MLB Postseason news: JV turns back time, D'Backs missed chance, Hader dooms Padres
By Drew Koch
MLB Postseason news: D'Backs missed chance with 8th innning collapse
Torey Lovullo is going to look back at Monday's loss to the New York Yankees and wonder might have been. The Arizona Diamondbacks skipper left reliever Kevin Ginkel in the game for too long, and it cost him big time.
The D'Backs were nursing a one-run lead heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, and Lovullo turned to the right-hander Ginkel. The reliever had absolutely no command of the strike zone and was wildly erratic and visibly frustrated on the mound.
After Arizona retook the lead in the top of inning on an RBI-single courtesy of Corbin Carroll, Ginkel proceeded to allow back-to-back singles and then a walk to load the bases. A strikeout helped, but Ginkel the walked the fifth batter he faced to tie the game.
Lovullo foolishly left the reliever in to face the next batter, who promptly hit a sacrifice fly giving the Yankees a 5-4 advantage. New York tacked on another run after Ginkel was lifted and the Yankees defeated the D'Backs by a score of 6-4.
This was a game that Arizona really needed to win. The Diamondbacks are now tied with the Chicago Cubs in the NL Wild Card chase and have the Miami Marlins and Cincinnati Reds on their tails. This was a winnable game, and instead, it goes in the loss column.