Bullpen implosion leads to series loss for Diamondbacks

Rubby De La Rosa was one strike away from escaping the seventh inning unscathed on Thursday afternoon, which means the Diamondbacks were one strike away from handing a lead to Archie Bradley and Fernando Rodney, their dominant late-inning relief duo who have combined to allow one earned run since the start of May.

But De La Rosa left a slider up and Randal Grichuk launched it into the left-field seats, a blast that set the stage not just for one rare occurrence – a Diamondbacks loss – but for a combination of unusual sightings.

The Diamondbacks’ 10-4 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Chase Field was their first blowout defeat in ages, arguably their first in six weeks and perhaps their first at home all season.

It featured not one bullpen meltdown, but two. It marked their second consecutive day with a loss, something that hadn’t happened in 3 1/2 weeks. And it goes down as the Diamondbacks’ first series loss since they dropped three of four to the Miami Marlins at the beginning of the month.

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It’s hard to call any of this adversity, not for a team that still owns baseball’s third-best record and sits a comfortable 9 1/2 games up on a playoff spot. It hasn’t even felt so much like the Diamondbacks getting beat. If anything, over the past two days they’ve been unable to overcome an overworked pitching staff that they themselves seemed to create.

Last weekend against the Phillies, the Diamondbacks chose to give reliever Randall Delgado another start, a move they said was about giving everyone in their rotation an extra day of rest but which, oddly, came not long after a stretch when each of their starters had nearly a full week between starts.

More likely, the club was trying to line up its rotation what it viewed as more favorable match-ups against the division rival Rockies and Dodgers, teams they’ll face in consecutive series beginning on Friday night.

Whatever the reason, the decision led to a tired bullpen in recent days, and, ultimately, to a couple of reliever usage moves that contributed to a pair of losses.

In a one-run game on Wednesday night, recently promoted (and since-demoted) right-hander Braden Shipley gave up a run while working on back-to-back days, an unusual assignment for a pitcher who has served primarily as a starter in his professional career. The Diamondbacks wound up losing by a run.

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Then on Thursday, after Grichuk’s home run gave the Cardinals a 5-3 lead, the Diamondbacks called upon Delgado to pitch the eighth, giving him the ball on three days’ rest after throwing 75 pitches in a start on Sunday.

Delgado was hammered, allowing five runs – though only one was earned – on four hits and two walks. The inning essentially put the game out of reach, which is saying something as it relates to the Diamondbacks’ offense. Manager Torey Lovullo acknowledged that fatigue might have played a part in Delgado’s poor command.

“We’re playing catch-up a little bit,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily the reason we lost yesterday and today. It just creates some challenges that we overcome as an organization. We have the proper depth and we ask guys to step up in the bullpen to work through it. I think they did.”

Still, the Diamondbacks were in position to win an inning earlier. Leading 3-2, De La Rosa had two outs and the bases empty before Luke Voit lined a double into the left-center field gap. De La Rosa then tried three times to get Matt Carpenter to chase before going ahead with an intentional walk to bring Grichuk to the plate, a strategy that  Lovullo said was by design.

“We talked about it pregame that in certain situations we would rather have the guy on deck beat us (rather than Carpenter),” he said. “Not a very traditional move where you put the go-ahead run on base, but I felt like the matchup, with Rubby and the stuff, was going to be better served for the next hitter. Unfortunately, we didn’t execute a pitch, and he took advantage of it.”

With the count 1-2, De La Rosa left a slider in the strike zone and Grichuk barreled it, connecting for a three-run homer, his third in five games since a return from the minor leagues.

“I think I was putting too much effort into bouncing that pitch,” De La Rosa said. “That’s pretty much what it was. I’ll get it the next time.”

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.

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