Closer Sewald looks to 'get back rolling'

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PHOENIX -- From his season debut on May 7 through the end of June, D-backs closer Paul Sewald was practically unhittable.

The veteran right-hander, who suffered a strained left oblique near the end of Spring Training and opened the season on the IL, allowed just one run in 16 2/3 innings over his first 18 appearances (0.54 ERA) after being activated.

Over that span, he had 11 save opportunities, and he converted every one of them.

Then came July 2.

The D-backs took a 5-4 lead over the Dodgers in the top of the ninth inning in Los Angeles, and manager Torey Lovullo handed the ball to Sewald to close things out. Sewald struck out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani to open the inning, but he then allowed three straight hits -- doubles by Will Smith and Freddie Freeman, and a walk-off single by Teoscar Hernández -- in Arizona's 6-5 loss.

On Friday in San Diego, Arizona scored six runs in the top of the ninth to take an 8-7 lead over the Padres, and Sewald entered to try to close the game out.

Sewald surrendered a solo home run to Jurickson Profar, a walk to Jake Cronenworth and walk-off two-run homer to Manny Machado in the D-backs' 10-8 loss.

Then on Monday night, the D-backs led the Braves 3-1 heading into the ninth at Chase Field. Sewald entered and retired the first two hitters he faced, getting Marcell Ozuna and Adam Duvall to fly out. He then allowed a single to Eddie Rosario and a game-tying two-run homer to Sean Murphy. The D-backs eventually lost, 5-4, in 11 innings.

If he had to do it over again, perhaps Sewald would have thrown a two-strike sweeper rather than a four-seam fastball to Rosario. But it’s always easy to go back and pick apart pitch selection when something doesn’t work. The fastball that he threw Rosario was high, and the fact that Rosario was able to ground it through the right side of the infield for a single was surprising.

“[If] I pitch in hindsight 20/20, I would never make the wrong pitch, right?” Sewald said. “The pitch was at [Rosario's] head. He managed to get a hit on it, and then [I] just missed my location against Murphy. And if he tries to pull it, he probably just pops it up. He just did a great job of going with it, and that's just the week I've had overall.”

That’s the life of a closer, as every mistake is magnified when pitching late in games with a close score.

One thing that Sewald doesn’t have to worry about right now is his job. Lovullo made it clear after Monday’s loss and again before Tuesday night’s game that he has full confidence in Sewald and that he will remain the D-backs' closer.

And although Sewald has been through tough stretches in his career, blowing three straight save opportunities -- including two in which he retired the first two hitters of the inning -- is new territory for him.

“Two outs, nobody on, to give up two runs... I mean, I haven't looked at the percentages, but that's extremely rare,” Sewald said. “That's probably the most frustrating thing is that it's been right there. So that just means that ... at some point, it'll turn. You just got to try and throw [up] a zero at some point and try to get some confidence and get back rolling.”