Spring Gameday Thread, #21: D-backs vs. Guardians (+ recap: ARI 3, SEA 6)

Diamondbacks line-up

1. Daulton Varsho, CF
2. Ketel Marte, 2B
3. David Peralta, LF
4. Christian Walker, 1B
5. Pavin Smith, RF
6. Carson Kelly, C
7. Seth Beer, DH
8. Drew Ellis, 3B
9. Geraldo Perdomo, SS
   + RHP Zach Davies, RHP Dan Straily, RHP Sean Poppen

Afternoon recap: Diamondbacks 3, Mariners 6

It was very much a tale of two Smiths for Arizona this afternoon, as the first half of the split-squad doubleheader faces Seattle in Peoria. Caleb Smith was excellent, throwing five shutout innings, allowing just one hit, with three walks and three strikeouts. After a scoreless inning from Mitchell Stumpo followed, the D-backs had a 3-0 lead at the seventh inning stretch. Catcher Neyfy Castillo had given them the lead with a solo home-run in the second inning, and then drove in another run with a single in the fourth. Gavin Conticello made it 3-0 with an RBI single in the top of the seventh. Both he and Castillo had a pair of hits on the day, and the D-backs looked set to win their final Cactus League fixture (the ones at Chase don’t count!)

Enter the other Smith, Riley. Before the end of the seventh inning, the Mariners had taken the lead, courtesy of a pair of two-run homers off Smith. Another home-run - this one to former Diamondbacks Steven Souza Jr - and an RBI groundout, completed the scoring for Seattle. R. Smith was left wondering if anyone got the number of that truck, allowing six runs over his two frames of work on six hits, including those three home-runs, He walked none and struck out a pair, leaving the Diamondbacks with a 2022 Cactus League record of 9-10, with one game ending in a tie. That’s actually an improvement over last year, when they went 9-15. Hopefully that will convert into the regular season, though any correlation is light at best!

Torey Lovullo notes

Luke Weaver will be pitching out of the bullpen. Torey informed Luke yesterday . While of course he wasn’t happy about it, he took it well and said he is here to do whatever it takes to help this team win.

“I thought it was a true team moment and I know where his heart lies. He needs to just out and pitch and execute and take the ball when we hand it to him and go for as hard as he can for as long as he can”

Torey discussed the inconsistency from one inning to the next and the velocity drops and he felt Luke was pacing himself.

Humberto Castellanos, Corbin Martin, and Caleb Smith are all still in the running for vacated rotation spot. They will decide that probably late today.

• They will definitely use a 5 man rotation. They are now leaning towards going with 14 pitchers and 14 position players, which is a change from last week.
• Torey said he does not discuss what happened last year at all with the players. He wants them focused on regaining their confidence and looking forward
• He spoke about the entire coaching and development staff and how much of a relief it is having this veteran staff. He spoke about Brent Strom’s complete autonomy during spring to set up the pitching and he had carte blanche to head out to the mound whenever he wanted
• Torey was especially impressed with the changes from David Peralta and Geraldo Perdomo also jumped out at him this spring.

Torey Lovullo audio

Tonight’s game can be found on the radio, by tuning to 98.7 FM, Arizona’s Sports Station.