High-powered offense, high-leverage arms help D-backs gain ground

SAN FRANCISCO -- Before he left his office to head to the dugout for Friday night's game, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo looked at GM Mike Hazen and told him something.

“I'm going to go full-throttle tonight with the bullpen,” was essentially the message.

Yes, Lovullo was aware that a day-night doubleheader loomed on the calendar for Saturday, but in his mind, Friday was almost a must-win game.

Lovullo was true to his word, aggressively deploying his top relievers in what turned out to be a 10-6 win over the Giants at Oracle Park.

The win, combined with the Padres’ loss to the Rays, pulled the Diamondbacks to within half a game of San Diego for the final NL Wild Card spot.

The standings were one of the reasons that Lovullo considered this game so important, but it also had to do with where the Diamondbacks had come from earlier in the week, and what transpired Thursday night.

Arizona dropped the first game of its series with the Cubs on Monday, and then improbably rallied to win the second game and shut Chicago out in the series finale Wednesday. It was a big series win against a team that is all but certainly headed to the postseason.

But then the Diamondbacks laid an egg Thursday night, falling 6-1 to a woefully depleted Giants team that entered the series 25 games under .500.

"The way that we came out of the Chicago series, and last night we got beat, and to say that we're going to come in here and win four games in a row would be a very tough task," Lovullo said. "We knew that, but splitting [the series] is something that we don't want to do either.

“We want to win as many games as possible. So winning Game 2, which would equal our first win, would give us a chance to win the series, and we want to win another series. I was scoreboard watching. I'm not going to lie. I wanted to see what was going on, and I felt like the group was, too. And we’ve got to stay in this race. Winning tonight's game was really important."

Whatever bad taste was leftover from Thursday night disappeared when Lars Nootbaar hit the first pitch of the game for a home run.

Two innings later, the Diamondbacks put together a five-run third and continued to tack on runs later in the game.

It was exactly what Hazen said before the game that he wanted to see. The Diamondbacks lead all of baseball in come-from-behind wins with 41, but that isn't a recipe for lasting success.

"It's a testament to these kids not ever giving up, and the bullpen being good, and so I appreciate that," Hazen said. "I think for us to sustain winning, we need to start doing it in other ways, too, which is putting runs on the board early and start playing with leads."

And once they had a lead, Lovullo was going to make sure it didn't disappear.

Given injuries in the rotation, the Diamondbacks had to start rookie Jose Cabrera on Thursday, and they recalled rookie lefty Kohl Drake to start Friday. The plan was to hopefully get Drake through four innings, and then turn things over to the bullpen.

Drake got them through four with a 6-5 lead, and Lovullo then used five relievers, including three of his high-leverage arms, to get through the rest of the game.

While Friday night's win was important -- as all games are at this time of year for teams chasing a berth into October -- Lovullo also had to keep in mind that he has at least 18 innings to cover Saturday with another rookie, lefty Mitch Bratt, starting one of the games.

With all the relievers used for just one inning and a rare scheduled Sunday off-day, all the bullpen arms should be available for Saturday. The team also optioned Drake back to Triple-A Reno after the game, and will call up a fresh bullpen arm.

"We're going to go full-throttle in Game 1," Lovullo said. "And whatever happens in Game 2, we'll use everybody that we possibly can, and whoever's ready. But I think a lot of guys are going to sacrifice tomorrow, and we're going to see guys go out there and commit to one another and give us just a little bit extra."