10-9 Loss to Dodgers Exposes Diamondbacks Pitching Problems

The cracks in the wall of the D-backs pitching staff have opened wide

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen (23) meets on the mound with catcher Jose Herrera (11) on Aug. 30, 2024 at Chase Field in Phoenix. / Owen Ziliak/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Arizona Diamondbacks lost a game to the Dodgers Friday night, 10-9. The game itself lived up to Torey Lovullo's pre game prediction. It was a "Wild One", in which the Dodgers kept jumping out to leads and the D-backs kept fighting back, but ultimately fell short despite a furious four-run rally in the ninth inning.

The big topic of the night for most was Paul Sewald, and rightfully so. He melted down yet again, allowing a close game to be blown open. But equally disappointing and concerning was another poor start by Zac Gallen.

The presumptive Ace of the Diamondbacks staff gave up five runs in the first two innings under a slew of hard contact. A 34-pitch second inning put Gallen on the path to a short outing. Ever the competitor, Gallen hung tough, throwing three scoreless innings after that.

That kept his team in the game, giving his offense a chance to get back in the game, which they did valiantly, tying it up at 5-5 after three innings.

But it was yet another game in which a veteran D-backs starter could not post a quality start. A quality start is defined as six innings pitched with three earned runs or fewer allowed. In 26 games in August, starters have registered just seven quality starts, 27%. League average QS rate is 37%.

Even more concerning is that four of those QS have come in Ryne Nelson's five starts. In the 21 games started in August by all the other starting pitchers there have been only three quality starts. That includes one each by Gallen, Brandon Pfaadt, and Jordan Montgomery, who was recently demoted to low leverage long relief.

For the full season Arizona has posted an unsightly 4.78 starter's ERA, which ranks 27th in MLB. The hope was that once Gallen, who missed a month, and Eduardo Rodriguez and Merrill Kelly, who each missed four months, rejoined the rotation things would improve dramatically.

That hasn't happened at all. The starting pitchers have combined for a 5.18 ERA in August, and when Nelson is removed from that total, the remaining starter ERA jumps to 5.72.

Arizona Diamondbacks Starters in August / Jack Sommers

The D-backs are 18-8 in August, but short, ineffective outings are starting to catch up with them. The team has gone just 7-6 in their last 13 games after an 11-2 start to the month. The offense keeps bailing out the pitching, scoring runs at a league leading rate. But the cumulative weight of these poor performances is beginning to show.

Without an immediate turn around from the veteran starters in the rotation, the Diamondbacks are in danger of collapsing in September and missing the Postseason. That may seem like an overly strong statement to some, but the Mets are now within five games of Arizona.

The D-backs can't expect to maintain their playoff position if the rotation does not improve.

As for Sewald, the embattled former closer had another terrible night. Coming into the game in the sixth inning with the D-backs down 6-5, he gave up a three run homer to Will Smith. The pitch was a belt high fastball on the inside part of the plate, Smith's bread and butter.

In the top of the seventh Sewald allowed a solo homer to Shohei Ohtani on a fastball dead center of the zone, putting the Dodgers up 10-5 at that point. It was another devastating demonstration of Sewald's lack of effectiveness and inability to get outs in any situation that matters.

He entered July with a 0.54 ERA and 11 for 11 in save chances. Since July 2nd he's appeared in 21 games, pitched 19.2 innings, and has a 7.78 ERA. There isn't a lot of bad luck involved either, as his FIP is 5.56. He's given up five homers among his 28 hits. He's 1-2 with five saves and four blown in that span.

As long as Sewald is on the roster, manager Torey Lovullo has made it clear he's going to keep pushing Sewald out there in situations that matter, trying to get him to regain his form.

Lovullo insists that despite the bad results, Sewald is improving in the things beyond results that aren't immediately evident to the casual observer. He was asked why he still has confidence to put Sewald in these types of situations.

"The thing I like about him is he's landing the slider. I know last year it was the reverse, it was just a lot of four-seam fastballs, and he couldn't find the slider. I think the slider is in play for me and that's the separator for a relief pitcher. He's just got to find that fastball location. "

It's hard to square Lovullo's public statements on the matter with what the eyeballs see on the field and what the stat sheet reveals.

Since July 2nd Sewald has allowed a .267 B.A. and .500 slug on the slider, with five of the eight hits allowed going for extra bases. His swing and miss, or WHIFF rate, is just 21.7%.

To be clear, these are all below average numbers on the pitch. League average on the slider is .219 with a .369 slug, and a 32.8% WHIFF rate.

The fastball is much worse of course. His average velocity is just 91.5 MPH and whatever deception he might have is being washed away by location mistakes.

Batters are teeing off to the tune of .364 BA with a .709 slug. He's given up seven doubles and four homers on the four seamer over the last two months. He has a decent 27.7% WHIFF rate, but that's of little consolation.

A manager can't get away with using just four or five relievers. He has to use everyone in the bullpen. It's up to the front office to provide a deep enough bullpen for the manager to utilize.

With Montgomery already demoted to low leverage long relief, it's clear that Sewald needs to be relegated to nothing but low leverage middle relief at this point. He simply is in no shape mentally or physically to pitch in a game that is within three runs either way.

There may not be enough low leverage innings to go around.