Varsho's 2 homers, Carroll's 1st not enough vs. Padres

September 8th, 2022

SAN DIEGO -- The D-backs' three-series win streak came to an end Wednesday as they fell, 6-3, to the Padres at Petco Park.

Arizona had swept a three-game series against the White Sox on the road and then took two of three against the Phillies and three of four from the Brewers at home before losing two of three in San Diego.

They now head to Denver to take on the Rockies in a three-game series starting Friday.

"The last two days were tough, but I think we have got enough young guys and enough energy to come to Colorado after an off-day and show what we got," said , who homered twice. "You know, it's not like we did bad these last two days, like got our butts kicked. We competed. That's a good team over there. They've got a really good lineup and they've got really good pitching."

Here are three things to know about Wednesday's game:

1. Varsho continues to rake

Varsho came into the game swinging a hot bat and picked up the first multi-homer game of his career, hitting a pair against Yu Darvish.

Varsho's first came in the second inning, and he followed that up with another solo shot in the fourth. Over his last 12 games, Varsho is hitting .341 with 7 homers.

"I think he can carry a ballclub," D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "We've seen him do that pretty much for the second half of last year, right? When he gets hot, he's a very dangerous hitter. He's always working. That's the thing that stands out and impresses me the most. He's never satisfied. He always wants to be the best version of himself. And he's got a good feeling right now. Everything is timed up, everything is in a good spot and he's attacking the baseball right away."

Varsho narrowly missed a third homer in the ninth against Josh Hader when his drive to right-center was hauled in on the warning track by José Azocar.

For Varsho, the personal accomplishment was nice, but he was more concerned with other things.

"All I'm trying to do is just try to make everybody's day better," Varsho said. "I'm not really trying to focus on myself, I'm trying to put others first. So I thought today it was kind of cool for to get his first big league homer. So I just love stuff like that. I'm really not trying to do anything different. I'm just trying to be Daulton, I'm just trying to help everybody else and  trying to win a ballgame."

2. Carroll collects another first

Carroll, the D-backs' top prospect who was called up 10 days ago, collected his first career homer when he hit a Darvish pitch over the wall in center.

When Carroll got back to the dugout, he got the silent treatment at first from his teammates and coaches.

"We were all really excited for him when he hit that home run," Lovullo said. "And it's hard not to go up and bear hug him and tell him that you're proud of him. But it's something that the guys wanted to do. I jumped on board and it was a good moment for us."

3. Tommy Henry was not sharp

For the second straight start, Henry did not appear to be sharp, particularly with his fastball command. 

After the D-backs handed him a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, he allowed three in the bottom half of the inning, two of which came on a homer by Jurickson Profar and another on Jake Cronenworth's 15th homer of the season.

"I didn't have my best stuff but honestly I felt like the pace never got out of hand," Henry said. "I couldn't stay away from the home run and couldn't put up the shutdown inning after the offense got ahead and scored, which are two no-no's that are priority 'A' as pitchers. The command of [the fastball] wasn't there. I felt like at times I put together pitches when I needed to, but as a whole it wasn't there, and it's a tough lineup to get through if you don't have your best command."