SAN DIEGO — The Diamondbacks‘ series finale against the San Diego Padres on Sunday might have seemed like any other mid-June game.
But, after a pair of blowout losses, this one meant more for Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo.
“It was in the midseason must-win category,” Lovullo said. “We want to start playing consistent baseball. We know what our overall record is, and you want to keep pushing towards .500 and then eventually get over .500.”
The Diamondbacks delivered with a blowout 9-3 win. The offense set the tone early, with a run in the first inning and six more in the second. In total, Diamondbacks hitters pounded out 15 hits.
Opener Scott McGough and newly recalled lefty Tommy Henry allowed three runs early, but the Diamondbacks’ bullpen held the Padres scoreless the rest of the way.
It was not a great series for the Diamondbacks. The Padres outscored them 29-17. Nonetheless, the Diamondbacks salvaged a series split on the road against a formidable division opponent.
“Especially how one-sided it was the last two days, to get out of here 2-2 I think was a win for us,” outfielder Jake McCarthy said.
The Diamondbacks will have more opportunities to draw closer to .500 this next week, with three-game series against the 25-40 Los Angeles Angels and the 17-49 Chicago White Sox.
First, they will take a much-needed off day on Monday, their first since May 26.
“The only decision I have to make tomorrow is if I want the pool water to be this high on my body or this high on my body,” Lovullo joked after Sunday’s game.
Here are a few things that stood out from the Diamondbacks’ series against the Padres.
1. Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte should be an All-Star
With voting for this summer’s MLB All-Star Game now live, this weekend’s Diamondbacks-Padres series served as something of a showcase for two of the top second base candidates in the National League: Ketel Marte and Luis Arraez.
Despite missing Friday’s game due to lower back soreness, Marte went 5-for-13 in the series with a homer, two walks and a stolen base. Arraez went 5-for-20 over the weekend with a walk. All five of his hits were singles.
For the season, Marte is slashing .281/.341/.504 with 29 extra-base hits. Arraez is hitting .331/.369/.396 with 15 extra-base hits. Entering play on Sunday, Marte had 3.6 bWAR to Arraez’s 1.6.
In all likelihood, both Marte and Arraez will be named All-Stars, but it will be up to the fans to decide whom will start.
While Marte has arguably been the more valuable overall player, Arraez’s otherworldly bat-to-ball skills often grab headlines. His .331 batting average leads the league.
2. Corbin Carroll progressing, but unsatisfied
After his three-hit game on Thursday, Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll was asked if he felt like he was getting closer to the kind of consistency that he’s been searching for.
“Too early [to say] for sure,” Carroll said.
Nonetheless, Carroll had a strong series in San Diego. He went 6-for-16 with a double, two stolen bases and three walks. Carroll now has a .351 on-base percentage in June.
His power seems to be lagging behind, however. Carroll’s double on Thursday is his only extra-base hit of the month so far. His slugging percentage for the year is .290.
On Thursday, Carroll opened up about the mental side of his 2024 season.
“It’s been pretty terrible,” he said. “But you gotta show up and put on face. These other guys in this clubhouse, this staff, they deserve it. But I’d be lying if I said that this year hasn’t been pretty terrible.”
Carroll was also asked if he has been able to separate the mental battles from the physical ones.
“I feel like those are a little bit tied together,” he said. “I always try and stay super process-oriented, but I’ve never really underperformed like this. It’s been really challenging to just trust it and just keep working every day.
“There are times where it feels like you can’t find the right answer. But I feel like that’s just when I’ve got to rely on these guys around me, rely on my coaches, rely on my teammates. They’ve done an unbelievable job of kind of just being even-keeled. And that’s helped me be even-keeled about it.”
Carroll’s full postgame interview is available on the PHNX Sports YouTube channel here.
3. quality at-bats key to Jake McCarthy’s resurgence
Diamondbacks outfielder Jake McCarthy reached base four times on Sunday, and delivered a two-run homer in the second inning that felt like the decisive blow.
But McCarthy’s most impressive moment might have come in the ninth, when he worked a 13-pitch at-bat against Padres reliever Yuki Matsui. McCarthy said that it was his longest professional at-bat that he can recall.
For Lovullo, it was an example to follow.
“That last at-bat was unbelievable,” Lovullo said. “He just did not give in.
“That made a statement about his readiness and his focus. He wasn’t going to give one thing away, and I want the entire team to be that way. And that’s what I saw today.”
McCarthy’s big day raised his season OPS to .769 and his wRC+ to 124 (100 is league average). For reference, McCarthy’s wRC+ was 79 last year and 117 in his stellar 2022 season.
The underlying metrics confirm that this has been McCarthy’s best season ever so far. His expected batting average and slugging percentage were .278 and .409 entering play on Sunday, both far and away the best marks of his career.
McCarthy said Sunday that he has just been focusing on having good at-bats.
“I’m going to control what I can control,” McCarthy said. “If I could swing at good pitches, if I can not chase — and then, hopefully, the balls in play drop.
“I just think the common denominator is being a tough out.”
Last year, McCarthy had above-average swing rates at both pitches in the zone and pitches outside the zone. This year, he is swinging much less across the board and seeing more pitches as a result.
McCarthy has also hit the ball in the air a lot more this year. Entering play on Sunday, his ground ball rate had plummeted from 54.3 percent in 2023 to 41.3 percent this year.
“I think maybe they go hand-in-hand,” McCarthy said. “Seeing more pitches, maybe I’m just identifying pitches better and putting better swings on them.
“But it’s not really part of my game … I feel like I’ve had a pretty consistent approach the last few years. Fly balls are great. Fly balls to the pull side are great. But I think that’s why it’s so valuable is it’s a hard thing to do. It’s nice hitting homers down the line to right, but it’s also nice to stay on a changeup and go the other way. I just try to be well-rounded in there.”
4. Pavin Smith, the pitcher
From a Diamondbacks’ standpoint, there were few positives to take away from Saturday’s 13-1 rout, but it was at least amusing when infielder/outfielder Pavin Smith made his major-league pitching debut in the eighth inning.
Smith was scouted as a pitcher in high school and had been slated to pitch at the University of Virginia before an injury led him to focus on the position player side.
Suffice it to say that he was a tad rusty at first.
“Very nerve-racking,” Smith said of his pitching debut. “That zone feels tight. I tried to do the lob thing and I did not know where it was going. I started slinging it just a little bit harder, and I found my accuracy.”
Smith tossed a scoreless inning, and the frame ended with an Arraez double play.
“He’s an Arraez killer,” Lovullo joked after the game.
Top photo: Denis Poroy/USA TODAY Sports
