On 6 April and 22 September, the Diamondbacks started strong with a high scoring inning early in the game. That inning gave them a large lead. Then they lost each game. After each loss, they failed to bounce back and lost the next two games. Those 6 losses were huge. Let’s look at offense, defense, and pitching.
Offense.
“I like to see us have, innings 1 to 9, a relentless approach [to scoring runs], but it doesn’t happen all the time. That [relentless approach] is what they’ve spoiled me with. But I feel 8 runs should be enough for sure.” — Torey Lovullo, 6 April 2024
Let’s look at offense after the big inning.
- 6 April. 6 runs scored in the first inning. The remaining 8 innings: .188 OBP, 2 runs on 6 hits and a walk.
- 22 September. 7 runs scored in the third. The remaining 6 innings: .240 OBP, 1 run on 3 hits and 3 walks.
After the two big innings, the Diamondbacks did not get on base very much, and they can count themselves lucky that they scored any runs.
In September, only 4 Diamondbacks batters had SLG greater than .550. On 22 September, after the big inning, how did they bat?
- Randal Grichuk (September SLG .957) had 1 hit in 1 PA.
- Pavin Smith (September SLG .677) had zero hits in 1 PA.
- Eugenio Suarez (September SLG .644) had 1 hit in 3 PAs.
- Ketel Marte (September SLG .559) had zero hits in 3 PAs.
My conclusion is that on 22 September, September’s best batters either had too few hits in their PAs, or they had too few PAs.
Defense.
In each game, defending right field was a problem.
- 6 April. 47% of hits and 38% of RBIs resulted from hits to right field.
- 22 September. 56% of hits and 50% of RBIs resulted from hits to right field.
First, know that the pitchers and the right fielders share responsibility. On 6 April, Jake McCarthy played right field. On 22 September, Pavin Smith played right field. My view is their fielding skills are below average. Unfortunately, the opponents were able to hit the ball toward right field.
“When you give them extra outs in key situations they are gonna react accordingly.” — Torey Lovullo, 5 April 2024
“We need to play more together defensively.” — Torey Lovullo, 5 April, 2024
Pitching.
In each game, pitching in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings allowed a lot of hits and the hits resulted in a lot of runs.
- 6 April. 6/7/8th innings. 4 runs allowed on 8 hits and 1 walk. Pitchers were Pfaadt, Jarvis, Frias, and Kyle Nelson. All their season ERA+s were better than league average except Pfaadt with 89 ERA+ and Frias with 44 ERA+
- 22 September. 6/7/8th innings. 7 runs allowed on 10 hits and 1 walk. Pitchers were Diaz, Thompson, Mantiply, and Martinez. All their season ERA+s were better than league average.
“I looked up there at one point and I think there were 4 hits. And all of sudden when the game was close to being over, there was 15 or 16 hits. That speak for itself. We got to make pitches. We got to finish innings….” — Torey Lovullo, 6 April, 2024
In thses two games, above average pitchers allowed a lot of hits in the late innings.
“We didn’t make pitches we had to.” — Torey Lovullo, 22 September, 2024
Overview.
There were three weaknesses. In each game, Diamondbacks’ batters had poor offense after the big inning. In each game the opponents had hits to right field accounting to roughly half their hits and half their RBIs. In the 6/7/8th innings of each game, Diamondbacks pitchers allowed many hits (about 3 per inning) and many runs (1 to 2 runs per inning).
It’s mentally painful to lose a game after a big inning with 6-7 runs. If it had been the case that the losses were due to a single weakness, the pain might have been moderate because that weakness can be a focus for improvement. However, in this case, each loss was due to three weaknesses. The pain was severe.
In his post-game comments, in addition to talking about what went wrong, Torey Lovullo talked about team strengths, perhaps to encourage players to bounce back. Examples follow:
“There’s a few things we know we can do better, and we will.” — Torey Lovullo, 6 April 2024
“This team is tough, smart, and they wanted to win this game and they didn’t shut down. There were some good approaches and some good swings…” — Torey Lovullo, 22 September 2024
No bounce in the following two games.
After the 6 April loss, the Diamondbacks’ runs scored were less than their usual league-leading pace. They scored two runs in Atlanta against the Braves in Atlanta, followed by 5 runs (only 3 earned runs) at Coors against the Rockies. Seven of the innings at Coors were scoreless (with only 3 hits in the 7 scoreless innings).
After the 22 September loss, the Diamondbacks’ runs scored were less than their usual league-leading pace. They scored a total of 3 runs in 2 games against the Giants.
Perhaps the Diamondbacks’ batters found it highly difficult to mentally bounce back.
Summary.
On 6 April and 22 September, the Diamondbacks started strong with a high scoring inning early in the game. They lost each game. The games have three things in common:
- After the high scoring inning, they rarely had hits and rarely scored runs.
- Right field was where roughly half the hits landed and roughly half the RBIs happened.
- In the late innings, Diamondbacks pitchers allowed many hits and many runs.
Despite encouragement from Torey Lovullo, after each loss there was no bounce in the two following games. Diamondbacks batters found it highly difficult to score runs in the following two games.
Counting the two lost games and the following games, the 6 losses made a huge negative impact on the season.