On a night when they led by eight runs after six innings, the Diamondbacks still managed to make just about everyone at Chase Field uncomfortable, including their manager.
“You ask me how I was feeling?” Torey Lovullo said. “I was nervous. I was really nervous.”
In their home opener on Monday night, March 30, the Diamondbacks got a homer and a triple from Corbin Carroll. They got 10 strikeouts and an immaculate inning from right-hander Michael Soroka. They chased Justin Verlander in the fourth. They tacked on runs. They played clean defense.
They did a lot right in their 9-6 win over the Detroit Tigers. They also nearly did enough to lose — thanks to a bullpen that had a miserable seventh inning.
But the Diamondbacks, who watched an 8-0 lead become 8-6 in the seventh, managed to hold on and secure their first win of the season.
Right-hander Joe Ross was charged with all six runs in the seventh, an inning in which he allowed five hits and a walk while recording only two outs.
Still, he might have been more effective than right-hander Ryan Thompson, who did not retire any of the three batters he faced while also being called for two balks.
Right-hander Juan Morillo entered and got a Parker Meadows ground ball with the bases loaded to escape the inning.
Carroll’s night might have been as encouraging as the bullpen’s night was terrifying.
Coming off surgery at the start of spring training to remove a broken hamate bone in his right hand, Carroll opened the season with a quiet series at Dodger Stadium.
Considering his truncated spring, it has seemed reasonable to expect Carroll to need time to get comfortable at the plate. Moreover, he is coming off an injury with a reputation for initially sapping hitters’ power.
But with two swings against Verlander, Carroll quickly quieted any concerns.
In the first, he laced a fastball to right field — exit velocity: 107.4 mph — and proceeded to race around the bases for his first triple of the season. An inning later, he added his first homer, a ball he hit 107.8 mph out to right.
“I feel good,” Carroll said. “I felt really good today. I didn’t feel very good before that. See how I wake up tomorrow.”
Carroll said he thought he had made progress toward ironing out his swing over the past few days — and said he thought something “clicked” before the game. He took that feeling from the cage into the game.
“Just felt like my hands were getting a little too far away from my body, a little bit more uncontrolled, a little more loading with my hands as opposed to loading with my body,” Carroll said. “I thought I did a nice job of adjusting.”
Soroka, meanwhile, worked out of jams in each of the first three innings but got stronger as his outing progressed. He finished by retiring the final eight batters he faced, including striking out the side on nine pitches in the fifth, his final inning of work.
Soroka said it was his first immaculate inning as a professional.
“It was pretty special,” Soroka said. “I think I’ve talked to you guys about not putting too much stock in results, but I think that’s one that’s worth celebrating.”
Soroka said he knew he had struck out the first two batters — Javier Baez and Kerry Carpenter — to start the inning, but it wasn’t until the crowd got loud with an 0-2 count on Gleyber Torres that he realized what he had a chance to do.
“Gleyber is a good hitter,” Soroka said. “He’s quite passive, too, so I wanted to make sure it was something in zone and just give myself a chance to get it done right there.”
He added: “It was pretty cool. I tried to play it off, but I started smiling on the field.”
It was an impressive debut for a pitcher whose spot in the rotation isn’t even assured going forward. Once the club gets right-hander Merrill Kelly back from the injured list — something that could happen within the next two weeks — Soroka could be a candidate to shift into a relief role.
After Ross and Thompson’s struggles in the top of the seventh, the club got a lift from Ildemaro Vargas in the bottom of the inning. With two out and the bases empty, he drilled a solo homer to left-center to get the lead back to 3.
“I think he gave us a little push forward,” Lovullo said. “That was a big moment for us, for sure.”
Another play that stood out from the night — and grew in stature in retrospect — came via Jordan Lawlar in the fifth. With Lawlar on first and the bases loaded, Ketel Marte hit a grounder to short. Baez fielded it and flipped to second, but a hustling Lawlar beat the throw.
“I thought the most powerful play of the entire night — you might think it was Corbin’s home run or triple — but I feel like we really made a statement with that hustle play by Jordan Lawlar,” Lovullo said. “That’s who we are. That defines exactly what we do.”
—Nick Piecoro
One of the few positives to come from the Diamondbacks’ opening series in Los Angeles was the way center fielder Alek Thomas swung the bat. He went just 2 for 10 with a walk, but nearly every ball Thomas hit was well-struck.
The three games gave Thomas more positive feedback on the new swing he has been employing since the start of spring training. Thomas cut out the big leg kick he had been using his whole life and replaced it with a more subtle move before unleashing his swing.
“I think, for me, it’s not having to be perfect all the time,” Thomas said. “I feel like with the big leg kick everything has to be in sync for things to work. The adjustability was hard at times for the leg kick.”
Thomas began implementing the adjustments at the start of the offseason, but he also credited teammate Carlos Santana for offering advice that helped him find further comfort with the change.
“There have been a handful of guys who have pulled me to the side in my career, but none have really worked with me in the cage and made it a point to help me out in a certain way, specific way,” Thomas said. “For him to do that immediately was really cool.”
During the Dodgers series, Thomas put eight balls in play. Six of them were hit at 96.3 mph or harder and all of them at ideal angles (ranging from 10 to 24 degrees).
—Nick Piecoro
Pavin Smith to IL; Jose Fernandez promoted
The Diamondbacks placed first baseman Pavin Smith on the 10-day injured list with left elbow inflammation and recalled infielder Jose Fernandez from Triple-A Reno.
When he appears in a game, it will mark Fernandez’s big-league debut.
Smith had been nursing a hyperextended elbow since late in spring training. He and the team thought the time off he took earlier this month had alleviated the problem, but the issue resurfaced during a workout the day before Opening Day.
Manager Torey Lovullo said Smith “didn’t have a good night” with his elbow two nights ago, prompting the club to make the roster move.
“We feel strongly that a quick blow will get this thing right for the rest of the year,” Lovullo said. “And that’s what’s most important. We need Pavin for the long haul. Having him in and out of the lineup fighting this didn’t make a lot of sense to us.”
Lovullo said infielder Ildemaro Vargas will likely assume backup first base duties to Carlos Santana.
As for Fernandez, it is the latest step in what has been a rapid ascent. He arrived in Double-A Amarillo this time last year somewhat off the club’s prospect radar. But he enjoyed a strong season there, carried that momentum into spring training and now finds himself in the big leagues.
Lovullo did not make it sound like Fernandez would be getting anything close to regular at-bats, instead suggesting he could get occasional starts on the infield when others are getting days off.
—Nick Piecoro
Torey Lovullo pays tribute to Josh Doan
Lovullo and Phoenix hockey legend Shane Doan have struck up a friendship in the time Lovullo has been Diamondbacks manager, and with Doan’s son Josh now with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres and Lovullo being a Sabres fan, Lovullo paid tribute to the Doan family on Monday, March 30.
Lovullo and his wife went to a recent Sabres game and saw the younger Doan have a big game. It was then that Lovullo decided to wear a Josh Doan jersey prior to the Diamondbacks’ opening night, and he texted a photo of himself to Shane Doan.
Both Doans played for the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes, Shane, a longtime captain, and Josh, a former draft pick of the team now called the Utah Mammoth.
“It was a good moment for me,” Lovullo said.
—José M. Romero
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
