With fate as sellers sealed, D-backs aim to 'turn the page' on rest of the year

DETROIT -- Answers are hard to come by for the slumping Diamondbacks, who, after falling 12-2 to the Tigers on Tuesday night at Comerica Park, have lost seven of their last eight games.

Before Saturday’s game, manager Torey Lovullo talked about how he felt like the time for yelling at his team had come and gone. He had done that, but where things are now, with 48 hours to go before Thursday’s 3 p.m. MST Trade Deadline, he is adopting a different tack.

“All the kicking and screaming that I have done [or] can do isn't going to do anybody any good anymore,” Lovullo said. “So we're going to turn the page on that and just root for them the best way that I know how, continue to encourage them the best way we know how and just hope for small victories. If we could score an early run and play downhill baseball, I think that would give us a little bit of a breather.”

The Diamondbacks did just that Tuesday, loading the bases in each of the first two innings against Casey Mize. However, they managed just one run in each frame, and their 2-0 lead evaporated when the Tigers scored two in the fourth and six in the fifth.

What happened to change things so suddenly is a question that lacks an answer at the moment.

“I don't know that answer, but I'm going to try and figure it out,” Lovullo said. “That's all I do. I spend time trying to figure things out. But I know that group's very hungry. They want to win baseball games. I think they get frustrated and they start to lose a little bit of focus through that frustration.”

The Diamondbacks' frustrations are many. They have been hit hard by the injury bug all year long, and over the last four days they’ve seen a couple of veterans -- Josh Naylor and Randal Grichuk -- dealt to contending teams.

Those two are likely not the only ones currently in Sedona Red that will find themselves in a different uniform after the Trade Deadline.

Rumors have swirled for weeks about pitchers Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, as well as third baseman Eugenio Suarez.

No one, from the players to GM Mike Hazen to Arizona’s ownership group, expected nor wanted to find themselves as sellers at the deadline, but here they are.

“They're down,” Lovullo said of the mood in the clubhouse. “They're really down, and they're frustrated. So, this isn't the time for anybody to pile on them and jump off from the top rope and pile drive them, right?

“I think we just got to be patient and understand this is part of the game. But my job is to create a vision, make sure that that vision is still in front of them, and that's what the coaches are going to do, starting now and [getting]ready for us to play a baseball game tomorrow.”