PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he did not get much sleep after coming home from Dodger Stadium on Saturday night.
The D-backs walked into what was a three-day-long celebration for the defending champions and jumped out to a 2-0 lead in all three games. They led or were tied at the end of 16 innings played during the series but came home having been swept.
On one hand, the Dodgers have a $400 million payroll and are the team to beat in Major League Baseball. It was always going to be a tough assignment playing them first. On the other, the Diamondbacks had their chances to win the series and showed clear areas in need of improvement to bounce back at home.
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“I think a loser would think they came close and played three nice games. We don’t come here to play nice games. We come here to win baseball games,” Lovullo told Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke pregame Monday. “The first five innings of today’s game, I’m going to have my eyes on everything I could possibly be paying attention to because I want to see how this team walks in.”
The Diamondbacks are back at Chase Field for their home opener on Monday night, starting a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers. The Atlanta Braves then come to Phoenix for four games. Neither team has the talent level of Los Angeles but made moves to contend this year and won their respective first series.
The benefit of starting in Los Angeles, if you choose to call it that, was that the Dodgers are not a team that allows much room for error. They forced the D-backs to start the season playing mistake-free baseball, and they did not.
Arizona will need to be sharper to scratch across wins in a difficult early slate. Here are four elements to watch on the first homestand of the season.
What to watch for in Diamondbacks’ opening homestand
Can the lineup get something going late?
The D-backs did a nice job of getting on the board early in Los Angeles and left some meat on the bone with outs on the bases. They scored all eight of their runs in the first four innings of the opening series.
After the fourth inning, however, Arizona recorded four total hits, all singles, across the three games. The run producing ceased against L.A.’s bullpen, which put stress on Arizona’s relievers to be perfect.
It has been a tough start for Arizona’s newcomers Nolan Arenado and Carlos Santana (2-for-20, 8 Ks).
Sharper baserunning
The D-backs should be an aggressive baserunning team given their athleticism, lineup of hitters who put the ball in play and lack of reliable power after the first three batters. It can give them an edge other teams don’t have access to.
Making an innings-and-a-third-worth of outs in the first two games was a poor start, although each mistake was fixable. Alek Thomas overslid third base, Jordan Lawlar had a teaching moment getting doubled off second base and Pavin Smith should have never been waved home for the third out.
Outs on the bases kill rallies and help pitchers keep their pitch counts down.
Finding a bullpen structure that works early
The Diamondbacks had to lean on the bullpen quite a bit with starting pitchers still building up to start the year, which will continue to be the case at least to start the home stand.
Jonathan Loaisiga and Ryan Thompson have been early standouts. It is clear Paul Sewald is going to close games to start the year. Joe Ross looked good in a leverage appearance on Saturday. Taylor Clarke had the roughest outing with four earned runs, while Kevin Ginkel and Juan Morillo respectively allowed go-ahead hits in the eighth inning on back-to-back nights in close ballgames. The bullpen allowed runs in one inning per game in Los Angeles.
Without clear roles, it will be notable to watch who earns early opportunities to pitch in high leverage.
Can the starters get through 5 innings?
Zac Gallen and Ryne Nelson both pitched well except for one inning each in their seasons debuts, but that frame kept them from getting through five. Eduardo Rodriguez pitched into the sixth inning, but only for one batter.
Gallen threw 76 pitches, Nelson 83 and Rodriguez 79.
With limitations on how far these arms can go at this stage, pitching clean innings without walking batters — which plagued Nelson on Friday — will be key and goes with the “can’t give an inch” need for this ballclub to survive a tough early schedule.
Michael Soroka gets the first look on Monday and Brandon Pfaadt rounds out the rotation on Tuesday.
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