D-backs' Bullpen Gives Up Lead in 8-6 Extra Inning Loss to Brewers

Ian Kennedy blows save in 9th, Joe Mantiply takes loss in 10th

© Joe Rondone / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Arizona Diamondbacks suffered their major league leading 32nd bullpen loss tonight, going down 8-6 in extra innings to the Milwaukee Brewers

Ian Kennedy came into the game in the 9th to protect a 6-5 lead but gave up a game tying solo home run to pinch hitter Rowdy Tellez. Joe Mantiply pitched the 10th and allowed a two run homer to Tyrone Taylor, his second of the game, putting the Brewers ahead to stay.  Devin Williams (6-3) got the win by pitching a scoreless 9th, and Taylor Rogers picked up his 30th save, his second since coming over to the Brewers in a trade from San Diego for Josh Hader. 

With the loss the Diamondbacks fall to 63-69 on the season and drop back into 4th place, a half game behind the San Francisco Giants.

Late inning relief, while somewhat better of late, has once again been an issue for the Diamondbacks the entire season. Earlier last month Mark Melancon lost his role as closer due to his 3-10 record and 5.11 ERA. Torey Lovullo went to a "closer by committee" system but the results have been mixed. Ian Kennedy has 11 saves, but tonights blown save was his 5th.  Always somewhat homer prone, Kennedy had been allowing fewer homers than usual this season. But tonight's long ball by Tellez was Kennedy's third homer allowed in his last 10 innings of work. 

Meanwhile All Star reliever Joe Mantiply has not been nearly as effective in the second half of the season as he was in the first. He's given at least one run in 9 of his last 30 appearances and his numbers across the board have gotten considerably worse. 

Time Period	Games	IP	W-L	ERA	H	BB	SO	HR
Thru June 21	29	26.1	1-0	0.34	21	1	26	0
Since June 25	31	27	1-5	5.33	29	3	29	5

After the game in Mantiply spoke with the media in a very quiet and mostly empty Diamondbacks clubhouse. 

"At this point I kinda feel like a liability a little bit. It's tough to swallow, especially that one.... I feel like I've gotten back to a good feeling, the ball feels good coming out of my hand, so I felt really good. But not getting the job done sucks"

Mantiply indicated that he feels fine physically. He mentioned that last month there was a period of time that he felt fatigued, but he adjusted his work out and throwing program and his arm feels good. The simplest explanation he could give is he's not making pitches when he needs to make them and hitters are putting good swings on his bad pitches.  

It is hard to look at the Diamondbacks record and not wonder where they might be if they had a reasonably good bullpen. Coming into tonight Fangraphs ranked the Arizona bullpen 27th in MLB according to their reliever WAR metric. In the more traditional metric of reliever ERA came in with a 4.45 bullpen era, which ranked 25th. It's not difficult to construct an alternate reality where they are an over .500 team on the periphery of the Wild Card chase with just a league average bullpen. 

Tonight's starter Madison Bumgarner came out of the game after 5 innings trailing 3-2. Only two of the three runs were earned however as Josh Rojas made an error on a routine grounder that would have gotten Bumgarner out of the inning unscathed.  His final line (5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO) was a vast improvement over his previous several outings which were marked with hard contact and a ballooning ERA. 

The concerns and frustrations for  Bumgarner and the coaching staff had risen to very high levels, as discussed by pitching coach Brent Strom earlier today.  Asked if he felt if tonight were a step forward he said:

"Yes, definitely. There's still a lot to be better, but it was pretty good tonight...I felt like I did a much better job of keeping he ball out of the middle of the plate.  That was something I was thinking about, even if I got behind just keep making pitches. I needed to take a step back and not be so aggressive in the zone.  After the last few I felt like I needed to be...I don't know if careful is the right word, but just making the right pitches"

It was evident throughout his outing that he refused to give in and put pitches over the middle of the plate, and while there was traffic throughout the final four innings he was able to limit the damage, unlike recent outings.

This game was a see-saw battle throughout, and not without it's highlights earlier on for the Diamondbacks. After taking an early 1-0 lead in the first inning, three times they fell behind and three times they came back to either tie or take the lead. 

Corbin Carroll had an RBI single in the first.  Cooper Hummel had two long doubles, scoring two runs and driving in another.  Daulton Varsho hit his 19th homer of the year, a laser into the pool area in right field.  And they scored three runs in the 6th inning on four straight two out hits.  They made Milwaukee starter  Corbin Burnes work hard and chased him from the game during that 6th inning  with 110 pitches thrown and 5 runs allowed. 

Corbin Carroll seems ready for any situation.

pic.twitter.com/K4xHaZvQp1

— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) September 4, 2022

Varsho tied this ballgame at 3-3 with this shot to the pool area

pic.twitter.com/sqPj1W2Lss

— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) September 4, 2022

There was also a couple of highlight plays at the plate, both challenged, one was upheld, the other overturned

It’s Fundamental. Hit your cutoff man.

pic.twitter.com/Rt0lPBx6ZD

— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) September 4, 2022

But the Milwaukee bullpen completely shutdown the D-backs lineup after a leadoff double by Ketel Marte in the 7th, retiring 12 of the next 13 batters and allowing just one walk. 

The finale of the 4 game series starts at 1:10 P.M. on Sunday at Chase Field.  Zac Gallen, (10-2, 2.52 ERA) will attempt to extend his scoreless innings streak of 34 1/3 innings. He'll face off against Jason Alexander (2-1, 4.97).