Notes: Vargas rakes, Lovullo looks closely

The D-backs played 5 1/2 innings of an intrasquad game Saturday night at Chase Field. Ildemaro Vargas hit a pair of homers and drove in six runs while right-hander Zac Gallen allowed one run over four innings.

What do those numbers mean when it comes to the D-backs making decisions as to who will be on Arizona’s initial 30-man active roster come Opening Day? Not much.

Instead, D-backs manager Torey Lovullo, his coaching staff and the baseball operations department are looking at other things.

“I think what I’m looking for is an ease and a patient approach to the game,” Lovullo said. “Everybody knows when you make rushed decisions, whether you move too quickly on the mound or in the box or defensively, that you’re going to make mistakes. It’s the tempo of your body and the rhythm of your hands. Whatever your function is, whatever that rhythm is -- the rhythm of your delivery or the rhythm of your hands when you’re hitting and fielding, those are things I’m really zoning in on.”

For hitters, the staff is watching to see if their timing is there. Is their swing path good? Are they swinging at strikes and taking balls?

As for the pitchers, they look to see if he is finishing his pitches. Is he able to land his breaking ball? Is he hitting his spots? Do his pitches have life?

“I know our pitchers can throw to a spot perfectly and a ball can get banged around a couple of times,” Lovullo said. “I’m not focused on the results. I’ll look at the whole piece of that puzzle. It’s nice to see somebody get a hit, but I’ll also look and see where that ball landed. And if a pitcher hits his spot? I’ll consider that a net positive.”

One benefit the D-backs have is they came into Spring Training in February with a pretty set roster except for some final bench and bullpen spots.

It’s the same as they start Summer Camp. The 30-man Opening Day roster means that a lot of the guys on the bubble for bench spots four months ago -- Josh Rojas and Jon Jay, for instance -- likely make the team.

And if the D-backs carry a 15-man pitching staff to open the year, that means fewer decisions have to be made in the bullpen.

“I think in a condensed environment, [if] you make a rushed decision, it could backfire on you,” Lovullo said. “But for the most part you can see what’s going on here; we feel very strongly about a certain number of guys that have been identified.”

Have a day, Vargy

The two homers and six RBIs continued a hot first week of camp for Vargas, who was all but certain to make the team out of Spring Training and certainly now out of Summer Camp.

Lovullo said that if you added together the homers he’s hit this past week in intrasquad games with the ones he’s hit in simulated games, he’s probably got six or seven.

“Obviously Vargy is a shining star, because he had a tremendous day and he’s had a tremendous spring,” Lovullo said. “But there are also many others who have done that as well.”

David Peralta, Jake Lamb, Eduardo Escobar and Christian Walker were among those also mentioned by Lovullo.

Day game

The D-backs will have a little bit of a different schedule Sunday.

Instead of the usual mid-afternoon drills and then starting an intrasquad game at 4:15 p.m. MST, they will take some swings in the cage and then go right into a 1 p.m. game.

Sunday’s game is also scheduled to go seven innings, the longest of camp so far.

Monday, Lovullo will remind them to up the intensity a little bit for their final week of Summer Camp. Arizona has a pair of exhibition games scheduled against the Dodgers on July 19-20 at Dodger Stadium.