On rough road, D-backs keep eyes forward
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PHOENIX -- There’s no panic in the Diamondbacks’ clubhouse. It’s too early in the season, with too many games left to play, for that.
There is, however, a great deal of frustration in every corner, from the manager’s office to the locker of their best player and every other space. Frustration and puzzlement about how things have gone so wrong this year.
Sure, a part of it is injuries, but that only goes so far. And it’s no excuse for the D-backs’ 13-1 loss to the Padres, which featured missed locations from those on the mound, missed opportunities at the plate and baserunning mistakes.
With the loss, the D-backs have dropped seven of their past nine games and have slipped to 14-20 on the year. For a point of reference, last year’s team, which was outscored in winning 84 regular-season games before making a magical October run to the World Series, was never more than two games under .500.
“I think we're pretty frustrated,” right-hander Brandon Pfaadt said. “We’re frustrated with ourselves and especially how that game went. Certainly, we're a better team. We know that, and we're looking to turn that around.”
The sloppy play is the thing that gets under manager Torey Lovullo’s skin more than anything. Watching his team commit fundamental mistakes tests his patience.
The miscues started early for the D-backs on Saturday, when Jake McCarthy bunted for a base hit to lead off the bottom of the first and then immediately got picked off of first base.
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One out later, Ketel Marte singled to right only to be tagged out when he took too big of a turn around first base and right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. threw to first to get him.
“Not our finest hour, for sure,” Lovullo said. “It's obvious right now that we are grinding, things aren't going well and we just aren't getting the job done. The past 2 1/2 hours or whatever, what I watched was unsatisfactory. That was not the Diamondbacks’ style of baseball in a lot of different areas.”
Certainly no one is more frustrated with how the 2024 season is going than outfielder Corbin Carroll.
In 32 games after being called up near the end of the 2022 season, Carroll had a slash line of .260/.330/.500. He followed that up with an incredible 2023 season, when he hit .285/.362/.506 and won the NL Rookie of the Year award.
Carroll went 1-for-4 Saturday night and is now slashing .194/.291/.242.
The slow start is clearly weighing on him and he is constantly putting in extra work in the cage to try to find his way out of it. His teammates know that and have done their best to encourage him.
“I appreciate them, and they definitely have been supportive,” Carroll said. “I feel more bad for them, because I feel like I'm not holding up my end of the bargain. But, I think I haven’t felt that from them, resentment or anything. It’s more just been, ‘You know we got you; get it going and let’s turn this around.’”
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Diagnosing what is the issue for Carroll at the plate has been a process, and it seems they may have a handle on what it is. Now it’s a matter of making the necessary changes.
“There have been some mechanical things that I’ve been trying to address,” Carroll said. “I feel like we’re headed in the right direction, and our coaches feel like we are headed in the right direction. I made my swing too flat. It’s been a lot of work to try and create better attack angles and a better vertical bat angle.”