’ve played this year.

THE BAD

-With a runner on third and just one out in the first inning, Goldschmidt hit a liner to Jedd Gyorko at second, who caught it and fired to third for the quick, inning-ending double play.

-It was Wainwright who came up with the game’s biggest hit, tripling home three runs in the sixth. On the one hand, it was sort of a gutsy call by manager Mike Matheny to let his pitcher bat with one out and the bases loaded. On the other hand, Wainwright is arguably the top hitting pitcher in baseball. And the move clearly paid off.

-Arizona appeared to be on the verge of a rally in the sixth but managed only the one run. With that run already in, the D-backs had two more guys on base and just one out. But Yasmany Tomas tapped a slow roller to the pitcher, and Welington Castillo struck out.

STAT OF THE GAME

37: The number of runs the D-backs have surrendered over their last four games. To put that in perspective, the Washington Nationals have allowed 52 runs … all season.

Wednesday also marked the ninth time this month that Arizona has yielded seven or more runs in a game.

HE SAID IT

“I think one thing we’ll try to talk to the guys about is not losing that good feeling. I think we’re almost expecting something bad to happen when they come in from the bullpen and that can’t happen. They’re better than that. They all have plus stuff. They have to let it go and have conviction when they throw. Right now, I’m not seeing that in their eyes. We’re going to work on that, we’ll talk about it. We need to get after it.” — Chip Hale, on his team’s pitching woes

NOTED

-With two more singles tonight, Jean Segura now has 35 hits to lead all of Major League Baseball this season.

UP NEXT

The two clubs will wrap up their four-game series on Thursday with Rubby De La Rosa taking the mound for the Diamondbacks. He’ll be opposed by Michael Wacha.

First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. MST with pregame coverage beginning at 6 p.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

After a rough start to the season, De La Rosa (2-3) has picked it up of late. He’s earned wins in each of his last two appearances, including a victory over the Pirates in his most recent start on April 23. The 27-year-old righty scattered three hits while yielding just one run over six innings in that one and has posted a 3.38 ERA with 16 strikeouts over his last five game — two of which were starts.

Meanwhile, Wacha (2-0) is delivering yet another strong season for the Cardinals. After getting touched up for four earned runs over 4.1 innings against Pittsburgh in his first start, he’s surrendered just three earned runs over 18 innings in three games since.

Thursday will be Wacha’s fourth career start against Arizona. He has yet to earn a decision against the D-backs, compiling a 4.60 ERA and 1.53 ERA in the first three meetings.

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