Series in Review: Miller Forearm Tightness, Hot Bats

The Arizona Diamondbacks returned home to Chase Field after an 11-day road trip to California to take on the L.A. Dodgers this past weekend. The Dbacks took the series 2-1 against the Dodgers to improve to 12-8 on the season and 9-2 at home.

Miller Update

Shelby Miller was removed in the fifth inning of Sunday’s game with right forearm tightness. Manager Torey Lovullo said shortstop Chris Owings gave the dugout a signal that something might be wrong and from there the decision was made to remove Miller. 

“These are tough things for me to address,” Lovullo said. “You hate to take somebody off the mound like that but I just didn’t like a couple of things that I heard. It just jumped up on him in the fifth inning, he felt the forearm tightening at that point in time and that was enough for me.”

Miller said post-game on Sunday that he has never experienced this type of tightness, but that he doesn’t feel any concern.

“I don’t think it’s that big of an issue,” Miller said. “I think it’s just more so one of those things that flare up when you’re out there. Physically, I don’t think there’s any damage done at all.”

An MRI is scheduled for tomorrow to make sure there is no serious injury.

Hot Bats

The eighth inning was owned by the Diamondbacks on Friday night. Trailing 5-4, a lead-off double by Brandon Drury, followed by a single by David Peralta and a walk drawn by Chris Iannetta loaded the bases with no outs. Daniel Descalso stepped in to the box and drew a walk of his own to plate Drury and tie the ballgame.

From there a balk, a walk, a single from Paul Goldschmidt, an intentional walk of Jake Lamb and a double from Yasmany Tomás brought Drury back up to the plate, all in one inning. The Diamondbacks scored nine runs in the 8th on Friday night to get the 13-5 win.

Saturday, the bats didn’t cool off in the Dbacks 11-5 win to take the series. Peralta, aka the Freight Train, had a franchise record four doubles, while Tomás sent two over the wall. 

Goldschmidt was a quiet threat at the plate this weekend. He hit under .200 during the road trip, but the first baseman went 4 for 11 including a double and a home run with six RBIs in the series against the Dodgers.

Still worth noting on the weekend is A.J. Pollock. Pollock had the day off on Sunday, but went 5-11 with two doubles and a home run between Friday and Saturday.

Bradley in the Pen

Archie Bradley got his first win of the season on Friday night. Taijuan Walker got the start and went 5 2/3 innings giving up four runs on seven hits with six strikeouts. Jorge de La Rosa came in to close the fifth inning, then in the sixth, Bradley came out and pitched two innings only allowing one run on two hits with one strikeout. The run was the first Bradley has given up in his 11.1 innings pitched. Out of the bullpen, Bradley has been most consistent for the Dbacks thus far.

The Diamondbacks will continue their home stand with the Padres Monday-Thursday. Last week, the Padres took the midweek series against the Dbacks 2-1.