Dbacks Dispatch covers the three-game series loss in the nation’s capital!
The Snakes lose first series in DC since 2017
After leaving the Big Apple with a series win over the reigning American League Champions, the Diamondbacks departed for the Nation’s Capital as they took on the Washington Nationals for a 3 game set that began on Friday night. While they were able to start the series off on a right note (minus some unfortunate injury news) with a series opening victory, their bats couldn’t keep up with the Nats as they ended losing back to back 1 run affairs to close out the weekend. The crew sat down just a few minutes after the final out to analyze what stuck out to them (the good and the bad), who was good and who failed to show up, and what their next month or so of games could look like without one of their key contributors.
Key Takeaways from this series
Ketel Marte to Miss “Weeks Instead of Days” with Hamstring Injury
The series got off to an unfortunate start as the DBacks star slugger Ketel Marte re-aggravated his hamstring injury while running the bases on what was just a few feet short of being his first Home Run of the 2025 campaign, as he came up limping into the second base bag, and D’Backs Manager Torey Lovullo later said that he would be out “weeks instead of days” thus leading to an IL stint. It’s no secret that Ketel Marte is one of the best players in not just the National League, but the MLB in its entirety, so replacing his production will be a really tough task for Torey Lovullo’s squad going forward but it’s an opportunity for a guy like Garrett Hampson to show why he won the backup infield role out of Spring, or for Tim Tawa (who had a nice single in his first MLB at-bat) to get some Major League experience as we hope his Reno numbers (.392/.462/.957 > 1.419 OPS with 3 HR’s and 12 RBI in 26 AB’s in Reno to start 2025) can translate to the Majors.
Eduardo Rodriguez Strikout’s Go Brrrrr
Eduardo Rodriguez’s day did not start out the way that he or many of us might have hoped, as he surrendered 3 runs on a James Wood double and then an Alex Call single (could have been 4 runs but Corbin gunned down Lowe at home for the 3rd out), but Erod settled in just fine as he went on to strike out 12 Nationals across 5 innings of work. While the first inning was a bit of a rough one to watch, the strikeout numbers from Rodriguez was something that came as a little surprising but still a welcome surprise as Gabe put it saying “I don’t think were going to get 12 strikeouts every single time, just the fact that he was able to miss bats is a good sign for him”. Brandon was pleased with these strikeouts as it seemed to be the only game where a Dbacks starter could actually get batters out once they got into a 2 strike count, saying “the one thing from this road trip that was infuriating, not being able to put batters away with either 2 outs or 2 strikes”.
Heart-Burn(es)
Corbin Burnes’ Dbacks Debut wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t too terrible or disappointing, sadly that wouldn’t be able to be said about his 2nd go around in an Arizona uniform as he, like Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt, struggled early on in the first inning and just seemed to have little to no control of his pitches as he would have to wait a little longer to get his first career win against Washington and his first win as a Diamondback. Whether it was a lack of control/feel for his sinker, changeup and curveball or the game plan that catcher Jose Herrera was calling, Corbin’s spamming of his cutter (59 Cutters out of his 89 total pitches thrown on Sunday) left the fellas a little bit disappointed as Burnes’ is known for his control and really well rounded repertoire (including his nasty Sinker that he only threw 4 times total the entire game).
Balti-More Opportunities Ahead
While it was disappointing to see the Snakes series winning streak over the Nationals come to an end, the fellas looked ahead to the upcoming series against the 4-6 Baltimore Orioles and talked about their hope for the team to come out of this with at least a series win as they are lined up to face 41 year old starter Charlie Morton (0-2, 9.72 ERA in 8.1 IP) and Dean Kremer (1-1, 6.52 ERA in 9.2 IP) in the final 2 games of the series. With 3 of the other 4 NL West teams starting off the season scorching hot (Sorry Rockies, at least you have a beautiful ballpark!) the Diamondbacks are going to need to start playing a bit better, as it’s best to avoid getting into any kind of hole early on.