PHOENIX — The pitching and defense team — for the second straight year — does not look like a pitching and defense team.
The Arizona Diamondbacks lost 8-7 in 10 innings on Saturday to the Atlanta Braves, with the bullpen imploding after being handed a 6-2 lead.
This spoiled third baseman Eugenio Suarez becoming the 19th person in MLB history to hit four home runs in a game. He is now the third to lose when doing so.
It’s the fourth straight Arizona defeat, three of which it was leading when relievers were in. The worst part for the D-backs is this looked like their brand of baseball prior to the collapse, unlike the three prior losses full of sloppy play.
You’d have to imagine that’s part of why manager Torey Lovullo said he sat in his office in silence for a bit after the loss because of how angry he was.
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Another part of that you imagine is this night should have solely been about Suarez.
“Obviously there’s a mixed feeling right now because we didn’t win the game but this is baseball,” Suarez said. “That’s why this game is so special.”
Suarez, who came into the evening with a .145 batting average in April, smacked four homers in his first 11 at-bats of the season before two in his next 80. These next four now add up to 10 of his 19 total hits this season.
Arizona is aware of the ride it signs itself up to sit on with a player who last year posted a .668 OPS in the first half of the year and then engulfed into a .942 number for the second half.
But it’s different when your top prospect in Jordan Lawlar is at long last staying healthy and is also white-hot in Triple-A. He is coming off a stellar showing on Friday in which he was a homer shy of the cycle.
So with that narrative swirling overhead the last two weeks, this is one way to whoosh it away for a few days.
Suarez clubbed his dingers in the second, fourth, sixth and ninth innings across his four plate appearances.
All of them were significant.
The first was Arizona’s only hit through three innings, the second capped off a four-run fourth inning to put the D-backs ahead 5-2, the third extended the advantage to 6-2 that would have proven to be an incredibly valuable insurance run (more on that later) and the fourth tied the game after the D-backs’ bullpen allowed five unanswered runs.
We are going to start a dialogue. pic.twitter.com/3HEc29CXf2
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 27, 2025
“No, I didn’t think he was gonna go deep,” Lovullo said of what he was thinking during Suarez’s fourth at-bat. “I thought there’s no way he’s gonna go deep. When does that happen? It’s like a fairy tale. So, when it happened, I just kept shaking my head. I couldn’t believe it.”
The first three all traveled at least 400 feet, making Suarez the first player in the Statcast era since 2008 to do so with three or more long balls at Chase Field, per Statcast.
Suarez nearly did enough to overcome the blunders by the pitching and defense.
Diamondbacks’ recent bullpen, defensive woes
Across the D-backs’ last four games, relievers have tossed 17 innings and allowed 13 earned runs off 25 hits and 10 walks. Arizona had a 5-4 lead in the top of the eighth on Wednesday, a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh on Thursday and a 6-2 lead in the top of the seventh on Saturday.
For the defense, it’s probably not fair to call them 50/50 situations and they certainly aren’t errors when the D-backs don’t make a defensive play. But the 30/70 or even 20/80 moments when there is an opportunity to make a play, is an area Arizona has been awful at this season, especially when considering it is supposed to be a very good defensive team.
Suarez had another throwing error on Friday, a throw that first baseman Josh Naylor did have a chance to still scoop. Suarez also had two hard-hit balls within reach on difficult immediate efforts, while shortstop Geraldo Perdomo had one straight at him he was unable to field properly.
There were a few dozen more over the other 25 games.
Lovullo agreed after Friday’s loss that the D-backs are lacking in this department, one they arguably excelled in across the previous two years.
These plays were actually being made on Saturday.
Suarez made a nice effort on a difficult popup to track down in front of the D-backs dugout and a sliding snag on a strong grounder by second baseman Tim Tawa stole a hit as well. Corbin Carroll made a sliding grab a bit later.
But the D-backs bullpen was collapsing yet again with runners on the corners, two outs and a one-run lead in the eighth inning. Atlanta’s Michael Harris II drilled a Jalen Beeks cutter — barely touching the striking zone — 107 mph to deep center.
Alek Thomas, who in 2023 looked like he could eventually challenge for a Platinum Glove, didn’t get the best break on a scorched ball slicing to his right and it went inches over his glove on a leaping effort. The two-RBI double by Harris put the Braves in front.
Michael Harris II drives home two and the @Braves come all the way back to take the lead! pic.twitter.com/ZTb6h4I8ZG
— MLB (@MLB) April 27, 2025
Lovullo cited it afterward as a catch with a high potential to be caught and when later asked about the play specifically, noted how Thomas initially broke in before backing up, a mistake the tremendous defender rarely makes.
If Thomas makes that catch, Suarez’s third homer is still enough for Arizona to hold a 6-5 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning.
The mistake should begin and end with Beeks. And it’s an extreme example of what we’re talking about.
With that said, Thomas had a chance to bail his pitcher out with an outstanding play. Instead, he came up just short of making it, which has been the story of this baseball team defensively through the first month of the season.
It’s all about putting the pieces together
To complete our lap on how this briefly started to look like the D-backs again, the offense and pitching was there through six innings.
“We’re getting there,” Lovullo said. “We just now gotta put a complete game on it.”
What has been totally absent over the last week has been full, productive innings on offense. Linking good at-bats together for a difference-making shift.
That came in the bottom of the fourth.
Perdomo and Pavin Smith both walked to begin the half-inning and then Naylor grounded out to the right side to advance the runners.
That put up catcher Gabriel Moreno in the five-hole, where left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was not because of a scheduled off day. Moreno in a full count went on to foul off five straight pitches before ripping the 11th of the at-bat to left-center for a two-RBI single.
Suarez then worked his own full count and tattooed the next pitch he saw, a high-middle fastball, to extend the lead to three runs.
If Arizona pitches and defends to its standard, like it did in six innings, that’ll be good enough to win a whole lot of ball games.
D-backs starter Merrill Kelly gave up two early solo homers on one mistake pitch and another that he was OK with. Kelly retired 14 of the final 16 hitters he faced for a line of two earned runs on four hits and a walk in six innings pitched.
Back-to-back extra-inning losses potentially had the D-backs in a position to be working from behind with their bullpen for the next two weeks. However, a 3-1 deficit on Friday led to Lovullo using just Juan Morillo and Yilber Diaz so everyone else would be available on Saturday.
Ryan Thompson got the top of the seventh and allowed a two-run homer to Atlanta’s Eli White to make it 6-4 D-backs.
The next inning, Beeks actually recorded the first two outs of the inning on his two hardest matchups of the at-bat. But Lovullo felt like Beeks potentially eased up too early there, as Beeks walked the next two guys before an RBI single and Harris’ double put Atlanta in the lead.
Suarez’s heroics tied it in the ninth and Arizona carried over the momentum with a Thomas single. Jorge Barrosa, however, then popped out on a bunt attempt and Tawa grounded into a double play to bring it to extras.
That is when Justin Martinez entered, with his first batter grounding out to move the ghost runner to third. That runner then scored on a Martinez wild pitch.
Carroll grounded out to begin the bottom-half of the 10th and Perdomo did the same to shortstop to not allow Tawa to score from third.
Pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk then hit a ball decently well down the third base line, challenging Atlanta’s Austin Riley into a very tough throw in foul territory and just beyond the infield dirt into the grass. Riley, however, gave himself a chance, as he recovered with the ball and threw to first fast enough to get Grichuk out with a couple hops.
It was initially ruled safe on a play everyone with a good eye of it saw as an out. The replay review quickly confirmed the game was over.
AUSTIN RILEY MAKES THE LONG THROW TO BEAT RANDAL GRICHUK TO FIRST AS THE BRAVES WIN DESPITE ALLOWING FOUR HOME RUNS TO EUGENIO SUAREZ
Suarez is just the third player in MLB history to be on the LOSING team in a game in which he hit four home runs in. pic.twitter.com/xp00rUEaNQ
— MLB Walk Offs & Game Winning Plays (@MLBWalk_Offs) April 27, 2025
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