We don’t often talk about “trap games” – games against a weaker opponent that a team might overlook because of the ones immediately preceding or following it – in baseball the way we might in college basketball or football. Between the inherent variability from game to game, the sheer volume of games in a season, and the relative parity across the league, it’s hard to have “trap games” or even trap series in the sport. But if there were going to be a trap game or series for the D-Backs, it would have been this one. They’re coming off consecutive series against two high-powered divisional rivals and at the end of a season-long homestand of ten games. It’s not entirely surprising that they might be a little tired, both emotionally and physically. While last night’s loss was understandable as an admirable performance from a pitcher who has done very well against the D-Backs this season, today’s loss was a whole other level of frustration.
Merrill Kelly, coming off one of his best starts of the year with five innings of no-hit ball against the mighty Dodgers and continuing a string of solid performances that stretch back to the end of June, looked much more like the vulnerable pitcher from the beginning of the season. The velocity on his entire arsenal was down a couple of ticks and he clearly didn’t have his usual level of command that’s been a staple of Kelly’s game. He had just two strikeouts for the afternoon with three walks in five innings. It’s hard not to suspect that his cramps from his last start couldn’t have had an effect on how he pitched today. After a clean first inning, Kelly labored through the second with the first three batters reaching on a walk and a pair of singles, but he rebounded to retire the next two batters to nearly escape the jam. Instead, after three bad misses to get to a 3-1 count against the number nine batter Brett Sullivan, Kelly placed a four-seam fastball at the very bottom of the zone that Sullivan somehow doinked off the foul pole for a three-run homer. The fourth inning was another struggle as Kelly gave up a leadoff walk and then left a lifeless changeup in the middle of the zone that Zac Veen deposited into the outfield pool.
Still, despite Kelly’s struggles, watching the D-Backs offense this afternoon was actually even more painful. It’s one thing to simply get shut down by the opposing pitcher(s), but squandering opportunity after opportunity was excruciating as a fan. The D-Backs earned a season-high 10 walks against just three strikeouts on the afternoon to go along with 11 hits, but only managed to score four runs. That combination isn’t typical, but they did have a similar scoreline against these same Rockies back at the end of May when they had eight walks and scored just two runs. But it’s a little more understandable when you see that the team went just 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left a whopping 15 runners on base for the game. Clearly, they had no problem creating traffic on the bases against starter Ryan Feltner, but they found nearly every way possible to work themselves out of scoring opportunities. There was the ubiquitous double play that ended a pair of threats, but there were too many poor at bats with the bases loaded – from Nolan Arenado’s first-pitch weak grounder in the fifth to Ryan Waldschmidt’s inning-ending double play in the seventh – for the D-Backs to really get themselves back into the game.
In a season that will likely again be decided by the slimmest of margins, it’s particularly frustrating to watch the team squander an opportunity – no matter how small. Yes, I know, a couple of bad losses to a lesser team aren’t cause for panic on the season. Good teams lose to bad ones all the time. Good pitchers have bad days while bad pitchers have good ones. But losing bankable, winnable games against opponents like this when the standings are this tight feels much more dramatic than it actually is. We just have to hope the team doesn’t lose focus and comes back after the off day tomorrow in Atlanta to show exactly how formidable they can be.
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