PHOENIX — The walks were piling up, homers flying out of the ballpark, runs racing across the plate.
Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo had seen enough.
A manager who prefers one-on-one meetings with his players called Arizona’s entire starting rotation into his office for a one-way conversation.
Hearing what their manager said — throw strikes, essentially — was something the starters already knew, but the reinforced message kicked off the best run by the Diamondbacks’ rotation in nine years.
“That was his message, just to remind us that we’re really good and what we’re going through right now is not who we are,” Arizona right-hander Merrill Kelly said.
It was ugly.
The Diamondbacks had a few decent starts here and there the first month of the season, but the blowups started coming with more regularity.
Instead of throwing strikes and letting hitters put the ball in play, the Diamondbacks were being too fine with their pitches or trying to get strikeouts. The walks started racking up and with those came big innings — lots of big innings.
Through the first 33 games of the season, Arizona’s starters had the worst ERA in baseball at 5.42 as the Diamondbacks dropped 4 1/2 games out of first in the NL West barely a month into the season.
Lovullo made the rare decision to meet with all his starters during a May 1-3 series at the Cubs and the results — whether he had anything to do with it or not — have been impressive.
With Michael Soroka’s gem against Texas on Monday night, Arizona’s starters have had seven straight starts of at least six innings, longest active streak in the majors and the Diamondbacks’ best since 2017. They currently have four straight starts of at least six innings with one or fewer runs and four or less hits for the fifth time in franchise history, first since 2019.
“I probably had 1% to do with that,” Lovullo said. “I just created awareness, just told them this is what I’m seeing, go out there and reverse it. Figure out how to pitch deep into games, execute and put balls into play. I said what I said and I’m proud of the way they’ve been getting after it.”
It’s been an impressive run.
Eduardo Rodriguez, Arizona’s steadiest pitcher, kicked it off by allowing two hits in seven scoreless innings in a win over the Pirates on May 5. The left-hander backed it up by limiting the Mets to one run on four hits in a career-best 8 1/3 innings on Sunday.
Soroka lost a 1-0 pitcher’s duel with Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes despite allowing a run in 6 1/3 innings, but beat the Rangers 1-0 Monday night by allowing three singles over 6 1/3 scoreless innings.
Following six-inning starts by Zac Gallen and Ryne Nelson, Kelly had his best start of the season against the Mets on Saturday.
Relying on a few tweaks in his mechanics, the right-hander allowed a run on three hits in seven innings after 19 earned runs over 13 2/3 innings his previous three starts. Kelly’s impressive start kicked off Arizona’s current three-game winning streak and earned him hugs and high-fives in the dugout after his day was done.
“It’s bittersweet; you feel like the kid who finally passed the test,” Kelly said. “You feel like the kid who’s been getting F’s all the time and finally got an A. It feels a lot better coming off the mound knowing you gave your team a chance to win.”
