Carroll injury main concern for D-backs despite being swept

PHOENIX -- Simply put, Thursday night was not a good one in any shape or form for the D-backs.

They were shut out for the first time this year, falling 9-0 to the Mets.

They were swept in the three-game series, the first time they’ve been swept this year.

The loss was their fourth in a row, their longest losing streak of the season.

Most concerning of all, however, was that once again they watched rookie sensation Corbin Carroll leave a game due to right shoulder discomfort.

Carroll swung and missed at a changeup from Carlos Carrasco in the seventh and then grabbed his right shoulder. He held his right arm close to his body and immediately walked off the field with a team athletic trainer.

It is the second time in the last week that Carroll has had an issue with that shoulder. Last Thursday he swung at a pitch and felt discomfort in the shoulder. He stayed in the game for another half inning before being removed.

It is the same shoulder that caused Carroll to miss almost all of the 2021 season following surgery to repair a posterior capsular avulsion and labrum tear.

The team did strength tests on Carroll following the game and said that his shoulder was strong and stable. He did not start the following two games before pinch-hitting Sunday.

Selected to be a starter for the National League in next week’s All-Star Game, Carroll started all three games of the current series with the Mets.

Once again, D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said that initial tests on Carroll’s shoulder showed that it was stable and he had good strength in it. This time, though, the team will send him for an MRI on Friday to try and figure out what is causing him the discomfort.

“Things checked out a little bit more positively than I was expecting based on what I saw,” Lovullo said. “We all saw the same thing. And you know, it didn't look good. So for the last three or four innings [of the game] all I was thinking about was ‘How's Corbin? How’s he emotionally? How's he physically?’ There's going to be some imaging tomorrow morning where we're going to find out what's going on in there but it's more positive than I was thinking after I saw what I saw.”

If there is one player the D-backs can least afford to lose it’s Carroll, who at this point in the season is the front-runner for NL Rookie of the Year.

Even with Carroll in the lineup, the D-backs stumbled out of the gate against the Mets on Thursday.

Wednesday’s loss was a heartbreaking 2-1 defeat in which they were one strike away from winning 1-0 before the Mets rallied for two in the ninth and Lovullo speculated that there may have been a bit of a hangover from that game that led to this game spinning out of control early.

Starter Ryne Nelson, who was coming off two impressive starts, struggled to put hitters away, while the D-backs let a popup fall which contributed to a five-run Mets third inning. They had a runner picked off first with two outs and slugger Christian Walker up in the first inning.

“It was a bad game, it was a bad effort in a lot of different ways,” Lovullo said. “They came out hot, swung the bats and just beat us. You know that happens. For these three days, we didn't play D-backs baseball. Everything was just adding up in a very negative way. It was a total clunker. We’ve got to find a way to get it turned around.”