Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald struggled again to close out a save opportunity on Wednesday, needing to be pulled from the game before the Washington Nationals could tie the game. Arizona ultimately won despite Washington being 90 feet away from tying the game, but it added more questions about Sewald’s ability to stick in the ninth inning.
Thank you for reading this post, don’t forget to subscribe!
After the game, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo was asked about making a change with his closer and this was his response, video courtesy of Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports.
“There’s something that’s going on in his delivery that’s not allowing him to throw the ball where he wants to, have the finish on the ball, make the pitches he’s normally making. That right now that’s my top priority. I want to make sure we dig into finding out what’s happening with him because he’s not hitting his spots. I know everybody wants to know what’s the closer situation, are you going to dump him out of the closer role? That’s not my priority with Paul right now, my priority is to find out if he is getting blocked by some sort of a delivery [issue]. That’s our job, that’s my job, and I’ll take the necessary steps from there.”
It was obvious something was off physical, as his last appearance against the Nationals was very atypical of how he’s pitched in Arizona the last season-plus. He struggled to throw strikes and was badly missing out of the zone to the glove side of the plate (in on LHH, away from RHH) with his fastball, which was barely registering at 90 MPH with no life. He ended up walking three of the five batters he faced, with only nine of the 24 pitches he threw being strikes.
The Diamondbacks need to iron out the mechanical and delivery issues for Sewald, as the team was designed with him as their lockdown closer. The rest of the bullpen becomes unsettled when the closer role is unsettled. The team is better equipped to handle that now than they were at the start of the season.
If a change is necessary while Sewald works on fixing his delivery, they have some capable arms with some experience pitching in the ninth inning. Kevin Ginkel served as the interim closer during the first six weeks of the season while Sewald was on the injured list with an oblique strain. Ryan Thompson and A.J. Puk have pitched in the ninth, the latter logging 15 saves with the Marlins last season.
While his four blown saves led to four losses in the month of July, the team overall has been operating on mostly all cylinders with a 17-8 record. While you can make the argument his struggles have prevented the team from having an even better month, it’s more important to focus on the positives rather than the negatives for how quickly they’ve turned around their season. Getting Sewald right should be the team’s top priority, especially now that their playoff chances have drastically improved in the last month.
Leave a Reply