ImpactSewald was brought in for a save opportunity with Arizona up three runs in the ninth inning but couldn't find the control to close things out. He threw just nine of 24 pitches for strikes and issued three free passes along with a double before being pulled having recorded just one out. Sewald was credited with a hold after Ryan Thompson entered and finished off the frame, but that speaks more to the flawed nature of the hold stat than to the reliever's effectiveness. Sewald had a rough July, blowing his first three and his final two save opportunities during the month. He did rack up five straight successful saves in between, but the veteran closer nonetheless finished July with an ugly 10.80 ERA across 10 frames. Per Jack Sommers of SI.com, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo attributed Sewald's issues to "something that's going on with his delivery" but didn't tip his hand about whether there'd be a change to the team's closer role. "I know everybody wants to know, what's the closer situation. Are you going to dump him out of the closer role. That's not my priority with Paul right now. My priority is to find out if he is getting blocked by some sort of a delivery problem. That's our job, that's my job. Then I'll take the next necessary steps from there," Lovullo stated.
AUGUST 1•ROTOWIRE
