Arizona Diamondbacks fighting their way through a rash of injuries
Injuries plagued the club in spring training and have continued to wreak havoc as the season reaches the midpoint, leaving manager Torey Lovullo searching for answers as he tries to cobble together a daily lineup.
'I have not seen anything like this,' Lovullo said from Chicago this week. 'Usually, you have a bad week or a bad month, or two guys in a 30-day period of time that will go down, but it's just been one after another. It's frustrating. I feel for the players. I feel for this team.'
It's been painful.
Left-hander Corbin Burnes, signed to a $210 million, six-year deal in January, lasted 11 starts before going down with a season-ending elbow injury. He followed fellow starter Jordan Montgomery and proceeded key reliever Justin Martinez in needing Tommy John surgery.
Reliever A.J. Puk also needs elbow surgery, to repair his left ulnar collateral ligament, a procedure that could turn into Tommy John. Pitchers Tommy Henry, Blake Walston and Christian Montes de Oca also are out for the season.
Catcher Gabriel Moreno has been out with a broken finger after being hit by a foul ball on June 15. Backup catcher Adrian Del Castillo has dealt with shoulder and back issues, spoiling his chance to move up from Triple-A Reno to replace Moreno.
The hits kept coming this week.
Arizona placed All Star outfielder Corbin Carroll on the injured list with a chip fracture in his left wrist before Tuesday's game against the White Sox, then watched infielder Ildemaro Vargas go down with a broken foot after being hit by a pitch in the second inning. Carroll has been out since being hit by a pitch on June 18.
Third baseman Eugenio Suárez has been out of the lineup since being hit on the hand by a pitch on Monday. First baseman Josh Naylor also was injured on Monday, straining his right shoulder on an awkward swing, but returned to the lineup on Wednesday.
'It's part of the game, but we've taken on a lot, there's no denying that," Lovullo said. "A lot of teams have. I don't want anybody to feel sorry for us. But it's our turn to go out there and figure out how to get the job done, and that's where my main focus is right now.'
The Diamondbacks have managed to keep their focus during the rash of injuries.
With Tuesday's 4-1 win over the White Sox, Arizona has won 10 of 14 to move back into the NL wild card picture. The Diamondbacks aren't out of the NL West race, either, entering Wednesday's game 2 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.
'We've just got to push through it,' Arizona outfielder Alek Thomas said. 'The vibe in the clubhouse, are still high. We still come every day to the field with our chin up and smiles on our faces.'
___
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Big Ten commish makes it clear: When it comes to College Football Playoff expansion, his No. 1 priority is inventory
Remember all the thrilling games of the 2024-25 College Football Playoff? Texas' two-overtime victory against Arizona State in the Peach Bowl! Notre Dame's walkoff field goal to defeat Penn State in the Orange Bowl! And … and … hey, how about that Peach Bowl? The sad truth about the debut of the expanded College Football Playoff was that from a competitive standpoint, it was pretty much a wet firework. Only two of the 11 games — those two above — finished with a one-possession margin of victory. Five of the games were decided by a margin of two touchdowns or more, and three were 20-plus-point blowouts. (Thanks for stopping by, SMU, Tennessee and Oregon.) More, in other words, didn't come anywhere near better. Yes, these were college football playoff games … but more importantly, they were inventory created to meet demand. And if people are going to buy as much of the product as you put on the shelves, what's the incentive to limit that product? Why worry about quality when quantity is your overall goal? College power conference leaders know this, which is why they're angling so hard for representation in the CFP's bracket — now at 12, almost certain to expand to 16. If — no, let's be honest, when — that expansion comes, most conferences favor a 5+11 bracket. That would comprise five conference champions, 11 at-large teams, and would seem to be as meritocratic as possible: Play well and you're in. (Win those winnable games, Alabama.) But meritocracy isn't the endgame here, aristocracy is. And so now you have Tony Petitti, Big Ten commissioner, backing a '4-4-2-2-1-3' idea, which would give the Big Ten and the SEC four automatic bids apiece, the Big 12 and the ACC two apiece, and the remaining conferences a single bid, with three more at-larges. (It's like one of those ridiculous old word problems — 'If the Big Ten gets four automatic berths in the playoffs, and the SEC gets four automatic berths … how can they screw the ACC and the Big 12 out of three more?') 'At the end of the day, I think there's been a lot of concern about how [the playoff selections] are made. I focus on that piece,' Petitti explained. 'How are we differentiating from teams that don't have head-to-head play, teams that don't play common schedules across leagues that do different things? I think that's a really hard, tall order.' It's quite the rhetorical trick Pettiti is playing there, saying that because his conference is so big, you can't adequately determine strength by head-to-head matchups alone. And whose fault is that? It wasn't the selection committee that expanded the Big 'Ten' to 18 teams. Petitti isn't interested in creating a more equitable playoff, or in creating the conditions for better competition. He wants to pack the bracket with his schools, damn the optics or the on-field results. (Worth noting: the talent dropped off fast in the Big Ten after the top four last year. Would Iowa or Illinois, with their 6-3 conference records, be more deserving of an at-large spot than a whole range of other options? No.) Petitti understands that there are spots that need to be filled — both now and in the 16-team playoff to come — and he wants those guaranteed for his conference, not subject to the whims of a playoff selection committee. But guaranteed bids are the very antithesis of 'settle it on the field,' and run counter to literally every 'you gotta earn it!' mantra preached by every coach from the beginning of time. It's no surprise why the ACC and Big 12 hate the idea, and it's also no surprise what's driving the Big Ten's push to claim as much inventory as possible. We're not exactly breaking news here to note that money trumps tradition at every single level of college sports now. Tradition only has value for universities, and especially for broadcast partners, to the extent it can be monetized. Yes, it's wonderful that you can hum along to your alma mater's fight song … but maybe you can kick in a few bucks to the ol' athletic capital campaign while you're at it? That rivalry you enjoyed your entire life … well, your rival just didn't have deep enough pockets to join a new conference. Shame to lose that, really, but how about a replacement conference game against a school from halfway across the country? That's almost as good, right? Tradition has no place in the College Football Playoff. This is about inventory, plain and simple, and every business wants to create enough inventory to meet demand. Except here, instead of cereal boxes on a grocery shelf or burgers on a restaurant warming tray, the inventory in question is college football playoff games. Broadcasters want more inventory because each playoff game is a highly monetizable asset. Universities want more inventory because each nationally televised game means more exposure, more alumni goodwill, more broadcast dollars. Fans might want more inventory because … well, more football is good football, right? Yeah, not so much. Sure, there's always the chance that a Cinderella will knock out a Goliath, to mix literary metaphors, but given the wide variance between college football haves and have-lesses, the more likely outcome is what we saw last year: the big dogs carving right through the happy-to-be-here teams. You know the best way to ensure competitive playoff games? Narrow the field down to the best four and let them have at it. Wild idea, right? We're never going back there, meaning college football fans are now living a truth that plagues everything from pizza to music to Marvel movies: As quantity goes up, quality goes down.
Fox Sports
24 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Verlander finds bottle of his favorite wine waiting at his locker after elusive 1st win with Giants
Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Justin Verlander had good reason to fear the worst when rain began to fall at Truist Park on Wednesday, sending fans scurrying for cover in the fifth inning when he still needed three outs to qualify for his elusive first win in a Giants uniform. San Francisco led 3-0 when the 42-year-old Verlander was forced to consider if bad luck again would extend a winless streak that already ranked as the longest in a season in Giants history. 'I didn't know. I figured something like that would happen,' Verlander said. 'This would be the game that gets rained out or we have a two-hour delay and they don't let me go back out.' Instead, there was no delay. Verlander pitched through the light rain to complete the fifth inning of San Francisco's 9-3 win over the Atlanta Braves. He allowed only one hit and overcame five walks, including three in the first inning, to throw five scoreless innings. Following the game, teammates who had been pulling for the three-time Cy Young Award winner's first win of the season placed a bottle of Verlander's favorite wine at his locker. 'It's awesome,' said Matt Chapman, whose two-run homer in the fifth helped put Verlander in position for the win. 'We've wanted so badly to get him that first win." When asked how he would celebrate it, Verlander said, 'I'll probably have a little bit of that (wine).' The win was more than a personal drought-breaker for Verlander. It gave the Giants the series win after Tuesday night's 9-0 victory ended a six-game losing streak. 'The division is still not out of reach,' Chapman said of the NL West race. The Giants are third in the division and began the day 2 1/2 games out of an NL wild-card spot. Verlander (1-8) was winless in his first 16 starts, the longest stretch by a Giants pitcher in a single season in franchise history. The right-hander finalized a $15 million, one-year deal with San Francisco in January and missed one month with a strained right pectoral muscle early in the season. He took a 4.99 ERA into Wednesday's game but had received only 26 total runs from Giants hitters in his 16 starts. 'It's been a tough stretch for me, physically and on the mound a bit,' Verlander said. The nine-time All-Star was in danger of not surviving the first inning. Thanks to the three walks, Verlander needed 40 pitches to make it through the inning, which ended with a fly ball to the warning track in center field by Michael Harris II. Giants manager Bob Melvin already was considering bringing a reliever into the game. 'To get through the first was huge for us,' Melvin said, adding that Verlander's first win was 'great.' 'We knew it every time he goes out there,' Melvin said. 'Guys try extra hard and for some reason it hadn't worked out.' Chapman was hit by a pitch on his left elbow in the seventh inning. Melvin said X-rays were negative. ___ AP MLB: recommended Item 1 of 3
Washington Post
25 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Cardinals rookie 1st-round pick DL Walter Nolen III will 'miss some time' because of a calf injury
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Arizona Cardinals rookie first-round pick Walter Nolen III has a calf injury and is expected to 'miss some time,' coach Jonathan Gannon said on Wednesday. The defensive lineman was the No. 16 overall pick out of Ole Miss in April's draft. Gannon said that Nolen injured the calf while working out and preparing for the season. The 21-year-old is expected to be a big part of the Cardinals' revamped defensive line as they try to make the playoffs for the first time since 2021.
