Merrill Kelly issued five walks on Saturday, continuing a troubling trend for Diamondbacks pitchers so far this season.
“It is a concern of mine,” he said. “Our pitchers have to put the ball on the plate, plain and simple. We’ve got to challenge guys, get ahead and when we’re ahead make pitches and not let counts linger. We’ve got pitchers with really good stuff. We’ve got to find a way to be consistent with that stuff and put it on the plate.”
Reliever Kyle Nelson entered and struck out the first two batters he faced, but Ha-Seong Kim grounded a single through the left side to bring home two runs and put the Padres ahead for good. Kelly was asked if any of his issues can be explained by opposing hitters laying off pitches he is intentionally throwing out of the zone in hopes of drawing swings and misses.
“I haven’t felt it,” he said. “I felt good. The ball was still coming out of my hand well. The stuff was still sharp. The bottom line is, it just wasn’t in the strike zone.” First baseman Christian Walker mostly echoed Lovullo’s reasoning for why it is happening, saying the offense’s ability to strike quickly might actually be working against it in a sense.
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