PHOENIX — Corbin Carroll said he is not trying to carry the Arizona Diamondbacks but simply help them win on a given day.
Wednesday, as manager Torey Lovullo said, was Carroll’s day, and the 24-year-old has been stacking up superstar performances for weeks now.
Carroll launched a game-winning grand slam off New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz with two outs in the eighth inning of an 8-5 victory at Chase Field.
Corbin Carroll’s 2nd HR of the night is a GO-AHEAD GRAND SLAM! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/fvTsXRrXGA
— MLB (@MLB) August 29, 2024
The D-backs led 4-0 early and Lovullo could sense their frustration having lost the advantage. Diaz entered with a couple outs and a man on third to face the bottom of the order with a 5-4 lead. Pavin Smith and Geraldo Perdomo worked walks, setting up Carroll to do something special.
“I’m just trying to do some to help the team win every day, that’s been the goal. Being back in the space where I’m able to do that right now, or just giving myself a better chance to do that, it’s felt rewarding,” Carroll said postgame.
Carroll said he did not see the ball land before glimpsing the video screens with his launch angle and exit velocity in right field. He was sure that ball was out based on the numbers.
It was Carroll’s second home run of the ballgame, his third in two days, eighth in 16 games and 12th post All-Star break. Shohei Ohtani and Jake Burger are the only National League players with more since the Midsummer Classic.
“Today was a game situation where the right man in the right spot stepped up,” Lovullo said. “We talked about being able to execute in the most critical moments in a game, whether you’re on the mound, in the box or out playing defense. Corbin Carroll absolutely picked us up with one swing of the bat.”
Lovullo could not pinpoint the moment Carroll turned his season around. There were at least a couple times when Lovullo said something along the lines of “this is his Day 1.” He claims the club saw promising trends in late June with his swing plane and swing decisions.
The reigning NL Rookie of the Year and face of the franchise pulled through as quiet a first half as anyone in MLB. He held a .607 OPS at the Fourth of July, the fifth-lowest among 145 qualified hitters, and two homers. But Carroll improved his OPS every month this season, working past an abysmal April/May to a respectable .725 in June, a strong .822 in July and now an elite .930 in August. It is back up to .725, above league average at .714.
“It was only a matter of time before he figured it out.”
D-backs manager Torey Lovullo on Corbin Carroll’s persistence this season. pic.twitter.com/31sv0Mnerg
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) August 29, 2024
He is driving the baseball more consistently, as he did with a 440-foot shot to center field in the fourth inning on Wednesday against starter Luis Severino or a 437-footer against Mets southpaw Sean Manaea on Tuesday.
Balls up in the zone are not punishing him like they did for much of the season. He hit .154 with a 32.2% hard hit rate on balls up in the zone or above the letters on July 4. Since then, he’s up to .283 with a 40.5 hard hit percentage, according to Baseball Savant.
And he is impacting just about every game in some way with a 36-game on-base streak, second to Jay Bell’s 39 in team history.
“I think the beginning of the year was very much a grind … there were some great lessons learned from it, so I hope to keep it up,” Carroll said.
“It’s been a couple mechanical things and just as much an approach thing, as well. I think a combination of those two, as well as getting some confidence back.”
Physically, Carroll said he is doing a better job controlling his backside and not overstriding as much. MLB Network’s Mark DeRosa went over the importance of his stride in a segment that illustrated the difference in his attack position:
Corbin Carroll has been hitting his stride in a BIG way for the @Dbacks! 🐍@markdero7 and Dan O’Dowd examine the recent power surge from the reigning NL Rookie of the Year and some slight adjustments that have yielded strong results at the plate. pic.twitter.com/W5LL6YjM4f
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) August 28, 2024
The mental side, Lovullo felt, was part of the equation along with the physical, a young player who had not struggled to that extent trying to counterpunch the league.
“He has a great mentality, that’s a separator for him as far as I’m concerned,” Lovullo said. “You don’t have success, you start to make changes and it takes a little bit of your confidence away from game-to-game, and that’s just the ebb and the flow of making improvements and making adjustments year-to-year and month-to-month. But he’s a fast learner. It was a matter of time before he figured it out.
“The beauty of Corbin is he has been the same person, the same baseball player, whether it’s to me or his teammates whether he’s had a .630 slug or the .330 slug.”
Diamondbacks star Corbin Carroll was fired up rounding the bases and seeing his teammates celebrating after his go-ahead grand slam. pic.twitter.com/DVjqVk9L0e
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) August 29, 2024
This turnaround has come at an opportune time given the pennant race (the D-backs sit three games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West standings) and the firepower sitting on Arizona’s injured list.
Carroll was seen as the engine of Arizona’s offense last season. Ketel Marte has taken up the mantle as Arizona’s most impactful bat this year, and Christian Walker has had stretches where the ball must have looked twice its size. But they, along with Gabriel Moreno, are on the IL, and yet the boat has not sank. Arizona has seven wins in eight games and an August record of 18-6.
This has been a group effort — evidenced by Wednesday where it took patient approaches to overcome the frustration and set the table and a strong bullpen performance to keep the game close. But Carroll is right at the forefront once again and that makes the D-backs so much more dangerous when Marte, Walker and Moreno get back ahead of the final push and the postseason.
