LOS ANGELES _ A day after "easily the worst game of my career," as Edwin Diaz put it, he didn't have any real answers about his four-run disaster in a loss to the Dodgers. But he also didn't seem to be worrying about it too much.
More of a turn-the-page-quickly type, like so many premier relievers, Diaz reiterated Thursday he was comfortable with the pitches he made Wednesday, even if the Dodgers hit those pitches hard.
"It's tough when you are happy with how you throw the ball and things don't go your way," Diaz said. "It's tough when you have an outing like that, winning by three runs and blow the game."
Diaz declared himself unavailable to pitch Thursday against the Dodgers, a logical off day given his recent workload. His 30-pitch blown save was his second appearance in as many days and his fourth in five days.
His velocity has held up in that span, the four-seam fastball averaging about 97 mph.
"I've been pitching a lot, but I feel great," Diaz said. "My velo got better each (game). I got to keep working and do my best any time I go to the mound."
Several statistical trends suggest Diaz has regressed from his All-Star 2018 form. His 3.22 ERA is significantly higher than his 1.96 mark from last year, though it's worth noting it was 1.64 before the outlier outing Wednesday, when four earned runs matched his season total entering the night.
But Diaz has also seen a drop in his strikeout rate (44.3% of batters last year to 36.1% this year), as well as an increase in opponents' batting average (.160 to .247), FIP (1.61 to 3.99) and hard-hit rate (29.3% of batted balls all the way up to 55.6 percent).
Diaz's attitude won't change.
"One bad game," he said, "can't change your mind."
