/Photo: Orlando Ramirez, Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
By Nick Piecoro | The Republic
In an otherwise quiet visitors’ clubhouse, Diamondbacks right fielder Steven Souza’s voice grew increasingly heated on Saturday night. He had been asked a question about his team’s slumbering offense. He disagreed, adamantly, with the premise.
“How is it a rough stretch?” Souza said. “Explain to me how it’s a rough stretch.”
Before the facts could be presented – about how the Diamondbacks have scored 21 runs in their past nine games, about how their offense has been inconsistent, at best, for the better part of a month – Souza began to rant, then cut his interview short.
It was an understandably charged reaction after an especially gut-wrenching loss. For the second night in a row, the Diamondbacks watched a late lead vanish. For the second night in a row, their division rivals delivered a game-altering, eighth-inning home run and sent a raucous crowd home from Dodger Stadium happy with another 3-2 victory.
In the box score, the loss goes to right-hander Archie Bradley. The Diamondbacks’ setup man was the one who, when handed a 2-0 lead, allowed a one-out single, followed by a 10-pitch walk, followed by a three-run home run. It was brutal chain of events from a pitcher the Diamondbacks depend on to protect leads like the one he was given, and Bradley was more than willing to accept the blame.
“I just didn’t do my job,” Bradley said.
BOX SCORE:Dodgers 3, Diamondbacks 2
