Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo summoned the starting rotation to his office on a road trip in Chicago during a recent rough patch.

“It was to remind us that we are really good, and what we are going through now is not who we are,” right-hander Merrill Kelly said.

Maybe the meeting was not required.

“Obviously, Torey’s message was good,” Kelly said. “But at the end of the day, we’ve been doing this for a long time. We know when we are pitching well. We all knew we weren’t doing our job. At the end of the day, we all felt we had to be better.”

The pitchers have improved even if Arizona is just 2-8 since the start of its road series in Chicago against the Cubs. The Diamondbacks have made quality starts in four of their past five outings, including Kelly’s 2-1 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday to even their series at one game apiece. They will play the rubber game Sunday in Phoenix.

Eduardo Rodriguez (3-0, 2.50 ERA), who started the five-game run last Tuesday, will be back on the mound Sunday as the Diamondbacks look for their first series win since they took a series from the Toronto Blue Jays April 17-19.

The Mets are expected to use left-hander David Peterson (1-4, 6.29) for the bulk of the game Sunday, likely after an opener. Right-hander Huascar Brazoban (2-0, 1.53) is listed as the starter on MLB.com.

Kelly gave up three hits and one run in seven innings on Saturday, by far his best start of the season after being delayed out of spring training with a back injury. He had given up 19 runs in 13 2/3 innings in his previous three starts.

“You almost felt like the kid who finally passed the test, who’s been getting Fs the whole time but finally got an A,” Kelly said.

The Mets continued to scuffle offensively, managing only three hits on Saturday after getting five hits — two in the first nine innings — in a 3-1, 10-inning victory in the series opener Friday.

They wasted a strong outing from Clay Holmes, who gave up two runs and five hits while in 5 2/3 innings, tying a season high with six strikeouts.

“I thought he was very good, even though they put together some really good at-bats,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “They made him work.”

Arizona’s Rodriguez threw seven scoreless innings in a 9-0 victory over Pittsburgh on Tuesday to start the streak, the best start in his 46 outings with Arizona.

“They’re dudes,” Lovullo said of his rotation. “They’re tough. I just created an awareness.”

The Diamondbacks went 13 straight games — two-plus times through the rotation — without a starter going as long as six innings before Rodriguez’s gem. He gave up two hits, struck out seven and walked three.

Only one Pirates hitter reached third against Rodriguez, who threw a season-high 103 pitches.

Rodriguez delivered his own strong message to Lovullo when the manager made a mound visit with two outs in the last of the seventh Tuesday with Arizona leading 7-0.

“He backed me down and said, ‘Give me one last hitter,'” Lovullo said. “I told him, ‘This is your last hitter.’ I challenged him. He challenged me back. I like that kind of stuff. It fires me up.”

Rodriguez is 2-1 with a 5.20 ERA in five career starts against the Mets, his best coming this season in a 7-1 victory at Citi Field pn April 9, when he gave up one run and five hits in six innings.

-Field Level Media

A pair of pitchers intent on continuing hot starts to the season will face off Sunday when the host Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves close out a three-game series.

While the Dodgers send left-hander Justin Wrobleski (5-0, 1.25 ERA) to the mound, the Braves will counter with right-hander Bryce Elder (3-1, 2.02).

After the Dodgers won the series opener Friday, the Braves rolled to a 7-2 victory Saturday and were two outs away from handing Los Angeles its second shutout of the season.

Wrobleski was the sixth starter in waiting for the Dodgers when the season began, and he did not make his debut in the rotation until April 6 in the 10th game of the season. Since then, he has led the charge by allowing just two total runs over his five starts (32 innings).

Wrobleski delivered six scoreless innings in a start last Sunday at St. Louis.

When left-hander Blake Snell returned to the Dodgers rotation this weekend, it was right-hander Roki Sasaki that had his schedule rearranged. Wrobleski remained locked into his planned outing Sunday.

“I think I’m doing a good job of understanding who I am, understanding the game and where we’re at, understanding the hitter and the situation,” said Wrobleski, who has yet to face the Braves since making his MLB debut in 2024.

Even with his new-found success, Wrobleski still sees areas for improvement after he did not record a strikeout in his most recent outing. He has 15 strikeouts in 36 total innings this season.

“Some days you’re not going to get strikeouts. Some months you’re not going to get strikeouts. Some days you’re going to get a lot,” Wrobleski said. “… Just keep moving forward and I’m sure the strikeouts will come.”

Elder, on the other hand, is coming off a season-high nine strikeouts during a no-decision Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners. He gave up two runs over six innings as Atlanta finished off a 3-2 victory.

In keeping with his overall plan, Elder kept the Braves in the game at Seattle long enough for Atlanta’s offense to finally push across the go-ahead run in the ninth inning.

“I’m trying to go six or seven (innings),” Elder said. “Obviously I’m not going to every time out, but I’m just trying to keep the game progressing. If I give up a homer or whatever, that’s fine. I’m just trying to keep us in the game.”

Elder is trying to avoid the same fate he realized in 2023, when he had a 1.92 ERA through the end of May only to post a 4.95 ERA the rest of the way.

In five career starts against the Dodgers, he is 1-1 with a 5.18 ERA, including a pair of starts last season when he was 1-0 with a 5.00 ERA.

In their relatively easy victory Saturday, the Braves received two-run singles from Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson in the second inning as Snell made his season debut after recovering from shoulder inflammation.

A victory Sunday would give the Braves the series win after they just lost two of three at Seattle to drop a series for the first time this season.

–Field Level Media

Craig Stammen saw something in the at-bats of Fernando Tatis Jr. Friday night that no one else did.

The first-year manager of the San Diego Padres liked Tatis’ approach, even as he was going 0-for-2 with a walk as his team was being one-hit by the St. Louis Cardinals in a 6-0 shutout. So Stammen moved Tatis back to the No. 2 spot and was rewarded with a two-run single that made the difference in a 4-2 win Saturday.

Perhaps ready to make his normal sizable offensive contributions again, Tatis will aim to help San Diego salvage a split of its four-game series with St. Louis when the teams meet on Sunday.

Tatis still is without a homer through the team’s first 39 games, a dry stretch that has some questioning if the team should think of ways to unload him on someone else. But Stammen isn’t ready to answer that $340 million question just yet.

“I feel like he’s making some good decisions at the plate,” Stammen said. “And he’s been working hard in the cage, making some adjustments. And I also think the pitchers fear him, even if he’s not hitting as many home runs as we expect.”

Tatis is batting just .248 with 15 RBIs and a team-high nine steals in 12 attempts. The National League’s 2021 home run champion with 42, Tatis averaged more than 25 homers in his first six MLB seasons.

While Tatis and the Padres’ offense, which has just 10 hits in the series, try to put more barrels on balls, right-hander Walker Buehler (2-2, 5.64) aims for his second straight win. He earned a 10-5 decision in San Francisco Tuesday night, yielding four runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings with no walks and five strikeouts.

Lifetime, Buehler is 3-0 with a 3.90 ERA in five career starts against the Cardinals, striking out 35 batters in 30 innings.

St. Louis counters with right-hander Kyle Leahy (4-3, 4.93), who last pitched Monday night and beat Milwaukee 6-3. Leahy scattered six hits over 5 1/3 innings, allowing one run while walking two and striking out five.

Leahy, who’s fired 5 1/3 scoreless innings in three career appearances against San Diego, has had multiple outings this year in which he found trouble after five innings. Eight of the 10 batters he’s faced in the sixth inning have reached and five have scored.

“It still comes down to execution and then the physical piece of everything and just getting over that hurdle,” he said.

The Cardinals saw a six-game road winning streak end Saturday but put up a good fight, even when facing Mason Miller. They loaded the bases in the ninth on two walks and a wild pitch on strike three to Yohel Pozo before Miller slipped a 101 mph fastball by JJ Wetherholt for a called third strike.

The hottest bat lately has been Ivan Herrera, who followed up a four-hit game on Friday night with two more on Saturday. That included an RBI double in the eighth that got St. Louis within 3-2, upping his average to .270.

–Field Level Media