When the Baltimore Orioles ’ Tyler O’Neill was not rung up on a check swing call in the seventh inning, the Diamondbacks ’ dugout erupted. Everyone there saw the same thing replays appeared to clearly show – that O’Neill went around – and they reacted with the emotions of a struggling ballclub, one desperate for a win. “We haven’t been playing great baseball, so we walk in here a little sideways,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We walk in here a little edgy and we stay edgy.” And so, in a sense, what came next seemed to follow logically. Pitcher Merrill Kelly voiced his displeasure and was ejected, even though he had just been removed from the game. And Lovullo, trying to keep more players from getting tossed, was himself ejected. But perhaps the craziest part of the Diamondbacks’ emotional night was what happened later in the inning, a bizarre play that cost them a run but also helped them secure a 4-3 win, snapping a three-game losing skid. Corbin Carroll blasted a solo homer, Josh Naylor delivered a go-ahead, two-run double and the Diamondbacks’ bullpen locked down a victory with three scoreless innings. And yet it all nearly unraveled in the seventh. With a runner on second and nobody out, Kelly appeared to strike out O’Neill, who seemingly was unable to check his swing on a pitch out of the zone. But in the estimation of the only person whose opinion mattered – first base umpire Laz Diaz – O’Neill had checked his swing. One pitch later, O’Neill was trotting down to first with a base on balls – and Lovullo was on his way out of the dugout to make a pitching change. At that point, Lovullo said, he was not looking to voice his displeasure. Front of mind for him, he said, was keeping his players in the game. He told his infielders exactly that when he reached the mound. But at roughly the same time, Kelly was making his way back to the dugout when he turned to yell something at Diaz. “I said my piece on the field; I’ll kind of leave it at that,” Kelly said. “I’ll let the video (of the check swing) kind of do the talking.” Whatever he said to Diaz, it was not well received. And within a matter of seconds, both Kelly and Lovullo had been ejected. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the first time the two of them had gone out together. On May 15, 2023, both were tossed in the same inning in Oakland. “We were kind of laughing about that,” Lovullo said. “Every time he gets thrown out, I get thrown out.” The craziness was only beginning. Three batters later, the bases were loaded when the Orioles’ Jackson Holliday hit a liner to short left field. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. raced in and made a sliding catch, then immediately popped up and uncorked a wild throw that airmailed home plate and went to the backstop. Cedric Mullins smartly tagged up at third and scored, but O’Neill, seemingly thinking Gurriel fielded the ball on the hop, headed to third base. After a few moments of confusion, the Diamondbacks threw to second to double off O’Neill – a call that stood after a lengthy replay review. “It looked like the players were very engaged,” Lovullo said. “We talk about winning inches, being aware, having a high baseball IQ. It looked like the entire infield was on it, acted the way they should have, got the ball to where it needed to be.” Shelby Miller retired the side in the seventh, A.J. Puk worked a scoreless eighth and Justin Martinez pitched the ninth for his second save of the season. Overshadowed by the mayhem was a solid bounce-back start from Kelly, who, after getting bombed last week in New York, logged a quality start on Tuesday, at one point retiring 16 of 17 batters. That came after a shaky first inning in which he gave up two runs but escaped a bases-loaded jam with a double play grounder. “I think if you look kind of over the course of my career, if I’m going to get beat it’s usually in the first inning,” Kelly said. “I think my first-inning ERA is probably not very good (career 5.39, the highest of any inning except the ninth, in which he has only two-thirds of an inning pitched). "I think it kind of goes along with getting into the flow of the game. Once you get the first inning (out of the way), it’s kind of smooth sailing from there.”
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