PHOENIX — Opening Day is always a special point on the calendar every year, and sometimes the game itself beautifully follows suit. The Arizona Diamondbacks won such recent home openers such as the 2022 Beer Day walk-off and 14-run inning in 2024.
Chase Field was packed on Thursday and buzzing for a team expected to compete for a postseason spot. The game became less of a spectacle as it went on.
The Diamondbacks were not sharp against the Chicago Cubs, as manager Torey Lovullo said too many mistakes led to a 10-6 loss. The Cubs in many ways defeated the Diamondbacks at their own game, outplaying Arizona on defense and the base paths. D-backs pitchers Zac Gallen and Ryne Nelson put up statlines to forget, as well.
Despite a promising offensive showing, Lovullo said the D-backs just could not catch their breath. The Cubs racked up 12 hits with six walks and reached base on a couple defensive miscues.
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The most notable mistake came in the fifth inning with Arizona trailing 4-3. The Cubs had a pair of runners on with two outs against Nelson, and rookie Matt Shaw hit a chopper to shortstop Geraldo Perdomo.
Perdomo sat on it and tossed the ball to second, but baserunner Pete Crow-Armstrong beat the throw. Miguel Amaya came up for the Cubs and hit a liner into center field that Jake McCarthy reached but failed to haul in on a dive. The ball popped out of his mitt, and three runs scored. Amaya drove in five runs on Thursday from the nine-hole.
Lovullo said Perdomo came up to him immediately after the inning to take accountability.
“That’s a play we’re talking about in spring training, those little details,” Perdomo said. “I went right away to him and I told him it was my fault, I should have thrown it to the right base. We had to know who’s running too. PCA is really a great runner. … That was the big difference right there.”
"There's a lot of things we gotta tighten up. And we will."
D-backs manager Torey Lovullo on the Opening Day loss. pic.twitter.com/bp02al24qc
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) March 28, 2025
Lovullo called that play 1:1 in terms of costly mistakes, saying there was an easy out to get at first base. He did not leave it on an island, however. Crow-Armstrong was able to beat the throw because he was getting an extended secondary lead.
“That kid getting a huge lead off first base, what does it mean? It means you throw some back picks on there,” Lovullo said. “That’s Diamondbacks baseball, you shorten them up, you’re aware of it. You don’t let a lot of their runners get free spins, get closer to the next base without making them aware we can throw you out from behind the plate with a very gifted catcher on a back pick. So those are the things that really bug me.”
Lovullo said smaller moments within the game like that were dissatisfactory throughout the evening.
“The theme of the night was we made too many mistakes and they turned into stressors, too many stressors on this team at one time. It’s a lot to overcome,” Lovullo said.
As far as the McCarthy play, Lovullo called it a tough play with a 44% catch probability. That said, the Diamondbacks are expected to make plays like that. McCarthy was a Gold Glove-nominated outfielder last year, but he had some trouble finishing those web gem-type catches. He received the start in center over stout defender Alek Thomas.
MORE. pic.twitter.com/g2h3XR4ajF
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) March 28, 2025
The Diamondbacks pride themselves on defense, so seeing them outdone by an opponent seemed out of the ordinary. Defensive mistakes cost them last season during the first couple weeks of the season. Lovullo and Perdomo highlighted how intense they practiced throughout the spring to sharpen up.
Pitchers did not always help themselves, particularly Gallen in the second inning. After a scoreless first, Gallen threw 11 straight balls to walk two batters at the bottom of the lineup, both of whom ended up scoring. He only made it through four frames on 83 pitches with four earned runs.
“Don’t think there’s any excuses not to come out playing decently well the first night, just from all facets of the game,” Gallen said of Opening Day rust. “It’s a little different going from spring training to a real game. But as we saw last year, every game counts. So we just have to come tomorrow ready to play. I have faith in this team that’s gonna happen.”
Zac Gallen thought he was working too fast when things started to get away from in the second inning of a D-backs loss on Opening Day. pic.twitter.com/7NLOaao1NJ
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) March 28, 2025
Gallen felt his delivery sped up too much, saying he could not find a rhythm.
He and Nelson threw 133 pitches combined in 5.2 innings with only 74 strikes. Arizona gave Gallen the Opening Day start over coveted free agent addition Corbin Burnes, and Nelson is opening the year as a reliever after missing out on a rotation spot.
Diamondbacks offense promising on Opening Day
Six runs is typically a solid scoring output, but it felt like the lower end of the spectrum of possibilities for Thursday’s performance. The D-backs hit 10 balls in play over 100 mph off the bat, and six of those resulted in outs.
Chicago right fielder Kyle Tucker snatched a sliding grab. Second baseman Nico Hoerner made a slick stop on a ripped grounder by Randal Grichuk on the 13th pitch of an at-bat against Justin Steele. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a ball to the wall in left that missed going out by a couple rulers.
In that sense, it felt like a 2024 loss with the offense attempting to keep coming back.
This team is built to better limit opposing damage and not put so much pressure on the offense to score at such a high clip we saw last year. One game is one game, but the Diamondbacks would have prefered setting a better tone, or at least making a different first impression.
First Diamondbacks dinger
The shot of the night was a 430-foot home run by Eugenio Suarez in the second inning, Arizona’s first homer of the year. Suarez hit 30 last season as he turned around a terrible first half with a dominant finish.
Eugenio Suárez rockets one to the left field seats ? #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/xp8onYrXAV
— MLB (@MLB) March 28, 2025
Next Diamondbacks game
The D-backs return on Friday night with Merrill Kelly on the hill against Chicago’s Jameson Taillon.
First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. on ESPN 620 AM/98.7 FM HD-2 and the Arizona Sports app.
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