'Inconsistent' D-backs keep 'fighting and battling'

PHOENIX -- The Diamondbacks completed the first half of the season Friday night with a 41-40 record before falling back to the .500 mark with an excruciating, 8-7, loss to the Marlins in 10 innings.

Last season, when they won 89 games and missed the postseason due to a tiebreaker, they were just 39-42 at the break.

That team went on a tear after the All-Star break and into August before collapsing in the final week of the season.

This year’s team is in a better spot record-wise, but after suffering a spate of injuries to key contributors, whether they can make a similar run is an open question.

They lost their ace, Corbin Burnes, as well as both of their closers, lefty A.J. Puk and righty Justin Martinez, to Tommy John surgery.

Catcher Gabriel Moreno is on the injured list along with outfielder Corbin Carroll. While those two are expected back at some point -- Carroll before Moreno -- they still won’t resemble the team that GM Mike Hazen painstakingly put together this offseason with a club-record $195 million Opening Day payroll.

Asked to sum up his team’s first half, the first word manager Torey Lovullo used was “inconsistent.”

Indeed, the Diamondbacks have hovered around the .500 mark. They’ve not been more than five games above that mark nor more than four below. Each time it seemed they would get on a run, they have fallen back. But by the same token, every time it looked like the season might implode, they’ve bounced back.

That leads to the second word that Lovullo used to describe his team -- fighting.

Despite the injuries and the frustration of being unable to put together a sustained run of good baseball, the Diamondbacks have also not stopped fighting.

“Inconsistent when healthy,” Lovullo said. “I've expressed that to you guys many times over the first month and a half of the season where I felt like we weren’t playing D-backs type of baseball. We’ve been playing a lot better, but still inconsistent in different areas at different points in time. But you know, we're fighting and battling, and the injuries haven't helped us, but I'm excited by the opportunity that's been presented right in front of some of these younger players and we’re inspired with what they’re able to do.”

So, while the season feels like a disappointment at the moment because of the sky-high expectations heading into it, the Diamondbacks are by no means out of the postseason chase. They are only four games back in the NL Wild Card standings, but there are four teams in front of them.

The Trade Deadline is just a little more than a month away and general manager Mike Hazen desperately wants his team to show him that he should be a buyer and not a seller.

“I hope the players put us in a conversation to be buying,” Hazen said recently.

Hazen will likely wait as long as he can before making up his mind, but the next few weeks will be telling with the Diamondbacks facing the Giants, Royals, Padres and Angels before the break and the Cardinals and Astros right after.

“Mike asks me this question often, ‘What do you want me to do? You’re not making it easy on me,’” Lovullo said. “I'm like, I never make it easy on you, that's just how it is here. But I'm just asking him to be patient and see it through as long as he possibly can before he makes any type of decision. So, what do I think? I think we're going to be buyers. I have to think that. I have to believe that, and that's what I want everybody around me to believe as well.”