Locastro's leadoff HR can't jolt D-backs' bats

The D-backs seemed on their way to a win in the sixth inning Sunday afternoon at Oracle Park. Starter Alex Young was cruising with a one-run lead, and they had loaded the bases against Johnny Cueto with two outs.

One more hit, it seemed, could blow the game wide open.

But this is 2020, and nothing has gone according to script for the D-backs, who couldn’t cash in the scoring opportunity and then gave up a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning before going on to lose, 4-2.

• Box score

It was the 15th loss in the past 17 games for Arizona, which will try to split the four-game series in Monday night’s finale.

“Guys’ spirits are OK,” veteran catcher Stephen Vogt said. “They’re not great, they’re not horrible. I’d say we’re kind of in the middle. It’s been a tough week for us, mentally and physically. But we still feel like we can win a lot of games. We still feel like we can get this thing going, and it’s just a matter of us going out and doing it and catching that momentum. It’s about us getting hot all at the same time, that’s something we’ve been missing for the past month or so. We’ve got three, 3 1/2 weeks left to see if we can make a run at this thing and get that offense clicking.”

The offense clicked early, when the D-backs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first as Tim Locastro led off the game with a homer and Josh Rojas followed later in the inning with a sac fly.

But after that, Arizona couldn't push across any more runs despite a pair of bases-loaded situations. It finished 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

“We had a chance to really blow that game open, there’s no doubt about it, but Cueto pitched into and out of trouble and was able to last into the sixth,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “We had a chance to really do some damage and knock him out of the ballgame early and get into the bullpen, and you never know when you get into the bullpen that early.”

While the D-backs stranded the bases loaded in the fifth, it was the missed opportunity in the sixth that seemed to turn the momentum of the game.

With two outs, Arizona loaded the bases with two outs against Cueto. San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler brought in Caleb Baragar to face the left-handed-hitting Jon Jay, who was making the start in right field.

Lovullo had a pair of potent bats on the bench due to scheduled days off for right-handed hitter Christian Walker and switch-hitter Ketel Marte. Instead of turning to one of them, though, Lovullo stuck with the left-on-left matchup, and Jay flied out to end the threat.

“It was a pretty important part of the game,” Lovullo said. “I thought J.J. deserved an opportunity to get that at-bat. He’d been working hard and grinding. At that part of the game, I wanted to see what he was able to do.”

While neither Walker nor Marte were injured, Lovullo said he wanted to give them a complete day off, though he said he would have used them later in the game if a similar circumstance had arisen.

“I was looking to get these guys off their feet. It would have resulted in them playing potentially a lot of innings in this game,” Lovullo said. “With Christian and Ketel in that situation, I felt like it wasn’t their time yet. I would have used them later in a situation where they could have helped us bang our way back into it, play an inning and maybe get right back off their feet. But for me, it just wasn’t the right time.”