By Nick Piecoro | Arizona Republic
The Arizona Diamondbacks won another game they ought to have won, beating up on the last-place San Diego Padres by a score of 9-4 on Friday night. The evening had a different feel in a far corner of the visitors’ clubhouse, where Robbie Ray stood in front of his locker without answers.
For 4 1/3 innings, Ray labored. He could not command his pitches. He could not throw strikes. He hollered at home-plate umpire James Hoye on his way off the mound after the first inning, only to say later that Hoye had the strike zone right.
“It was all self-inflicted,” Ray said.
Ray came into this season expecting to build on the breakout he enjoyed last year. He saw his emergence last season as a sort of first step. Armed with electric stuff, he found a way to harness it in 2017, and, more often than not, he dominated.
