WEST SACRAMENTO -- Now that the dust has settled from the flurry of moves made before the Trade Deadline, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo expects his squad to be more relaxed the rest of the season.
That didn’t fully materialize in a series-opening 5-1 loss to the Athletics on Friday, though there were a few indications that the mood in the clubhouse is a lot more loose than it’s been in previous weeks.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Alek Thomas had two hits apiece. Six of the Diamondbacks’ nine starters had at least one.
The problem was getting those runners to cross home plate. The D-backs went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine on base overall.
“We built some innings and we just can’t get that big base hit, that slug,” Lovullo said. “That’s the name of the game. That’s what [the A’s] did.”
This was the Diamondbacks’ first game since making a series of franchise-altering moves.
In less than a week, Arizona dramatically reshaped its roster. Core players like Merrill Kelly, Eugenio Suárez, Josh Naylor, Shelby Miller, Jordan Montgomery and Randal Grichuk were shipped away in moves that netted the franchise several pitching prospects.
That ended a long period of outside speculation about which players should go and which should stay.
According to Lovullo, that noise was an unneeded distraction in the days leading up the Deadline, and played a key role in the D-backs’ five-game losing streak heading into Friday night.
“The social media aspect of it was something you couldn’t run from,” Lovullo explained. “Everywhere we looked, every phone that was being viewed, you could see that teams were trying to poach our players. We just couldn’t seem to get away from that and I think we lost a little bit of focus.
“The three days in Detroit were tough. That is not who we are. We tried different methods to have them understand who they are as a team and they couldn’t get over that hump.”
That seemed to be the overall vibe in the clubhouse at Sutter Health Park. Whatever tension that might have been building leading up to the Trade Deadline was gone. A few players chatted with each other in one corner of the room. Two others engaged in a game of chess.
“I feel like the day that’s come and gone yesterday, as difficult as this was, you turn the calendar month and you’re ready to play because it’s Aug. 1,” Lovullo said. “But also it’s a day that there’s no more worries about the team moving players. The brotherhood that formed in there is going to stay there for the next 60 days.”
Anthony DeSclafani, who lasted just 59 pitches and recorded only seven outs, said that he felt the Diamondbacks have handled everything that happened in the past few days.
“Guys are still coming in and putting in work every day. Every day is a day to prove yourself, and all these guys know that,” DeSclafani said.
While not directly involved in the trade talks, Lovullo had to deal with the fallout from all the moves made. He spent much of Thursday and early Friday making calls to the players that were traded, an admittedly emotionally tough task.
“Yesterday was a tough day for everybody,” he said. “It probably hit me more yesterday and a little bit this morning when I got up and realized that I was going to have to say some good-byes and not see some players that I’ve gotten used to seeing. It’s too bad. It’s part of the game. We gotta be front-facing, we gotta own it, we gotta understand why it happened and we gotta get better.”
One player that many thought would be traded was pitcher Zac Gallen, but the Diamondbacks opted to stand pat and keep him to be an anchor on the pitching staff.
Lovullo met with Gallen prior to Friday’s game.
“I wanted to call him in and just talk shop with him and see how he was doing,” Lovullo said. “He handled it all well, as good as you could possibly think. He’s one-fifth of the rotation that’s left here that we feel really good about. I wanted to call him just to see where he’s at emotionally. He seems to be in a very good spot. He’s ready to go out and compete like he always is.”
Lovullo sees no reason why the Diamondbacks can’t salvage the remainder of the season in some form, with any trade talks put off until the offseason.
“I want to see D-back baseball,” Lovullo said. “I want to see the prep each day, I want to see the coaches coach, I don’t want to take anything for granted and I want to win baseball games. That’s the bottom line.
“Are we going to win every one of them? No, it’s impossible, but I feel like if we go out and play our game, do what we do and control the climate of what’s happening each and every day, we’re going to be OK. I don’t want to put any day ahead of another. I want to take care of what we can, and that’s to control this day.”