Reed's slider a work in progress

PHOENIX -- It is not that D-backs closer Addison Reed took his inability to save Monday night's game lightly, it's just that in his role if you dwell on one blown save, it can quickly turn into two and on and on.

Reed, like a lot of closers around baseball, tries to impose a time limit for how much time he can spend thinking about a game once it's over.

"By the time I got home yesterday I was done thinking about it," he said. "I try and think about it 10 minutes max and then definitely once I leave the park I'm done thinking about it. I went home, played with the dogs, saw the wife and everything was good. That's probably the best piece of advice I ever got was [to have a] short-term memory. Whether you get the save or you blow the save, stay even keeled and don't get too high or too low."

That doesn't mean that Reed is happy with the way he's been throwing of late, however.

In his last five outings Reed is 4-for-5 in converting saves, but he has a 9.64 ERA over that span.

"Any time you give up runs you're not too happy," Reed said. "So any time I go out there I'm trying to throw up a zero. So if I go 10 weeks straight with no runs and give up a run in the 11th week I'm going to be disappointed. Been a little disappointed, but I'm not getting too disappointed because you don't want to think about it too much."

One of the issues for Reed is not having a good feel for his slider. When he doesn't have that it leaves him essentially with just a fastball.

"Really all year, I don't think he's really had his slider like he's had in the past," D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said. "To be honest with you that's what's the most impressive about what he's accomplished for us. We encourage him to throw it. The game in Chicago it was much improved. Last night he didn't have it as much."

Though Reed did not get into Sunday's game against the White Sox he did get fully warmed up to go in so when you factor in that he did pitch Saturday and Monday he essentially was pitching for the third day in a row Monday.

"Maybe didn't have as much life in his arm last night," Gibson said. "So the location became more specific and more important and he didn't get it there. He got it down the middle of the plate and they hit it out."