This story was originally published by Dead Spin
The Arizona Diamondbacks figure to arrive at the ballpark Monday with a huge chip on their shoulders.
The Diamondbacks, who squandered an eight-run lead Sunday, look to return to their winning ways when they face the San Francisco Giants in Phoenix.
Arizona (87-69) seemed on its way to completing a four-game road sweep of the National League Central champion Milwaukee Brewers when it led 8-0 after 2 1/2 innings.
But Milwaukee chipped away and eventually earned a 10-9 home win.
“Frustrating,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said after the loss. “It’s nothing you can predict. I thought we were in total control of that game. It just goes to show you that things can change quickly. You can’t take anything for granted. I don’t think the team did.”
The collapse prevented Arizona from increasing its winning streak to five straight games. It also dropped the Diamondbacks three games behind the San Diego Padres for the NL’s top wild-card spot.
Arizona now can pay more attention to holding off the New York Mets or Atlanta Braves in the three-team battle for the other two wild-card berths.
The Brewers racked up seven runs (six earned) and 10 hits against the Diamondbacks’ bullpen.
“If you slice it up any possible way, you can’t give up seven runs in three innings,” Lovullo said. “You’re going to lose a lot of baseball games that way, if that’s what’s coming out of your bullpen.”
Arizona holds a 6-4 lead in the season series with San Francisco but the Giants are not going through the motions down the stretch.
San Francisco (77-79) just completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals and is 5-1 to start a nine-game trip. The Giants took two of three from the Baltimore Orioles to begin the excursion.
San Francisco outscored Kansas City 13-1 in the sweep and Sunday’s 2-0 win was its second straight shutout.
“It’s just nice to get a sweep against a good team,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “We’re playing good right now.”
San Francisco needs to win four of its final six games to avoid a losing campaign. The success on the road trip has left-hander Blake Snell wishing the team could have put things together earlier in the season.
“It’s frustrating because we know how good we are,” Snell said. “For us to not get it done the way we could, that’s frustrating, but it speaks a lot about how we want to win. We’re not just going to cave in. We want to play, we want to win. We want to make it hard on these teams to beat us.”
Arizona left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (3-3, 5.09 ERA) is coming off a strong effort in which he posted a season-best 11 strikeouts against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday. He gave up two runs, five hits and one walk over a season-high 6 1/3 innings. He picked up his first win in September after dropping three straight starts.
Rodriguez, 31, has faced the Giants just once. He beat them in 2019 when he fanned 10 and gave up one run and three hits over six innings as a member of the Boston Red Sox.
Matt Chapman is 6-for-14 with four doubles against Rodriguez. Mark Canha is hitless in 16 at-bats versus Rodriguez.
Right-hander Hayden Birdsong (4-5, 4.74) will be on the mound for the Giants.
Birdsong defeated the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday when he allowed three runs and four hits over 5 2/3 innings. He was 0-5 with a 6.75 ERA over a seven-start span prior to the victory.
One of the losses during the span was his only career start against Arizona on Sept. 4. He lasted just three innings and gave up two runs and three hits. Birdsong issued a season-worst five walks and served up a solo homer to Eugenio Suarez.
–Field Level Media
