D-backs blown out in return home from successful road trip
PHOENIX -- Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale admitted disappointment in the way his team's just-completed road trip ended. But there were many more positives to take away, he said.
So much so there was talk before Monday's game of reaching the breakeven mark by the fast-approaching All-Star break, after nearly two months of sitting well below .500.
It was that disappointment, however, that followed the D-backs home from Colorado -- because it certainly wasn't the bats.
The Phillies scored more runs in one inning at Chase Field than they did in four games against the D-backs earlier this month in Philadelphia, and Vince Velasquez and three relievers mowed through the Arizona lineup in an 8-0 D-backs loss.
Robbie Ray matched Velasquez for five innings --even setting down nine straight at one point -- before the D-backs left-hander blinked in the sixth and then succumbed to a blister an inning later, when the Phillies scored six times against him and reliever Jake Barrett.
The Phillies scored just five runs combined in the D-backs' four-game sweep of them at Citizen's Bank Park June 17-20.
Ray held the Phillies to three hits the first two times through the order, but Philadelphia was 6 for 9 the third time through. Ray chalked it up to timely hitting.
"I made good pitches and they hit them," said Ray, who does not expect the blister on his middle finger to keep him from his next start. "I was still getting ground balls and weak contact. I think there was one pitch really that they hit hard. ... They just hit it where we weren't."
The D-backs, meanwhile, never got much going against Velasquez, who was making his first start after a 16-day stint on the disabled list. He struck out seven and held the D-backs to five hits in five innings as the Phillies posted their MLB-best ninth shutout.
After a two-out single by Paul Goldschmidt in the third, the D-backs didn't get another hit until Nick Ahmed singled to lead off the eighth. They also struck out 13 times as a team.
"Thirteen, that's a lot of strikeouts," Hale said. "Velasquez had good stuff tonight, have to give him credit. Coming off the DL like that, coming right after us."
The D-backs didn't help their cause on the base paths. Two potential rallies were cut short when Jean Segura was doubled off first base on a fly ball to center fielder and Michael Bourn was caught stealing second after video review overturned an original safe call.
Rickie Weeks Jr., making his second straight start in left field for his offensive prowess, misplayed two fly balls, the first of which helped lead to the Phillies' first run.
"It wasn't a very good game; it was an ugly game for us," Hale said. "Once it got out of hand, it just kept going. You give them credit, they swung the bats well, but we didn't play very well."
Ray said a lack of focus could be part of the team's troubles at home, where the D-backs are 13-26.
"We know how good we are; we know how good we can play," Ray said. "We just have to do it. We have to focus more, probably, and go out there and do what we know how to do."