Both of them were prominent during the sweep of the Brewers. Sensational rookie Corbin Carroll and Walker started hitting again, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly anchored the rotation and a handful of trade-deadline moves - like adding closer Paul Sewald and outfielder Tommy Pham - provided a spark.Ī handful of under-the-radar relievers, like lefty Andrew Saalfrank and righty sidearmer Ryan Thompson, gave a shaky bullpen a huge lift in the middle innings.
But other times, it’s just keeping your head down and keep plugging away.
“I think in those moments, it’s easy to pull back and say, ‘What are we missing? What should we be doing differently?’ Looking for one specific thing about why things aren’t going well. “For me, it was about not losing our identity,” first baseman Christian Walker said. It turned out those were some of the biggest character-building days of the season. An overwhelming “here we go again” feeling hung over the franchise. Arizona’s players and coaches insisted there was no panic, but it was hard to believe them. 11, basically undoing all the hard work they had done over the first three months. They were 7-25 over the next six weeks, falling to 57-59 by Aug.
