Clarke retired all six batters faced, three by way of strikeout, over two scoreless relief innings in Friday's 6-1 loss to the Brewers.
Clarke, who started 14 times for the Diamondbacks in 2019, could rejoin the rotation after Friday's starter, Merrill Kelly, submitted another subpar performance. Kelly surrendered six runs over 4.1 innings and sports a 9.20 ERA over his last six starts. That has manager Torey Lovullo considering options to replace him in the starting rotation, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. One option is Clarke, who drew raves from the manager following Friday's game. "I thought he did a really nice job of establishing his fastball presence and made things real easy," Lovullo said. "I don't care if the game is out of hand or not, he's still pitching to keep us in that situation to help us get back in the dugout and score some runs. He did a super job tonight." Lovullo also said he and his staff will have discussions regarding the state of the rotation moving forward.