Kelly, D-backs' small mistakes loom large in one-run loss to Wild Card foe

PITTSBURGH -- As is typical of a hard-fought, closely contested game, the Diamondbacks walked out of PNC Park on Monday night wondering about a few plays that could have gone a different way.

The final line was a 3-2 loss in 10 innings to the Pirates, one of the teams the D-backs are locked in a tight race for in a National League Wild Card spot.

Let's take a look at a couple of the key moments from Monday’s game:

The errant pickoff throw

Arizona starter Merrill Kelly rolled through the first five innings, in spite of a minor stomach issue (more on that later).

However, Pittsburgh starter Mitch Keller managed to keep pace with Kelly before Arizona was finally able to break through for a pair of runs in the sixth inning on a Max Kepler double down the right-field line.

The Pirates quickly threatened back with one out in their half of the sixth, when the speedy Jake Mangum singled to right-center.

Kelly has an outstanding pickoff move -- as he showed in the fourth inning when he nabbed pinch-runner Jared Triolo off first base -- and he threw over twice to try and nail Mangum.

Under MLB rules, if you throw over three times and don't get the runner, it's a balk. Kelly was locked in a battle with Brandon Lowe and wasn't convicted in the pitch he had decided to throw.

With the pitch clock winding down, he decided that rather than throw the pitch, he would try one more time to pick off Mangum. Kelly’s throw to first bounced away down the right-field line, allowing Mangum to get to third base.

Lowe then beat out an infield hit to the shortstop, and Mangum scored.

"That was just kind of a brain fart," Kelly said. "I didn't love the pitch that was in my hand. I knew I had two disengagements. I knew if I picked over, I got the third one. And I think about halfway through my spin to first, I realized again that I did have two pickoffs and just kind of held onto the ball too much and just yanked it over there."

Pitching to Reynolds

Arizona manager Torey Lovullo faced a crucial decision in the eighth when with two outs, Lowe doubled to left to bring up Bryan Reynolds.

On deck was Triolo, who had come into the game when Esmerlyn Valdez was hit by a pitch and forced to leave in the fourth.

Lovullo was tempted to walk Reynolds to get to Triolo, but instead let Loáisiga face Reynolds, who doubled to center to tie the game.

The spacious outfield gaps and foul lines at PNC Park figured into Lovullo's decision to not put the go-ahead run on first base in that situation.

"Ground-ball base hits down lines in this ballpark end up scoring two runs, and I felt like it was only the tying run [if Reynolds got a hit]," Lovullo said. "And I believed that we could pitch around him. [Loáisiga] has got nasty stuff with swing and miss. If we executed, I felt like we were going to strike out the batter. But overall, probably the gaps and in this ballpark with the winning run on first base was something that I was targeting and I was trying to avoid, but it didn't work out the way we wanted."

A little too much water

Kelly had well-publicized cramping issues a few years back, and as a result, he makes sure that he is well hydrated during his starts.

It was a warm, muggy night, and Kelly had a lot of fluids in him. After ingesting more while the Diamondbacks were hitting in the top of the fifth, he took the mound in the bottom half of the inning and wound up throwing up behind the mound.

"Had a little tickle in my throat, a little bit of a cough, and I think it kind of just culminated in it coming up," Kelly said. "But not because I'm sick or anything, not because of the heat. Just had a little too much [fluid] in my stomach, and once I got it out, it was fine."