ST. LOUIS — Right-hander Justin Martinez’s first pitch was clocked at 99.8 mph, and three pitches — and two whiffs — later, he had a strikeout of Brendan Donovan, one of the better hitters in the St. Louis Cardinals ’ lineup. It was an encouraging sign for the Arizona Diamondbacks , an indication that perhaps their flame-throwing reliever had returned to form following a three-week stint on the injured list. But what ended up happening was just the sort of thing that had been occurring with regularity during Martinez’s absence — and just the sort of thing the Diamondbacks were hoping his return would help eliminate. Tasked with protecting a one-run lead in the eighth inning, Martinez coughed up a pair of runs as the Diamondbacks fell, 6-5, on Saturday afternoon, May 24. It was their second loss in as many days at Busch Stadium and it dropped their record to 26-26, the first time they have not had a winning record since early in the season. Merrill Kelly was terrific through six innings but ran into trouble in the seventh. The Diamondbacks rallied to move in front in the top of the eighth, watched the lead evaporate in the bottom of the inning, then could not complete a rally in the ninth. The loss was their fourth in a row. The Diamondbacks have had to work through a variety of issues over the first two months of the season, but none so glaring as those in the bullpen. The unit has routinely given up runs in bunches in the late innings, costing the team games or forcing the offense to shoulder an even heavier load to win them. Injuries have been a contributing factor, and the hope has been that the unit might stabilize with Martinez’s return this week and that of lefty A.J. Puk in July — and at least provide a dependable bridge until more reinforcements, if necessary, can be brought in at the trade deadline in July. There were other reasons the Diamondbacks lost to the Cardinals. Their offense was held to just one run through seven innings. Left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. could not cut off a ball in the gap, a play that might have contributed to the Cardinals scoring an extra run or two. A slick play by Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado prevented the tying run from scoring in the ninth. But the Diamondbacks’ porous bullpen was again hard to overlook — and this time it happened with one of their top options on the mound. After striking out Donovan, Martinez walked Ivan Herrera and allowed a double to Alec Burleson to put runners on second and third. A ground ball brought home the tying run before Jordan Walker — whose two-run double in the eighth put the Cardinals in front the first time — gave them the lead again by lining a 100.9 mph sinker from Martinez into center for a run-scoring single. The Donovan at-bat was encouraging. So, too, was the fact that Martinez’s fastball was again reaching triple digits, something it wasn’t doing earlier in the year, thus prompting the club to place him on the IL and send him for tests at the beginning of the month. Martinez seemed disappointed by the outcome but encouraged by the fact that he was beat with his best stuff. “Now, I can say I’m officially back,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be bad with two runs in my pocket, but it is what it is. Today is not going to be my first loss and it’s not going to be my last one. You just try to move forward.” He added: “They were better than me today. That’s all.” Manager Torey Lovullo said he used Martinez in the eighth because he wanted to see how his stuff looked before thrusting him into a save situation. Despite the blown save, Lovullo sounded encouraged enough by what he saw. He said he would have discussions with his coaches about whether to give Martinez a save opportunity the next time out. “He overmatched that first hitter, in my opinion -- a very, very good hitter,” Lovullo said. “It was what he did to the next hitter (walked him) is what we’ve got to tighten up a little bit.” By the end of the sixth, Kelly had retired 17 of the past 18 batters he faced, but the Cardinals got to him in the seventh. After a single and a walk to open the inning, Walker lined a hard shot into left-center field. Gurriel could not cut it off, the ball rolling to the wall, and center fielder Tim Tawa then had trouble picking it up, allowing both runs to score. The Cardinals added another run to make it 4-1. “We knew coming in here the scouting report told us the gaps were super, super fast,” Lovullo said. “The grass is super fast in the outfield. We knew that was potentially going to happen, if balls get into that gap they skid and take off. "Maybe a deeper angle would have protected that a little bit.” The Diamondbacks answered in the top of the eighth – in part thanks to a pair of defensive miscues by the Cardinals. With one run in and runners on first and third, Josh Naylor ripped a liner to right. Walker charged aggressively and left his feet to attempt a lunging catch. The ball got by him and rolled to the wall. Naylor was credited with a two-run, game-tying triple. Two batters later, Randal Grichuk hit a high pop fly to shallow center that somehow fell among a trio of Cardinals defenders, allowing Naylor to score the go-ahead run. The Diamondbacks threatened in the ninth, putting two on with one out against Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley. But Arenado made a diving stop of a Gurriel ground ball for the second out, and Helsley struck out Eugenio Suarez on a slider to end it. The last time the Diamondbacks were at .500 was when they were 7-7 on April 11. “We’ve got to get going,” Lovullo said. “We’ve got to start playing better baseball and winning baseball games. “At the end of the day, I’m not overly critical of the wins and losses. I love winning games, don’t get me wrong. But it’s how we do it. If we’re doing it right and the DBacks are playing DBack baseball, I can be satisfied. We’re getting very close. I think we’re starting to challenge ourselves to do more right than we’ve been doing wrong. We’re getting there.”
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