Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo won’t have much time to try to devise a new strategy for dealing with Texas Rangers slugger Corey Seager.
Seager, who punished the Diamondbacks en route to being named the World Series MVP last fall, struck again Tuesday night with a three-run homer in the first meeting between the teams since the Rangers’ title clincher in November.
The two-game series concludes Wednesday with a matinee in Arlington, Texas.
With the Diamondbacks holding a 2-0 lead on Tuesday, Lovullo chose to walk Seager with two outs and a runner at second in the third inning. The move backfired when Josh Smith singled in a run.
Two innings later, with Arizona still ahead 2-1, Texas had runners on the corners with one out and Seager at the plate. He clobbered the first pitch he saw from Brandon Pfaadt into the third row beyond the right-field fence.
Seager had five home runs through 43 games, but he has seven in seven games since then. His slow start came after he missed spring training due to sports hernia surgery in late January.
“There was never any thought that he wouldn’t get on track,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “And the time they did walk him, Smitty did what we need to do. He got a big base hit.”
It’s a matter of taking advantage of opportunities, said Seager, a four-time All-Star who was Rookie of the Year in 2016, the same season he finished third in National League MVP voting while with the Dodgers.
“Just getting some good pitches and not missing them. You miss ’em early and then you get the bad counts, and you start chasing,” Seager said Tuesday night.
Lovullo could find some consolation that Pfaadt went seven innings and had lobbied the manager to keep going.
“He really wanted to go back out there for the eighth inning,” Lovullo said. “I told him he did his job. We were ready to line some things up around him. He looked like he was getting the pitches he wanted to throw, executing it and — outside of that one inning where he got clipped for that three-run homer — I thought he did a great job.”
Arizona’s Ryne Nelson (3-3, 6.03 ERA) and Texas’ Dane Dunning (3-3, 4.43) will square off on Wednesday.
Nelson will be making his seventh start of the season. His last appearance, however, came after opener Brandon Hughes faced three batters against the Dodgers on Wednesday. Nelson picked up the win, going five shutout innings and dodging five hits and three walks while striking out five.
Nelson has surrendered just four home runs in 34 1/3 innings.
While he has never faced the Rangers in the regular season, Nelson worked 5 1/3 innings in Game 4 of the World Series. He allowed one run on three hits, with no walks and six strikeouts, in an 11-7 loss.
Dunning will be making his second start since returning from the injured list with a right rotator cuff strain. He was pulled after 3 1/3 innings in an 11-4 loss to the host Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday. He was charged with five runs, three earned, on four hits and a walk. He fanned four.
Dunning has made one start in the regular season against the Diamondbacks; he earned a victory, going 6 1/3 innings in July 2021.
He appeared in relief in three games against Arizona in the World Series, allowing no runs on three hits with a walk in 2 1/3 innings.
–Field Level Media
