PHOENIX — For as much as the story from Friday’s 2-0 Arizona Diamondbacks loss to the Atlanta Braves should be about another stellar Eduardo Rodriguez outing, this D-backs season might be defined by glaring team weaknesses overshadowing individual brilliance.
Despite seven scoreless innings from Rodriguez, Arizona’s offense managed two hits and three walks, while closer Paul Sewald lost the game in the ninth.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo focused on the offense over the bullpen, and rightfully so with three runs in the last three games.
“There’s some guys that have been very proven, there’s some guys that we’re waiting to get going — we feel like it’s a matter of time before that happens but we gotta stand on the foundation and we gotta believe in the things that we know we can do well enough to go out and execute, get runners on base and score some runs,” Lovullo said.
“The main focus I have right now is how we can get this team going offensively.”
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said late runs by the opposition is “part of the game,” but Arizona’s lack of scoring stands out more than the bullpen faltering. pic.twitter.com/YZWrKVOajI
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) April 4, 2026
The Diamondbacks managed to take just two at-bats with runners in scoring position on Friday. The worry about the offense stems from the rest of the order once you get past the three stars that kick it off, but it can really get brutal when none of them can spark things, like Corbin Carroll had in the first two series of the season.
Amongst the seven Arizona players with at least 20 plate appearances this season, Geraldo Perdomo’s .683 OPS and Ketel Marte’s .532 OPS round out Arizona’s top-three hitters, which are submarine levels below Carroll’s .990 that leads the way.
Even worse, the D-backs are displeasing Brad Pitt (“Moneyball” reference) greatly because they cannot get on base.
They rank 28th in on-base percentage (.275), 40 points below the 2025 league average of .315. That includes nuclear struggles for Carlos Santana (.120), Nolan Arenado (.167) and Alek Thomas (.185).
RELATED STORIES
Diamondbacks' Jordan Lawlar heading to IL with broken wrist
How the Diamondbacks are using ABS challenges in opening week of season
How the Diamondbacks are using ABS challenges in opening week of season
And with Jordan Lawlar breaking his right wrist, Arizona will have to rely on offensive minuses in Tim Tawa and Jorge Barrosa in left field until Lawlar or Lourdes Gurriel Jr. comes back. Either that or it will be forced to soon explore some options in the minors, especially if Thomas can’t figure it out at the plate.
Lovullo didn’t like the approach too much, with hitters swinging earlier in counts and not setting up in at-bats to put pressure on the opposing pitcher, a staple of Arizona’s previous high-level offenses.
The primary concern for many with this D-backs group was the bullpen, and rightfully so, but it’s tough to place primary blame anywhere else but on the offense eight games into the 2026 campaign.
Sewald was impeccable through three appearances. He had not allowed a single baserunner and struck out four of his seven batters.
Baserunners one and two came rather emphatically in the ninth inning of Friday’s then-scoreless affair.
Ozzie Albies destroyed a 91-mph fastball that was belt high on the inside part of the plate, sending it 382 feet deep into the right field sets. The next batter, slugger Matt Olson, got a similar fastball that was more middle-middle, and he crushed it 426 feet to left-center for Atlanta’s first back-to-back homers of the season.
Sewald got the next two guys out and was pulled for Ryan Thompson.
Regardless, despite a frustrating loss, it’s a major positive for Arizona to see Rodriguez in this form again.
Rodriguez became the first D-back starter in 2026 to not only pitch into the seventh inning but throw that many.
He allowed four hits and walked one with three strikeouts. It was the second time Rodriguez has reached seven innings pitched as a D-back and the first time in Arizona he’s had at least two straight starts without an earned run, per Stathead.
The timing could not have been better, because the clock is rapidly ticking on a shakeup in the rotation.
On the same night, Merrill Kelly threw five scoreless innings on 72 pitches in his Triple-A rehab start. Perhaps that pitch count indicates Kelly will get one more rehab start, or he’s still going to be returning in a few days in New York.
At the same time, the Diamondbacks could want to see an additional round of Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Michael Soroka before it’s decision time. The latter two will wrap up this Braves series and then Rodriguez would be in line to kick off this trio again on Thursday.
Maybe the D-backs have predetermined their choice and the outcomes of each pitcher won’t matter much, such as sending Pfaadt to Triple-A because he’s the only guy with options, or putting Soroka in the bullpen because that was presumably going to be his eventual landing spot once Zac Gallen signed late in free agency.
But there has to be the feeling of the pitchers on the bubble pitching for their rotation spots, a bubble Rodriguez is presumably on. And if that’s not the case now, it will be when Corbin Burnes returns in the middle of the season. Rodriguez’s output the last two years makes that a certainty.
But he’s pitching as well as he ever has since coming to the Valley.
“By far,” Lovullo said when asked if this is the best he’s seen from Rodriguez as a D-back.
Rodriguez got some major help early in one of only two troubling situations he found himself in on Friday.
With two on base and one out in the top of the first inning, Olson ripped a cutter to right field, one D-backs right fielder Corbin Carroll had to track properly running backwards to have a shot at. It was hit on such a line that any slight misstep or failed read would mean multiple runs. Not only did Carroll succeed with that, but Carroll timed his steps and jump perfectly to snag it.
Corbin Carroll makes the leaping grab at the wall! ? pic.twitter.com/izudRMYseI
— MLB (@MLB) April 4, 2026
I don’t know how they calculate “defensive runs saved,” but that seems like a simple enough +2 to me.
Rodriguez got the next batter out and then recorded an 11-pitch 1-2-3 in the second after using just a dozen bullets to get through the first inning.
Given the Diamondbacks’ volatile bullpen, their starters making it through at least five innings (and preferably more) is now more important than ever. The lefty maintained that pace, then tossing 11, nine and 14 pitches to be at 57 through five innings.
Only Pfaadt and Gallen in their most recent starts had reached six innings pitched in a start, and Rodriguez had a great chance to at least throw in the seventh, let alone get through it.
Inevitably, it got more difficult in the sixth, and not to much fault of Rodriguez.
Ronald Acuna Jr. hit a dribbler single through the right side of the infield and stole second before Albies hit a one-hopper that bounced off Rodriguez’s glove for an infield single with one out recorded.
But with runners on the corners, Rodriguez then struck out Olson and got Austin Riley to calmly ground out. He came into the dugout at 78 pitches without seeing any threat bigger than that one.
Another one did not materialize for him in a 1-2-3 seventh to close up shop.
The Diamondbacks were no-hit by Braves starter Grant Holmes through five innings but had some bad breaks with loud contact early on and are not fans of the number 103.
Arenado, really in need of something to get him going at the plate, stroked a rope to left field 103 mph off the bat in the second inning that Eli White caught on a slide. Later in the inning, Thomas hit a towering fly ball to left-center that was also hit 103 mph, high enough for Michael Harris II to have plenty of time to catch it.
And then in the third, Marte mashed a liner right at Holmes, once again at 103 mph that Holmes improbably caught.
Grant Holmes snags a 103-MPH liner like it’s nothing ? pic.twitter.com/UfBAr3EmUQ
— MLB (@MLB) April 4, 2026
That was all Arizona could really muster for five innings.
On Marte’s next trip up with one out in the bottom of the sixth, he whizzed a Holmes curveball right over Riley’s head at third base to get rid of that dastardly zero on the scoreboard.
Carroll then walked to set up Perdomo, who grounded out into a double play. That turned out to be the last bit of momentum Arizona’s offense could string together.
Thomas had an outstanding diving catch in the eighth inning that topped Carroll’s in the first.
Alek Thomas flashes the leather! pic.twitter.com/2OG2qGjR18
— MLB (@MLB) April 4, 2026
You don’t have to squint to see the type of Diamondbacks team Lovullo wants. The starting pitching and defense have both reached heights through less than a 10-game sample size that suggest they can get to their desired brand of baseball.
But it all has to come together, and one department or the other has lagged behind to generate a 3-5 start.
“That’s what’s going to keep us in games and we were in that game because we were playing really good defense behind some solid pitching. … Because of the defense, because of the pitching, we’re in games and I like that a lot,” Lovullo said.
Follow @KellanOlson
Hence then, the article about diamondbacks waste another eduardo rodriguez gem vs braves offensive output needs jolt was published today ( ) and is available on Arizona sports ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Diamondbacks waste another Eduardo Rodriguez gem vs. Braves, offensive output needs jolt )
Also on site :
- Juan Soto’s early exit hangs over Mets’ all-around rout of Giants
- Triple H Overruled! Mega WWE Name Behind Abysmal Pat McAfee Decision Revealed
- Man City vs Liverpool LIVE: Salah decision expected as farewell tour begins with FA Cup quarter-final