KANSAS CITY -- Another night, another infusion of veteran right-handed pitching for the Diamondbacks.
On Tuesday, it was Corbin Burnes returning from a 15-month absence due to Tommy John surgery. On Wednesday, it was Zac Gallen returning from elbow inflammation and Michael Soroka coming back from arm inflammation.
The Diamondbacks hope to sharpen all three guys for a late push to the playoffs, but those pitchers don’t have much time to shake off the rust.
In Arizona’s 5-2 loss to the Royals in the series finale, Gallen worked the opening 3 1/3 innings. He wasn’t able to get through the fourth because a 10-pitch at-bat against Nick Loftin with one out lifted his pitch count to 68. Gallen gave up four hits and two runs (one earned), including a solo homer to Carter Jensen.
Soroka took over for the fifth in his first relief appearance of the season. Soroka struck out Kyle Isbel to begin his outing, but then surrendered a single to Isaac Collins and a walk to Jensen before Bobby Witt Jr. snapped a 2-2 tie with a three-run homer that proved to be the game-winner.
With the Padres defeating the Nationals earlier in the day, the Diamondbacks (78-69) fell one-half game back of San Diego for the third spot in the National League Wild Card race.
“The difference was their slug at the right time,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said of the Royals’ offense.
From Lovullo’s standpoint, the main takeaway on Wednesday was that the process of getting Gallen and Soroka back up to speed in facing Major League hitters has begun. Now it’s up to them to take the next steps as they await future assignments.
“It wasn’t different than I expected,” Lovullo said. “I thought it would be a little bit of a grind for both guys. They’re a little bit rusty and battling to come back from these massive setbacks and injuries.”
Gallen was encouraged that his first outing since July 7 was one that he can use as a foundational step in the right direction.
“I didn’t expect to be 1000 percent in the first one,” Gallen said. “I felt like the cutter and curve were pretty good.”
The homer that Gallen allowed to Jensen was a no-doubter that traveled a Statcast-projected 416 feet and put the Royals up, 2-0, in the third.
“The first at-bat [to Jensen], we had gone up and in. We tried to go cutter [on the home run] and just made a mistake,” Gallen said. “I saw that he won Player of the Week last week. It’s kind of hard when you make a mistake in the middle of the plate. Then you’re just hoping for good luck.”
The D-backs lost the first and last games of their six-game road trip through Houston and Kansas City, but there were four consecutive victories sandwiched in-between those disappointments.
Arizona received a solo homer from Nolan Arenado and an RBI single from Ketel Marte, but missed several scoring opportunities. The D-backs were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base. The offense could certainly use the return of Corbin Carroll, who missed the Kansas City series because of low back discomfort and will have an MRI when the club gets back to Phoenix.
“Overall, I feel like the offense is trending in the right direction, but we have to find a way to score more runs,” Lovullo said. “It was a frustrating end to the road trip, but we played well enough to win four games. We have to capitalize on the things we did well and build on it.”