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CINCINNATI — While the sun was still shining Monday afternoon, the D-backs were on the field at Great American Ball Park taking early batting practice off a high-velocity pitching machine anticipating their matchup with Reds rookie Hunter Greene.
Daulton Varsho led off the Monday night’s game with a bunt single and Arizona seemed to be on its way.
But hours later, when torrential rain started to fall and forced the game to be called in the bottom of the seventh, that bunt single was still the lone hit for the D-backs.
Greene, who entered the game with a 6.19 ERA, struck out eight.
“It had a little bit of rise on it and it was at the top of the zone, and we just got into a wrestling match with it up there and we couldn’t get over the ball and get anything going,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said of Greene’s fastball. “So we were aware of [his] game plan, we were ready for that game plan, we just didn’t execute it the right way.”
Greene is among the top pitching prospects in baseball, so struggling against him on a night that he had his best stuff is not anything to be ashamed of.
But dating back to the final two games of the D-backs’ series in Pittsburgh, it’s been three straight games that Arizona’s offense has struggled to do much of anything.
After hitting five homers against the Pirates in a series-opening 8-6 win, the D-backs scored just one run in the next two matchups. If you’re keeping score at home, they’ve scored one run in their past 27 innings.
“It’s certainly not the time to panic or anything like that,” rookie outfielder Jake McCarthy said. “I have confidence in all the position players in this clubhouse, so I think we’ll be fine.”
While McCarthy may be right, Lovullo sees his team pressing a bit at the plate these past few games, which can lead to a more prolonged slump. As it is, Monday was the seventh time the D-backs have been shut out this year, tied with the Tigers, A’s and Twins for the most in the Majors.
“I think it compounds itself, because one guy and then the next will try to do too much to be the one that’s going to get this thing to turn around,” Lovullo said. “But it’s not a one-guy train, it’s a nine-man train.”
When Lovullo watches his hitters these days, he sees them a little overaggressive at the plate — swinging at balls out in front of the plate as opposed to letting the ball travel deeper into the strike zone.
“From what it looks like, they’re trying to do too much pull-side damage,” Lovullo said. “We’re not a pull-side team, and I just think we need to [let the ball travel] and see it and get it into that area where we can do the damage, and that’s in the middle of the middle of the field.”
