Diamondbacks Comeback Falls Short Against Royals

Box Score

Ryne Nelson had another difficult outing and the Diamondbacks comeback efforts in the ninth inning fell short last night in a 5-4 loss to the Royals. Manager Torey Lovullo described it as "A bit of a grinder day with kind of a bitter ending" . The loss dropped them to 13-12 and half game back of the 13-11 Dodgers in the NL West division race.

Like so many games for the D-backs lately this one began with a starter struggling to get out of the first inning. Nelson allowed a run on three singles and needed 27 pitches to get out of the first frame. The D-backs have allowed the third most first inning runs in MLB and have been outscored 25-10.

Nelson managed to go five innings, but gave up 11 hits and four runs and was pulled having just thrown 83 pitches. He didn't walk a batter but gave up a lot of hard contact. 10 of the 22 balls in play were between 97-108 MPH exit velocity. There were a few plays that could have been made perhaps, including a ball that went over Lourdes Gurriel Jr's head and a bobble on an infield hit by Ketel Marte.

Lovullo said that he felt Nelson battled the command of his secondary stuff but had a pretty good rhythm with his fastball. He pulled Nelson with just 83 pitches but didn't want to let him face the order the fourth time around after so much hard contact.

Royals starter Brady Singer held the offense in check, allowing just one run in six innings. That lone run off Singer came when Corbin Carroll tripled and then scored on an RBI groundout by Christian Walker. The Carroll triple was the fastest home to third time recorded in MLB this year, at 10.97 seconds.

Corbin Carroll was ZOOMING on this triple.

The @Dbacks rookie went home-to-third in just 10.97 seconds, the fastest time in the Majors this season! pic.twitter.com/KBh1tU0fVm
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 26, 2023

Carroll had a three hit night, and his speed impacted the game again in the 8th inning. Leading off, he hit a ground ball down the first base line that was fielded deep behind the bag by Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino. Carroll just barely beat him to the base and eventually came around to score on an infield hit by pinch hitter Emmanuel Rivera, who had just been called up from Reno Earlier in the day.

The D-backs were trailing 5-4 at this point and were set up for a ninth inning comeback when Geraldo Perdomo doubled to lead it off. He moved over to third on a groundout by Josh Rojas. Ketel Marte came up looking for a breaking pitch and got a slider on the first pitch that was in the middle but down at the very middle of the zone. He swung and popped it up to shortstop ending his night 0-5 with three strikeouts.

Royals reliever Scott Barlow pitched around Carroll, putting him on first with a walk and Carroll stole second base uncontested. But Walker was unable to deliver the game winning hit, rolling over a slider down and on the outer part of the plate for a 5-3 game ending groundout.

As Lovullo lamented in the post game interview The D-backs had a lot of opportunities to deliver a knockout blow over the final three innings, but finished the game just 1-12 with runners in scoring position and nine left on base.

The D-backs will try to take the rubber match of the series today at 12:40 MST behind ace Zac Gallen. The Royals counter with left-hander Ryan Yarbrough.