SAN FRANCISCO — Patrick Bailey’s drive to left-center bounced on the warning track and into the outstretched hand of a smiling fan. As the San Francisco Giants spilled out of the home dugout at Oracle Park, the Diamondbacks trudged off the field.
The Diamondbacks fell, 3-2, on Thursday afternoon, but it was hard to dwell too much on the outcome. The big picture felt more important, in more ways than one. Not only did the Diamondbacks come away with a series victory, they left town with their top two starters having rediscovered their form.
A day after Zac Gallen fired six no-hit innings, right-hander Merrill Kelly completed seven innings of two-run ball. Both were knocked around last weekend by the Los Angeles Dodgers, and when the road trip began, their status felt like the most important hurdle for the Diamondbacks to clear over the final three-plus weeks of the season.
It is only one start for each, but, well, so far, so good.
“I knew it was a matter of time before something like this was going to happen,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “They’re just too easy to bet on. They’re guys that take the baseball, they have a beast-mode mentality. They want to go out there and be the guy. It’s nice that they came into this venue – it’s very hard for us to win baseball games here — and they both pitched very well. So it’s a good sign.”
When Kelly returned from the injured list last month, he rejoined not just the toughest league in the land filled with players in midseason form, but a team firing on all cylinders, one gearing up for another deep October run.
At first, he assumed that being healthy meant he was ready to go.
“Obviously,” he said, “big-league hitters will tell you otherwise if you’re not.”
For four starts, Kelly did not look like himself. His velocity, at times, was down. His command never seemed quite right. And he found himself starting to apply pressure to himself to get caught up with everyone else. It led Gallen to make a comment to him not to expect too much out of himself, a reminder that coming back after four months off is no easy thing.
Kelly said it was a message delivered by more people than just Gallen, though he figures his longtime teammate might have seen something to compel him to speak up.
“He knows what I look like when I’m going well, he knows what I look like when I’m going bad and he also probably knows the faces that I wear, you know, so, I don’t know, maybe he sensed that I was maybe pressing a little bit,” Kelly said. “I think his message was spot on. It was, ‘Keep going, trust the process, you’ll be all right.’”
That was, more or less, what Kelly did. He made reference to mechanical adjustments from between starts but mostly settled on the idea that it was reps — and time — that he needed more than anything, a belief that he was healthy and had to just let his body do its thing.
“At the end of the day, I’ve done this for a long time and the ball is going to go,” he said. “So I think the more I get out of my own way and trust that the work that I’ve put in over the last however many years is going to lead to good things and not try to search my way through the throw, if that makes any sense. More of a load-and-go.”
He allowed 28 hits and eight walks in 21 1/3 innings in his first four starts off the injured list. He allowed six hits and no walks on Thursday, striking out eight. The Giants hit some balls hard, but Kelly felt best about the fact that, for a change, his pitches were going where he wanted them.
The only thing that bothered him was the pitch he threw in the fourth inning to Bailey, who drove in all three Giants runs. On a 2-1 count, he got the pitch selection from rookie catcher Adrian Del Castillo but stepped off because he wasn’t sure about a sinker. He stepped back on, got the same pitch call and threw it anyway. Bailey knocked it into left for a two-run single.
“That’s my responsibility,” Kelly said. “Not only as the guy with the ball in my hand but also more as a guy who has been around a lot longer (than Del Castillo).”
It was Kelly’s only blemish, though not the only one for the Diamondbacks. Their offense chased Giants starter Blake Snell from the game with a 42-pitch first inning but managed to score only two runs in the inning and none after that. They could not get a runner home from third with less than two outs in the eighth, and a miscommunication between Lovullo and third-base coach Tony Perezchica resulted in Del Castillo trying to put down a sac bunt in the ninth.
The Diamondbacks also allowed another key stolen base — an area that has become a major issue in catcher Gabriel Moreno’s absence — that preceded the game-winning hit by Bailey, a double off reliever Kevin Ginkel.
Still, despite those valid concerns, the Diamondbacks entered the week with two slumping starters and exited with two strong outings, a development that feels bigger than a single loss.
“That was definitely more like it,” Kelly said of his day. “Even though the game result wasn’t what we wanted, it was definitely a game for me, personally, to take and build on, for sure.”
Friday’s Diamondbacks-Astros pitching matchup
Diamondbacks at Astros, 5:10 p.m., Cox, Ch. 34
Diamondbacks RHP Brandon Pfaadt (9-7, 4.32) vs. Astros LHP Framber Valdez (13-6, 3.11).
At Minute Maid Park: Pfaadt gave up three runs in 5 2/3 innings, striking out 10, in a win over the Dodgers on Sunday at Chase Field. It was his fourth win in five starts, though he has just a 5.90 ERA in that stretch. … Pfaadt has never faced the Astros. … Pfaadt ranked fifth in the National League with 1.9 walks per nine innings entering Thursday. … Valdez fired seven innings of no-hit ball against the Royals in his most recent outing, departing with his pitch count at 98. … He had an ERA approaching 4.00 in mid-June but has posted a 2.40 ERA over his past 13 starts. … Valdez has faced the Diamondbacks just once in his career, laboring through 75 pitches to complete three innings in an April 2022 start.
Coming up
Saturday: At Houston, 1:10 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (2-1, 5.33) vs. Astros LHP Yusei Kikuchi (7-9, 4.24).
Sunday: At Houston, 4:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Ryne Nelson (10-6, 4.15) vs. Astros RHP Justin Verlander (3-5, 4.52).
Monday: Off.
Tuesday: At Chase Field, 6:40 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Zac Gallen (11-6, 3.69) vs. Rangers TBA.
What to know about the Houston Astros
The Astros were 10 games out of first place in the American League West in the middle of June, but a 42-24 stretch since then allowed them to take a commanding 5 1/2 game lead in the division (entering Thursday).The Astros were sixth in the AL in runs per game entering Thursday, with DH Yordan Alvarez hitting .311/.398/.567 with 30 homers. 2B Jose Altuve is having another strong year, with a .298 average, 18 homers and 20 steals in his age-34 season. The Astros own the third-best ERA in the league. LHP Framber Valdez remains one of the better starters in baseball; he has a 3.13 ERA in 108 starts since the beginning of 2021. RHP Justin Verlander has battled injuries and has not pitched consistently when he has been on the mound, giving up 71 hits in 71 2/3 innings. LHP Josh Hader, in his first year of a five-year contract, started slowly but has been good since. He has a 1.96 ERA with 11 saves in 12 chances since the All-Star break.
