Torey Lovullo Reflects on 1st Half Prior to Today's Game

Pirates and Diamondbacks play final game before the All Star break with Zach Davies on the mound

In the final game before the All Star break the Diamondbacks will host the Pirates, game time is 1:10 P.M. MST.  The D-backs won yesterday in thrilling fashion walking off the Pirates 3-2 in the bottom of the 10th on a Corbin Carroll base hit.  In the series opener on Friday Zac Gallen turned in a masterful performance in a 7-3 win. 

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Pitching Matchup

Zach Davies,  1-4, 6.52 is on the bump for Arizona, making his 11th start of the year.  Davies gave up 4 runs in 5.2 innings in his last outing agains the Mets. He pitched decently but was bit by two homers. In the outing prior to that he pitched seven scoreless innings giving up just two hits to the juggernaut Tampa Bay Rays in his best start of the year.  Davies has given up three runs or less in five of his 10 starts and has been blown out twice. 

The Pirates are going with a bullpen game today, starting reliever Carmen Mlodzinski, (1-1, 2.61 ERA in 10.1 IP)

If the D-backs win today they'd finish the first half 53-38, alone in first place in the NL West. A loss  would drop them into a tie, percentage points back of the Dodgers, but still in a Wild Card position.  Two years ago they went 52-110.  On May 26th we looked into the historic nature of such a short turnaround. While not unprecedented, it would be extremely rare to make the post season in that short a time period 

Prior to the game Torey Lovullo expressed pride in the what the team has accomplished both individually and as a group in the first half.

 "We had to make statements and come out and let the rest of the league know that we're a good baseball team. Internally we talk about things, but you've got to out and make it happen.....we've got a long way to go. A lot of people are talking about what does it mean. It doesn't really mean anything. We're having a good first half, but we've got a long journey."

It's natural that fan's expectations are raised by the good first half, but Lovullo's expectations were always lofty. A manager has to think big and see a bigger picture.  "I was aiming high from the first day of spring training" he said. There is a point where belief and expectation turns into belief however. For Lovullo that was after first  12 games of the season, eight of which were against the Dodgers and two were against the Padres and they went 6-4 against those teams.

"Everybody in my inner circle, my family, my friends, it was like a death sentence...we were gonna go 0-10, and we didn't, we held our own, we held serve, that was a big thing for us. I embraced that.....lets find out where we're out, from jump street, and we passed that test." 

Health Updates

Drey Jameson is still working through the process of getting a second and perhaps even a third opinion on his elbow injury. It seems he's headed for surgery, but that has not yet been made official. At this point all Lovullo would confirm it's at least a matter of "weeks". 

Merrill Kelly will throw a simulated game today, four innings, 65 pitches. He has not yet had a second ultrasound, but that's likely to happen later this week.