The Arizona Diamondbacks are spiraling, and their troubling trend is no longer looking like a rough patch. Saturday night’s loss to the St. Louis Cardinals marked their fourth consecutive defeat and the third straight game in which they’ve coughed up a lead in the late innings. Even worse, the formula for failure is starting to look eerily familiar.
Manager Torey Lovullo, searching for stability amid a crumbling bullpen, has leaned heavily on his starters in their most recent outings. On paper, it’s a logical adjustment — Arizona’s bullpen has been a liability all season. The D-backs rank 26th in the league with a 5.26 ERA and an abysmal -0.8 WAR, second-worst in the MLB. When your relief corps is leaking runs, it’s natural to try to ride your horses as long as you can.
But the strategy unfortunately backfired. Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen, and Merrill Kelly each pitched at least five strong innings in their most recent starts, giving up just one run collectively through the early frames. Then came the turning point as they leaned away from analytics and ran on intuition. The third time through the order — as their pitch counts crept into the 80s, so did the damage. Between the sixth and seventh innings, the trio collectively surrendered 10 earned runs — hard hitting punches that flipped winnable games into demoralizing losses.
Arizona’s late-inning meltdowns continue as bullpen strategy backfires again
Saturday night’s loss may have been the most deflating of the stretch. With the game on the line in the eighth, the D-backs turned to Justin Martinez — making his first appearance since coming off the injured list — and asked him to protect a fragile lead in a hostile Busch Stadium. Martinez, still ramping back up from right shoulder inflammation, couldn’t hold the line. He gave up the lead and the go-ahead run leaving Arizona stunned once again.
After issuing a walk with one out, the Cardinals' situational hitting and savvy baserunning put pressure on both Martinez and the infield defense, creating chaos and capitalizing on tight margins. Still, thrusting Martinez into that moment — fresh off the IL and only a couple of short rehab reps — felt like yet another desperation move in a series full of them. Given the bullpen's track record, deploying Martinez was still the right play.
Now, the only thing the Diamondbacks can do is attempt to stop the bleeding. A win on Sunday would at least salvage the series and offer a glimmer of momentum heading into a more forgiving stretch. They return home on Memorial Day to face the Pittsburgh Pirates, a last-place team in the NL Central that sits 12.5 games out of first and six behind the fourth-place Brewers.
But if Arizona can’t solve its late-inning meltdowns soon, it won’t matter who’s on the other side. The cracks seem to be getting wider, and time is running out to patch them.