D-backs’ Derrick Hall: Starting pitching needs to be better

The Arizona Diamondbacks haven’t exactly had their season go according to plan so far.

Now past the halfway point of the season, the Diamondbacks hold a 37-46 record and are 14 games back of first place in the National League West Division.

Derrick Hall joined Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Friday and singled out one aspect of the team that needs to be better.

“Absolutely, it’s the starting pitching,” Hall said. “That was the problem last year. We went out and addressed it in the offseason, and we’re in worse shape than we were last year and it’s puzzling.”

The D-backs rank 26th in MLB with their 4.68 ERA.

Only one starting pitcher on the team, Zack Greinke, has an ERA under four, with Shelby Miller owning the worst out of the group at an ERA of 6.85. Greinke is also the only starting pitcher with a winning record, with Miller again the worst of the group with his eight losses.

“It’s definitely starting pitching, and we’ve got the arms,” Hall said. “Granted, a couple of them are injured right now, but we’ve always had depth there, and I believe we need our guys to go deeper in the game. You can look at (Daniel) Hudson and you can look at (Brad) Ziegler and say, ‘Oh boy, they’re falling apart, the wheels are coming off.’ That’s just not fair or true. It’s that we’re having to go to that bullpen every game. You look up in the fifth or sixth inning and our starters have been cruising along and all of a sudden, there’s stress points, and then you got to go to that bullpen.

“That’s a lot to ask of your relievers and it’s been tough for them. Long games, a lot of pitches, a lot of innings, and we need more out of our starters.”

There has only been one complete game thrown by anyone in the D-backs starting rotation all season.

In the last 10 games alone, which includes Saturday’s 6-5 win against the San Francisco Giants, no Diamondbacks starting pitcher has made it into the seventh inning. Patrick Corbin was the last to do it on June 21, when he threw 6.1 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays.

In that same span, the Diamondbacks bullpen has had to pick up 38.2 innings of slack, giving up 28 earned runs in those innings. Hudson has put in 1.2 innings worth in four outings, giving up eight earned runs, while Ziegler has pitched 5.2 innings, and gave up two earned runs, to go along with two blown saves and one loss.

“I’ve been as pessimistic as you have, and I think all of our fans. The sad thing is, the high expectations go into the season. Naturally, everybody is going to go through injuries, we talk about it each week, but when you lose (Rubby) De La Rosa, (A.J.) Pollock, (David) Peralta, (Chris) Owings, Miller and now Greinke, it’s tough.

“But we do have talent and we do have depth, and we have not played well, especially here at home. If you were to look at our road record right now, without looking at our home record and not knowing where we’re at, you’d go, ‘Wow, they’re right in the thick of things. They’re at the top of the division.’ And we’re not because of the way we play at home.”