© Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
D-backs Snap Losing Streak to Give Torey Lovullo his 500th Win
Just enough offense, good pitching from Merrill Kelly, and a strong outing from the bullpen make a 3-2 lead stand up.
Even Torey Lovullo looked up at the scoreboard at the end of the 6th inning and thought "no way this will hold up." Merrill Kelly had just completed his outing by getting Nolan Jones looking to record the final out of the inning. The Rockies had just scored a run to draw within 3-2. Given the recent troubles with the bullpen, Lovullo might not have been the only one with these thoughts.
The lead did hold up. While the offense once again was unable to score over the final three innings, this time the bullpen made it stand up. Ryan Thompson and Kyle Nelson combined to pitch two scoreless innings. Then Kevin Ginkel came on to record his first save of the season by retiring the side in order. The outing included two strikeouts looking with fastballs dotted on the corner.
The win not only snapped a Diamondbacks five game losing streak, but earned Lovullo the 500th win of his career. Lovullo spoke about reaching the milestone. "I'm honored by this number but this is a we thing over a me thing. This is a team, this is an organization. I have some unbelievable coaches that work very hard for me. I have some players that are special and they go out and play hard every single day, I love them all and I'm very grateful."
The game got off to another good start for the offense in the first inning. Corbin Carroll led off with his first homer of the year and his first leadoff homer ever. It was a line shot to opposite field that just cleared the left field wall. Gabriel Moreno followed with a double, the first of his four hits for the night, and was driven in by a Christian Walker single.
Randall Grichuk homered to lead off the top of the second inning, his first as a Diamondback. That was all the scoring for the D-backs as they managed just five more hits the rest of the night. It wasn't for lack of trying however. The D-backs had no fewer than six balls hit over 100 MPH that were either right at a defender or turned into outs by a good play. The composite expected batting average on those balls, according to Statcast, was .540.
Kelly's record now stands at 2-0 with a 2.29 ERA. His line for this game was 6 IP, 6 hits, 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. Highlighting the fickle nature of baseball, five of the six hits Kelly gave up were hit under 80 MPH with a composite expected batting average of .118 .
Moreno also threw out two batters tonight, helping shut down the 5th and 6th innings at key moments. His four hit game raised his batting average from .161 to .250 and OPS from .555 to .746 Such is the nature of early season small sample sizes.
The D-backs won't have much time to bask in the victory for their manager. It's a quick turnaround tomorrow with a 12:10 PM start MST. Two left-handed starters, Tommy Henry for the D-backs and Austin Gomber for the Rockies will be on the mound to start the game.
