PHOENIX — There’s no panic with the Diamondbacks. But after losing five straight games, there is plenty of frustration.
The Diamondbacks won the first game of their most recent road trip, beating the Dodgers before losing the next two of that series and then dropping all three in St. Louis. The five losses were by a combined six runs, about as close as a team can get.
Just prior to his club’s series opener against the Pirates on Monday night, Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen sat in the dugout at Chase Field and discussed where things stand with his team, which has a 26-27 record.
On the team’s play of late
“Felt like we had the ability to win every one of those games, and we just came up on the short end of those. It’s hard to just pin it down onto any one thing. So I still feel the same way about the team that I did five days ago. And [if] a couple balls go in a different direction, we’re feeling a little differently about that road trip. But the fact is, we still need to make our own breaks, we still need to make our own luck, and we need to perform more consistently in certain areas.”
On what areas need to get better
“We need to perform more consistently in certain areas that while on the whole, we’ve done a good job with. I think situational hitting — the at-bats, driving pitch counts up on starting pitchers — we’re not doing that to the degree that we have. The bullpen coming in and executing and getting outs when needed. There have been plays defensively that we continue to need to make at the most opportune times [that] hasn’t happened.
“Those things kind of all come together on us at one time over this stretch, and the results are the results. So we need to play better baseball. And I think we’ve played better baseball than we did in the first two weeks of the season. We were just scoring, averaging seven to 10 runs a game in that stretch so we plowed over some of that stuff. Starting pitching has done a really good job on the whole. I think the bullpen has been better on this road trip, actually, it stabilized a lot of games. We just have left a lot of guys out there [on base].”
On the level of urgency
“We have a long way to go [in the season], but we don’t have an infinite amount of time to go. It’s not early. We’re getting to June 1. This is about where you start to identify where your team is at. I like the basis of this team. I think they play hard. I think they’re talented. I think there’s diversity up and down the lineup. I think there’s some power in the bullpen.
“We need A.J. [Puk] back. We need [Justin Martinez] back at a full level. That’s coming. I think the starting pitching has rounded into pretty good form in terms of getting five to six-plus innings every night. [We’ve] got to put it together and win games.”
On whether expecting Jordan Lawlar to play well without an everyday role is asking too much
“I don’t know that it’s an ideal role for a young player. I don’t know that we’re asking a lot of him. I think that what we have asked him to do is that the approach needs to continue to improve. We asked [Jose] Barrosa to do this, we ask [Tim] Tawa to do this when he doesn’t play every day. I don’t think it’s unfair to ask that.
“We’re not asking for hits. We’re not asking for guaranteed performance. He’s played great on defense. We need the at-bat quality to improve. We don’t need damage — we need consistent approaches. It’s not easy, and I’m not saying by any stretch of the imagination it’s easy or he’s going to be able to do it right away. I do think that it’s something he can control a little bit more consistently, and it’s been a topic of conversation.”
