PHOENIX -- These are tough days for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
They've had to endure a week of bad injury news off the field and struggles on it, the latest of which was Sunday afternoon's 4-2 loss to the Twins, who took the three-game weekend series at Chase Field.
The loss came on the heels of a four-day stretch in which the Diamondbacks learned that right-hander Corbin Burnes and lefty A.J. Puk had suffered new injuries in their attempted returns from Tommy John surgery and won't be able to return to action until late in the season.
Then starters Ryne Nelson and Michael Soroka each sustained injuries, with Nelson likely out until September and Soroka missing at least the next four weeks or so.
Outfielder Jordan Lawlar, who had recently returned from the injured list, hurt his right hamstring Friday night, and he will now be out another four to six weeks.
"Tough," Arizona shortstop Geraldo Perdomo said. "I feel like Corbin Burnes and Puk … Mike and Nelly got hurt. I feel like we are in a tough spot. We need to fight some more. And we, as an offense, we have to fight. We lost Lawlar. We need to play good baseball before those guys come back. Those guys are important for us, and we definitely need those guys."
The Diamondbacks got a boost Sunday from Jose Cabrera, who made his Major League debut after his contract was purchased from Triple-A Reno.
The right-hander, who was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2021, allowed just three hits over five-plus scoreless innings.
Cabrera reaching the big leagues made good on what Perdomo predicted to Diamondbacks director of Latin America Operations, Cesar Geronimo Jr., years ago.
"I’m happy for him," Perdomo said of Cabrera. "I remember when he threw me live BP before he signed. I told Cesar Geronimo and a couple of guys to sign this guy. I told him he’s going to pitch one day in the Majors. Dream come true for him. I’m really happy for him. I know how hard he has been working, and I know how much work he put in at home. He deserves it. He’s a really good guy, and he’s going to help this team a lot."
The Diamondbacks now head out onto the road, where they will face the Cardinals for four games and the Rays for three -- two good teams that, if the season ended today, would be in the playoffs.
Given the recent injury news and losses, Arizona manager Torey Lovullo was asked where his team goes from here.
"One way, and that's all we know, and that is to just keep putting it in gear and going forward," Lovullo said. "The easy thing to do is feel sorry for ourselves, but I don't think that group is. They're in there, they're hungry, they want to win baseball games, they know how to win baseball games. And we're going to get this thing turned around. I think on a given day or night, we put two-thirds of our game together. We've got to put it all together and start playing very consistent baseball. When we do, we're going to start to win some baseball games."
Cabrera's performance all but assuredly means he will get at least another turn in the rotation in place of Nelson.
Now, the Diamondbacks will have to figure out what to do with Soroka's spot, which comes around Wednesday.
As of right now, the Diamondbacks have the starter for that game listed as TBD. They added lefty Kohl Drake to the roster on Sunday. He's started games for Triple-A Reno, but is still getting his pitch count built back up after missing time recently due to injury.
The same goes for Brandon Pfaadt, who was optioned to Triple-A not that long ago and is still trying to get his pitch count built up.
Pfaadt will likely be back in the rotation once he does that, but on Wednesday, the Diamondbacks could also go with a bullpen game.
Certainly challenging times for a team that was riding high not that long ago after completing an 11-2 record in a 13-game stretch against the Rockies and Giants.
"We always say this is baseball," Perdomo said. "It sucks because we want to be healthy, we don’t want to lose any player, but at the end of the day, we know this is baseball. A lot of stuff is going to happen."