D-backs Sweep the Boston Red Sox

Sweep Caroline

The Diamondbacks left the Sunshine State with an even 3-3 record on this road trip and looked to keep things going as they rolled into Beantown to take on Rafael Devers and the Boston Red Sox for the first time in nearly a decade. With the Red Sox being only 3.5 games back of the final AL Wild Card spot coming into Friday, this would be no cake walk for the Snakes as they would have to go up against 3 of the Red Sox best pitchers on their staff.

There would be some pregame news that came as somewhat of a shock but not that uncalled for as Jordan Montgomery was officially demoted to the bullpen, thus ending the debate as to what the Diamondbacks would do with their rotation “problem”. Ryne Nelson would get a chance to prove that Torey Lovullo made the correct decision as he would take the mound in Game 1 on Friday night at Fenway Park.

Nellie would once again continue his nasty ways as he would go out for 6 solid innings while allowing only 2 and striking out 7 in the process. Ever since being knocked around pretty hard by the Minnesota Twins for 6 Runs across 3.2 innings back on June 26th, Ryne has turned things up to 10 and has become an entirely different pitcher.

Ryne Nelson’s #’s since July 2nd:

• 10 Games (9 starts), 4-0 with a 2.76 ERA, 240 Batters Faced, 61.3 IP, 62 K, 12 BB.
• Opp. Slash: .210/.254/.348 = .602 OPS
• 2.69 FIP and 3.26 xFIP

Ryne’s impressive stretch over these last 2 months, that has seen him be arguably the best starter in the Diamondbacks rotation, had the fellas asking each other if this is the best we could possibly see Nelson, or if his ceiling is potentially even higher than he is showing at the moment.

“I guess it would be kind of what this start was. This is probably what he’s gonna end up being, at least for the foreseeable future…I don’t see why he couldn’t be even better than that just because he does have elite velocity and movement on that fastball just because of how much it rises…If he pitches like this and Pfaadt is looking the way that he’s looking then I wouldn’t feel too bad that [down the road] our 1 and 2 guys are Ryne Nelson and Brandon Pfaadt” - Gabe

“I think this could be somewhat of what the norm is or what we could kind of expect to see out of Ryne…I don’t wanna say that this is just his ceiling, I truly think he could potentially be even better than what we’re seeing now…I think he’s finally got control of his fastball and he can locate it where he needs to, it’s more on the edge than just trying to throw it down the middle past guys…” - Brett

Game 2 was Zac Gallen’s turn in the rotation as he went in looking to bounce back from a string of uncharacteristic type outings that we have seen from him over the last few weeks. Zac would settle all our nerves with an outing that while not the most efficient (4 BB), it was still solid as he would punch out 9 Sox over 6 innings, with only 2 hits surrendered. This solid performance from our ace had the fellas wondering if he might actually be coming back into form, or is this the exception and not the rule to his performance this year and what might have stuck out to them from this performance.

“He did labor a little bit in a couple innings here and there but he is an ace and I know he struggled a lot throughout this year and we’ve called Brandon Pfaadt our ace but he is still an ace…when these type of guys you know they struggle in the first few innings or have 1 really bad inning but they can still come back and get you 6 inning…I thought he looked fantastic, I hope that that this is a good sign…” - Gabe

“It takes a while for these guys to adjust if they haven’t been pitching in a while. We know how cerebral Gallen is, so being out for a month there with that hamstring, it may have taken him a month to kind of bounce back…” - Brandon

“...When Gallen’s clicking especially, you add that with this bullpen and this offense and everything then this is, again like I said, probably one of the best Dbacks teams we will ever see with how the offense and just everything is working. So if we can have Gallen actually be that ace that would be huge for just carrying this team…” - Brett

The offense would give Zac 4 runs in support in this game, but they didn’t even need to put the ball into play to do so as the Red Sox bullpen forgot how to throw strikes with 4 Walks and a wild pitch leading to a 2 run 7th. To the average viewer of Diamondbacks games this might seem like some tough luck and poor execution on the Red Sox part, which is true to some degree, but those that watch this team know that they can be patient when they need to and will have selfless at-bats that can lead to big innings.

MLB Offensive Rankings:

• 4th in BB’s (454)
• 2nd in Average (.261)
• T-1st in OBP (.335)
• 5th in Slug (.433)
• 2nd in OPS (.768)
• 1st in Runs (701)
• 7th Fewest in K’s (1007)
• 1st in Sac Bunts (26)
• 1st in Sac Flies (53)
• 5th in BABIP (.300)

This incredibly potent offense from the Snakes, especially while missing 3 key bats in Gabriel Moreno, Christian Walker and MVP candidate Ketel Marte had the fellas discussing what the most impressive aspect of this teams offense is to each of them over the last 2 months.

“It’s one of the things they talk about on the broadcast most of the time is just like that ‘Next Man Up’ mentality…It’s just everybody is doing their job. I don’t want to be all ‘Bill Belicheck’ about it out here but every single person is out there doing their job…they are not being selfish, they are taking very selfless at-bats…I think that’s one of the more impressive things we’ve seen is nobody is trying to play hero ball…everybody no matter what seems like they are just making some kind of impact.” - Brett

“...If you’re not gonna give them any pitches to hit then they’ll take their walks. They weren’t doing that earlier in the season, they were swinging for the fences…they have shown this incredible ability to adjust in the last few months…” - Gabe

Sunday morning’s Game 3 matchup would see Merrill Kelly make his 7th start of the year and just his 3rd since returning from the IL, as he tried to bounce back from his rough outing in St. Petersburg last Sunday. Merrill would use his strong hand to the best of his abilities as he would attempt to find his groove and get back to the Mainstay form that he has shown numerous times.

Merrill labored through 6 innings with 100+ pitches but turned in a solid performance on the bump, especially when you account for the 3-R homerun to Rafael Devers that was an out in every single other ballpark outside of Fenway park.

With this being his 2nd solid start out of 3 total since returning from the IL, the crew discussed what they might like to see out of the Mainstay going into the final month of the regular season.

“With Merrill I guess it would just be being consistently in the zone like, 3 walks isn’t the Merrill that we know and love, that’d kinda one of the main things that made him stand out was just how despite not having that much speed… wherever the catcher setup he would just place the ball there no matter what pitch it was… I think it’s just maybe working on the location, making sure you’re not walking guys because when you walk guys you can get into trouble really easily…“ - Gabe

“Had he have been pitching all season and have an outing like this I would definitely be worried but he missed 2-½ to 3 months, it’s his third start back, yeah he’s gonna have a not so great outing every now and then but I feel like he did settle in, the fact that he went 6 innings I think that is huge…if these starters can go 6 and maybe even 7 innings, it’s gonna save that rest with the bullpen come like the last 2 weeks of September and going into the playoffs.” - Brandon

Merrill was looking like he might end up with his 2nd straight loss, but we all know it’s Geno as Eugenio Suarez would keep his scorching 2nd half going as he slammed a go ahead 3-R go ahead homerun over the monster in left for his 2nd HR of the series.

There have been countless contributions from nearly every player in the Diamondbacks lineup throughout their hot streak, but this team might not be in the same position without Geno’s 2nd half performance in itself. Suarez had his early season struggles that had us and a lot of naked fans ready to move on and see what other third base options they could pivot too, but Geno has made all of us eat our words these last 2 months.

3-28-2024 to 6-30-2024: (79 Games)

• .196/.279/.312 > .591 OPS and a 67 wRC+
• 54 H, 10 2B, 2 3B, 6 HR, 29 R, 32 RBI, 27 BB, 92 K
• 29.2% K%, 36% GB%, 31.2 Hard Hit%

7-1-2024 to 8-25-2024: (46 Games)

• .295/.349/.607 > .956 OPS and a 158 wRC+
• 51 H, 15 2B, 14 HR, 34 R, 44 RBI, 14 BB, 46 K
• 24% K%, 27.7% GB%, 36.9% Hard-Hit%

2nd half stats (7-19-2024 - 8-25-2024): (34 Games)

• .301/.333/.609 > .942 OPS and a 140 wRC+
• 40 H, 10 HR, 31 RBI, 6 BB, 32 K

This mid-season turnaround had the fellas going on another apology tour for Geno, while asking themselves if they could have imagined this kind of run out of him, considering what he provided offensively for the first 79 games.

“To me it boggles my mind that as of June 30th he has 6 home runs, that’s it, he had 6. So I was like ‘maybe he gets 15 [Home Runs] if he gets on a tear’ but uhhh no the man has had 14 in the 36 games since [July] 1st…it’s not just that he’s hitting homers, he’s hitting doubles too. He has 15 doubles since July 1st, he’s on an absolute tear right now, I can’t find the words…” - Brandon

“You can go back and listen to a lot of these episodes before where we mention like, not only do we want him to be good, we don’t want him to be good for another team cause we felt that if we let him go he’s gonna turn it on and suddenly he’s gonna be amazing for another team…luckily we kept him and let him figure it out. Yeah sure it was hard and it sucked and he cost us a lot of games but he’s winning us a lot of games now…” - Gabe

With the Diamondbacks possibly entering one of the most crucial 10-Game stretches of their season this was the best way to start it out as they get ready to welcome the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers into the desert for more playoff push baseball. The Diamondbacks head into the Mets series just 3 games behind the Dodgers for 1st in the NL West, so if they can at least win the series, the 4-Game Labor Day weekend series against LA could be the deciding factor in how the division plays out down the finish line.