Arizona Diamondbacks match MLB record with 22nd straight road loss
It did not seem to be a question of whether the Arizona Diamondbacks would etch their names into the record book on Wednesday night. It was how they would do it.
Would they lose in excruciating fashion, blowing a late lead like they did the night before? Would they commit a series of embarrassing gaffes? Would their offense fail to show?
As it happened, they chose a route that made sense given the circumstances: They were blown out. In falling, 13-7, to the San Francisco Giants, the Diamondbacks tied a modern-era record with their 22nd consecutive loss on the road.
They will soon have a chance to own the record outright rather than sharing it with the 1943 Philadelphia Athletics and the 1963 New York Mets. They conclude their four-game set at Oracle Park with a game that begins, for the morbidly curious, at 12:45 p.m on Thursday.
“I feel bad for me and my teammates because I know we are working hard,” infielder Asdrubal Cabrera said. “I know we try our best all the time. For some reason, we’re in this situation right now. I always say that God is the only one who knows what’s happening right now. It’s nothing we can — I don’t think we can control this.”
As they did on Tuesday night, the Diamondbacks jumped to an early lead, scoring twice in the top of the first inning. Unlike on Tuesday, it didn’t take until late in the game for it to vanish.
The Giants scored four times off right-hander Merrill Kelly, who labored through a 47-pitch first inning. They never looked back. They added four runs in the fourth, then scored five more in the fifth. The Diamondbacks pitching staff served up five home runs, including three-run homers to Buster Posey and Brandon Belt.
Kelly’s 47-pitch inning was the second-most pitches thrown in an inning in the majors this season, falling one short of St. Louis Cardinals right-hander John Gant’s 48-pitch second inning on Saturday at Wrigley Field. It ranks fourth in club history, three shy of the record of 50 pitches set by Ian Kennedy on June 6, 2013.
Kelly departed after the third, giving way to right-hander Keury Mella, who was later replaced by Ryan Buchter. The pair combined to allow nine runs in the fourth and fifth innings.
The loss was the Diamondbacks’ 13th in a row overall. They are just the second team in the past 80 years — the 1963 Mets being the other — to have separate 13-game losing streaks in the same season. The Diamondbacks have two in a 30-day span. They have lost 27 of 29 and 36 of 41.
And yet the Diamondbacks again looked like a team that has not quit. They showed life early, and they continued to play hard even after falling behind. The sixth inning began with them trailing 13-2, but there were a pair of high-effort plays that led to a five-run outburst, plays manager Torey Lovullo highlighted when speaking with reporters.
“(Ildemaro) Vargas legs out a potential double-play ball,” Lovullo said. “(Josh) Rojas hits a comebacker and hustles down the line (to force an error). Those little things show up. Our guys have been giving a great effort. But it’s got to be the right effort, at the right times, with focus. We’ve got to find a way to get this thing to turn. … It’s puzzling to me.”
Said Cabrera: “When we swing the bat really good, we hit it straight to people. When the pitchers come in and do their job, we don’t score any runs. We’re not on the same page right now in a baseball game.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks match MLB record with 22nd straight road loss
