Baserunning will be key as D-backs look for more production

TORONTO -- The D-backs are full-tilt all the time. And that high-flying flair kept things interesting for most of Saturday afternoon’s 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays.

In the fourth inning at Rogers Centre, Arizona’s hustle tied the score. With two outs and runners on second and third, Jake McCarthy chopped a groundball into the hole at second. One of the D-backs’ fastest runners, the 25-year-old beat Blue Jays first baseman Brandon Belt in a foot race for a gritty two-run single.

The play was about as close -- and exciting -- as it gets. Amid the confusion around covering the bag, Belt took the throw from second baseman Cavan Biggio and stomped his foot down at nearly the exact time McCarthy touched first base. As the chaos unfolded, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. scored from third, and Emmanuel Rivera chugged in from second.

The bang-bang single was reviewed and upheld, and at the time, it threatened to break the game open.

“It was a Diamondback play,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “We need to get back to more of that. I thought that would get us moving in a very positive direction. … I liked our chances. It just didn't work out.”

Plays like that McCarthy single give the D-backs life. The problem was that Arizona didn’t give itself enough opportunities to put the heat on a Blue Jays defense that has struggled to manage the running game.

Before the series began, Lovullo and his staff identified a few Toronto pitchers to run on. Those were the windows, the manager said, his team could take advantage of.

“It's part of our game. It’s part of our DNA,” Lovullo said of his club’s hustle. “It gives us energy. I think it hurts the other team when we start to do things like that [and] take extra bases.”

But that pendulum swings in both directions.

With the D-backs down one run in the seventh, McCarthy was picked off at first as he was leaning too far from the bag. Blue Jays reliever Nate Pearson was shaky with his command, but he threw a laser to first base. It caught McCarthy off balance, as Belt slapped the tag on him for a big second out.

McCarthy didn’t feel like he was over-aggressive in that spot, assessing that Pearson caught him in between strides in a situation when he was looking to steal.

“It was just kind of perfect timing [with] where I was in the air,” said McCarthy, “I was not committed, but I was gaining momentum going to second. So I was just kind of stuck.”

That out was precious. Who knows where things would have gone if McCarthy had gotten a running start to swipe a bag? Maybe the D-backs could have tied the game and neutralized Toronto’s momentum.

Stunted momentum has certainly been a theme of this series so far -- but it hasn’t gone the visitors’ way.

The D-backs, who rank third in MLB with 93 swiped bags this year, didn’t steal a base through the first two games. They were caught stealing twice and picked off once in that span. That inability to run has proven costly, too. On Saturday, Arizona finished with 10 hits, two more than Toronto, but it couldn’t cash in.

Lovullo sees his club pressing a bit.

“We're trying to do a little too much, coming out of our bodies and our approaches and trying to maybe lift the ball to the pull side,” Lovullo said. “And that's not who we are.”

While the D-Backs whacked away with singles, Zac Gallen overcame some early hiccups to keep his club in the game. Fresh off starting for the NL at Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Seattle, the right-hander didn’t have his pristine command early, issuing three walks his first time through the order.

“I just really couldn't put guys away,” Gallen said after allowing three runs through five frames. “I was making decent pitches; they were fouling them off, and they were just waiting me out to kind of get pitches they could handle.”

It was humid inside the closed Rogers Centre dome, and as Gallen worked harder, he started to sweat more. That added perspiration caused the adhesive material on his PitchCom device to come undone. The gadget repeatedly tumbled off his glove hand, at one point causing a delay and adding more wrinkles to an already tricky afternoon.

“It’s always frustrating to lose,” McCarthy said. “We’ve gotten leadoff guys on. Our defense could be better. Everything can be a little bit better right now.”

McCarthy had a point in stating this was a winnable game, as the club missed a few chances in key spots. But no big fix is needed here. For the D-backs, it’s about returning to the hustle that’s characteristic of their game. That should give them a chance to avoid a sweep in Sunday’s finale.

“[Today] was better than yesterday,” Lovullo said. “But we’ve got to still work.”