D-backs eager to ignite offense in opener vs. Mets

These days, the Arizona Diamondbacks' offense is mirroring the desert climate of the team's home: dry.

The Diamondbacks have lost six of their past seven games. They've scored just 12 total runs in those losses and have been shut out twice.

They'll aim to get it back on track Friday night when they face the New York Mets in the first contest of a three-game series in Phoenix.

In their most recent setback, the Diamondbacks fell 4-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday in the rubber match of a three-game set.

Arizona appeared to find some life offensively in the opener of that series with a 9-0 victory on Tuesday, only to get blanked 1-0 the next night.

"We've got to get back to our basics and some of the things that we really, really believe in," Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. "... But overall, I believe in this offense, and I see them working every single day, and those results will come, but it doesn't happen by just going up there and believing it's going to happen. You got to make it happen."

Right fielder Corbin Carroll delivered two of his team's five hits on Thursday, including a solo homer that put Arizona ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the third inning. The Diamondbacks struggled to get on base from that point on, going out in order in each of the next three innings before leading off their half of the seventh with a single. They had one more hit in the eighth.

"Once again, I think this was mostly an offensive issue that I'm going to kind of talk about and target," Lovullo said. "This game is hard, for sure. It's hard to hit, it's hard to pitch, hard to catch, hard to do everything, but we're making it way harder than it should be."

Right-hander Ryne Nelson (1-3, 6.61 ERA) will be on the mound on Friday for Arizona.

Nelson is 1-3 with a 5.86 ERA in six career appearances (five starts) against New York. That lone win came on April 8 when he allowed just one run on five hits with five strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings of a 7-2 victory.

The Mets, meanwhile, will look to bounce back from a 6-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Thursday that ended a three-game winning streak.

New York had a two-run lead after two innings. Colorado's Jake McCarthy helped sink the Mets, driving in the game-tying run in the sixth before mashing a grand slam in the eighth to complete the comeback.

The home run was met with some question, however. The ball sailed over the right-field foul pole and was deemed fair, a call that stood after a crew-chief review.

"It was close," New York manager Carlos Mendoza said. "Especially from our angle, I couldn't tell. ... It just didn't go our way there."

Mendoza went to his bullpen in the fifth inning after starter Christian Scott threw 82 pitches. Mendoza was managing Scott's pitch count after the right-hander missed all of last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Mendoza hopes to count on a longer run for right-hander Nolan McLean (1-2, 2.97 ERA), who will start for the Mets on Friday. McLean has faced Arizona once in his career, allowing two runs on three hits in 6 1/3 innings in a 7-1 loss on April 9.

--Field Level Media