SAN DIEGO -- This four-game series against the Padres was a perfect capsule of how the Diamondbacks’ season has gone to date.
It wasn’t awful -- they managed a split at Petco Park -- but it sure could’ve/should’ve gone better for the Diamondbacks, and it left them feeling frustrated at the missed opportunity to gain ground in the NL Wild Card standings.
Arizona closed the series Thursday night with a 4-3 loss, letting an early two-run lead disappear.
The D-backs opened the series Monday with a 6-3 win over Yu Darvish and then got an outstanding pitching performance from Merrill Kelly on Tuesday. San Diego managed just one run in the game but took away two would-be home runs with over-the-wall catches, by Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr,. resulting in a 1-0 Padres win and an Arizona clubhouse trying to process how that one got away.
The Diamondbacks roughed up Dylan Cease on Wednesday and looked like they might win the series Thursday before a two-run rally in the fifth gave the Padres the lead.
So it was a split, with just a pair of runs keeping the Diamondbacks from sweeping the series. So close, but close doesn’t count in the standings.
“It’s fairly frustrating,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We just got to finish it off. To win series, there's small margins. There's very small things that we got to do to close up that gap and potentially win all four of these games. But we'll figure out that piece of the puzzle.”
As with any one-run game, there are always small moments that would have changed the outcome if they went a different way.
Obviously, it was the two robbed home runs Tuesday. On Thursday it was something a little more subtle that also speaks to another theme of the Diamondbacks season -- injuries.
In the third inning, with a pair of runs in and Ketel Marte on first base with two outs, Geraldo Perdomo hit a ball into the gap in right-center. Marte was not able to score on the play and was held at third, where he ended up stranded.
It wasn’t a matter of Marte, who is slated to start at second base for the NL in the All-Star Game on Tuesday, not getting a good jump or a bad decision by third-base coach Shaun Larkin. Rather, Lovullo said after the game that Marte was not able to run at full speed because he is still dealing with a groin muscle issue that forced him to be scratched from Monday’s game.
“Ketel is managing some aches and pains, and we knew it before the game,” Lovullo said. “It’s a credit to Larkin for being as disciplined as he was to hold him up. I think a very healthy Ketel, who's able to give us everything he possibly can, with the all max effort speed-wise, it might be a different scenario. But Ketel is grinding right now. He's got a big game to play on Tuesday, and I want him in the lineup. But we’ve got to be careful.”
Marte isn’t the only player dealing with lingering health issues. It’s been that kind of year for the Diamondbacks, who have seen three closers go on the injured list, as well as ace Corbin Burnes. Marte continues to play through injury, as does first baseman Josh Naylor.
“We're banged up,” Lovullo said. “There's no doubt about it.”
Senior Reporter Steve Gilbert has covered the D-backs for MLB.com since 2001.