Diamondbacks throttled by Twins as season tumble becomes freefall
MINNEAPOLIS — The game was over, but several Diamondbacks players did not move. They sat in the dugout or leaned over the railing, staring off as the Minnesota Twins shook hands at Target Field.
Too many weeks remain in the season, the playoff race still too wide open, for last rites to be administered. But the Diamondbacks do not look like a living baseball team. Or at least they didn’t on Saturday as they stumbled through a 12-1 throttling, a game that might go down as their most lifeless of the season.
The loss was the Diamondbacks’ fifth in a row and their 13th in their past 16 games. They have scored two runs or less 15 times in the past 32 games, losing all 15 of those games in what has been a 9-23 stretch.
At 57-55, they are the closest they have been to .500 since May 11. They remain 7 1/2 games back in the division but are only 1 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot. And they are only 1 1/2 games ahead of a talented San Diego Padres team that has begun to string together victories.
Ryne Nelson was hit around, giving up six runs in three innings. The offense collected just two hits, a solo homer (Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s second in as many days) and a bunt single. The Twins, meanwhile, pounded out 17 hits, including three from Ryan Jeffers, who had two homers and a double. Michael A. Taylor and Max Kepler added home runs of their own.
The Diamondbacks fell behind, 6-1, and though six innings remained the game already felt decided.
“I got a feeling at 6-1 or 7-1 that we lost a little bit of focus,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “That’s unfortunate. This team has come back from large deficits. We had a long way to go. We’ve got to find that path again.”
Asked if it was a subject he had talked to his players about, Lovullo shook his head.
“They’ve heard enough from me,” he said. “I’ve been in front of them enough, I’m good. This is on all of us to go out there, get the job done and play our finest tomorrow.”
The evening marked the debut of new reliever Paul Sewald. Acquired from the Seattle Mariners to close games, he instead entered with the score 10-1 in the seventh inning but nevertheless worked a dominant inning, striking out the side. He tried to sound a voice of reason when asked about the state of the club.
“This team is fine,” Sewald said. “They — I like to say ‘they’ because I wasn’t here — but they played so well for the first three months that you can afford to have a poor month. We’re having a poor month. These young guys are going to figure out that if you have five good ones and one poor one, you’re going to play in October. You’re going to get a seventh one.”
His logic is sound. So, too, were the constant reminders that were issued by Lovullo and others in weeks past about how the club remains well-positioned despite their struggles. And yet their collapse has continued unabated, their ship continuing to take on water.
“There’s a sense of frustration,” Lovullo said, when asked about the feeling in the dugout. “The guys want to get after it, they’re just not having the results. For me, it’s a helpless feeling.”
Things, perhaps, could have been worse: In the first inning, rookie Corbin Carroll was struck on the right hand by a Kenta Maeda slider. He remained in the game and later underwent X-rays that came back negative.
“It’s just a contusion,” Lovullo said. “He’s going to play tomorrow.”
Pre-game reading
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks throttled by Twins as season tumble becomes freefall
