What's behind D-backs' record in openers?

This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert’s D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK -- When the D-backs lost 3-2 to the Mets on Thursday night in the opener of a four-game set at Citi Field, it dropped their record to 3-16 in first games of a series this year.

D-backs manager Torey Lovullo has pushed those around him to try to come up with reasons why that record is so poor, but it seems at this point it’s just one of those statistical oddities that sometimes happen.

So before the team got to New York following Wednesday’s series finale against the Rangers in Texas, veteran closer Paul Sewald told Lovullo that maybe the team should try a different pregame routine Thursday to try to shake things up.

Maybe it would be reporting to the ballpark later than usual, or skipping the daily hitters meeting, or not taking batting practice. Something, anything.

“We have struggled in the first game of the series for whatever reason,” Sewald said. “It’s not for a lack of preparation. It’s not a lack of scouting. So, that first and foremost needs to be said, that I don’t think that we’re missing anything. I was like, 'Why don’t we just switch it up and do literally anything else?' It was literally the only thing I could come up with. It’s his job to make sure that we’re prepared for the game. He, along with everyone in our scouting staff and coaching staff, are doing everything they can to make sure -- it’s just more than anything a superstitious thing.”

Lovullo was tempted to try it, such is the desperation to change things up, but it’s important to him that his team gets out on the field pregame the first day of a series in a road ballpark. He believes it helps his players adjust their sight lines and the like.

In fairness, it’s not just the first games of series that are giving the D-backs trouble. They're 25-32, but that first-game mark is so stark it gets attention.

“I spend a lot of time in the 'pen just watching games and trying to think about stuff. And it’s like, I don’t know, there’s no real rhyme or reason. We’re just not playing well,” Sewald said. “We can’t get all three phases of our game to play well for 10 games in a row. That’s pretty much the case. If our pitching is doing well, then we’re struggling at the plate. If we’re scoring nine runs a game, our bullpen will blow it, or we’ll make a couple of errors.

"It’s just one of those things where we haven’t had a 10-game stretch where we’ve had all three phases click at the same time and we can go 8-2 or 9-1 and make up some ground.”

There’s still a lot of baseball left to be played this year, and the NL Wild Card picture remains tightly contested. Even with Zac Gallen going on the 15-day injured list Friday with a right hamstring strain, the D-backs will get healthier in the coming weeks.

Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo (right meniscus tear) is nearing a return from the IL, and outfielder Alek Thomas (strained left hamstring) is expected to be close behind him. Left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (left lat strain) has begun a throwing program, and right-hander Merrill Kelly (right shoulder strain) is set to begin his next week.

So there is reason for optimism, and while the Mets called a team meeting following their loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday to address the way they go about things, the D-backs don’t have the same issue.

“That’s when there’s something fundamentally wrong with how you’re going about the game, in my opinion,” Sewald said about the time to call a team meeting. “There’s no need to call a meeting and talk about, 'Hey, you need to play better, you need to play better and you need to play better.' That’s a dark road to go down. Everyone who is not playing up to their capabilities knows they’re not playing up to their capabilities.”