Montgomery, D-backs struggle in frustrating series-finale loss

PHOENIX -- As Jordan Montgomery walked off the mound with two outs in the third inning, the boos rained down from the stands at Chase Field. Montgomery got to the dugout, walked down the steps and started toward the bench before firing his glove against the dugout wall.

Next, he grabbed the PitchCom device from his hat and fired it against the wall, picked it back up and fired it again and again.

It perfectly summed up how frustrating Thursday was for Montgomery, his D-backs teammates and Arizona fans as the Twins romped to a 13-6 victory and a series win.

“I just expect a lot out of myself,” Montgomery said. “I know I've let a lot of my teammates down and I'm just trying to be better.”

After a rough start to the year following a protracted free agency that saw him not sign until the day after Opening Day, Montgomery had seemed to put things together. Over his last three starts, he had a 2.70 ERA.

Thursday, though, he not only battled Minnesota hitters, but had to overcome some defensive miscues behind him. Overall, he allowed eight runs on nine hits, but only four of the runs were earned.

Six of the runs came during the second inning when the D-backs committed a pair of errors and had another misplay that helped the Twins take control of the game.

“He came out real clean,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “I thought there was good stuff. He was landing his breaking ball. And then once the second inning happened, he never quite got into a rhythm, and I think he was battling a little bit of frustration.”

That was something that Lovullo was fighting with as well. He prides himself on his team playing clean baseball, and this one was anything but for the D-backs.

“These are the kind of games that leave you super frustrated for a lot of different reasons,” Lovullo said. “It was probably one of our worst games of the year and it was not anything that I expected to see. You can put your finger on a lot of different areas. It wasn’t just one thing. This was a team loss and we’ve got to be better than that.”

After some of his rough starts this year, Montgomery has blamed himself and he’s been more than honest when he thought he made bad pitches, didn’t have good stuff or couldn’t locate.

Thursday, though, he was less certain of what to make of it all.

“I don't really know how to feel,” Montgomery said. “Like every ball [they hit] found a hole, it could have been [hit] 60 mph, it could have been 100. So just gotta keep grinding. I was getting my four seamer in there, I was jamming them a lot. Just nothing to show for it. I got them on the ground and just seems like everything found a hole or was just out of reach or was spinning funny and [Ketel] Marte couldn't get a read on it. Those are usually outs and when they're not, a good lineup like that is gonna make it hurt.”

It's been a painful season for the D-backs, both with the injuries they’ve suffered to key contributors and by how they have struggled to gain any traction.

Just last Friday they felt like they were on the verge of breaking through. They beat the Phillies in Philadelphia to climb back to the .500 mark at 38-38, the first time they had been at the breakeven mark since April 16.

Now they’ve lost four of five and though they do have the A’s coming to town for a three-game series, the schedule gets much tougher after that, as they play the Dodgers and Padres on the road before getting the Braves and Blue Jays at home.

Fortunately for the D-backs, the NL Wild Card race is still wide open, there’s plenty of time left in the season and they’ll be getting their injured players back, starting with ace Zac Gallen this weekend, so the picture is far from gloomy.

The same, however, cannot be said of Montgomery’s PitchCom device after being hurled multiple times against the dugout wall.

“I don’t think it’s going to survive it,” Montgomery said.