Record: 43-41. Pace: 83-79. Change over last year: +2.
The Diamondbacks went into the game just looking to right their ship. Losers of 5 straight, they were facing a tough customer in Matt Harvey, and the young right-hander did not disappoint in the early inning.
Randall Delgado took the bump for the D-backs, and outside of a bumpy 4th inning, he was a refreshing surprise. That 4th inning, though, brought nightmarish visions to all Arizonans who watched, as he gave up 2 home runs in the inning. The first solo shot was powered out by David Wright, who took a calf-high ball and tattooed it to left. Josh Satin stepped up two batters later and hit his own solo home run, and it gave the home team a 2 run lead.
It felt insurmountable at the time, but we should have better faith. Our despair might have been justified given how the D-backs offense went, or more specifically didn't go, in the first few frames. Arizona had bases loaded with only one out in the first, looking to score early, and of course Martin Prado hit into a double play to end the threat. After that it was all strikeouts and fielder's choices.
Then the D-backs entered the top of the 6th, and suddenly everything seemed different. Miguel Montero worked a walk, part of a 2 hit and 2 walk game, then Martin Prado got on with a single. This set the table for Cody Ross, who summoned the dark magick to get a home run just over the left field fence to give a lead that Arizona wouldn't give up.
Matt Harvey would get run from the game in the 7th, eventually being tagged for 2 more runs. One was scored by Tony Campana off an Eric Chavez double, and then Miggy hit a sac-fly off reliever Scott Rice.
Harvey had another high strikeout game, which is not surprising. The rest of his line did not look good, however: 6 innings pitched, 9 hits and 3 walks allowed, 5 earned runs.
Delgado, on the other hand, had a pretty fantastic night outside the 2 home runs. He went 7 innings to help out the struggling bullpen, gave up 7 hits but not walks, and struck out 9. Overall his stuff looked good, and although I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, it certainly gives an idea of what kind of pitcher we may have received in the Upton trade.
The D-backs made it more stressful then it needed to be, with David Hernandez giving up a homer and a ground rule double back-to-back in the bottom of the 8th. He got the final out, though, and Heath Bell came into close things out. It was a surprisingly stress-free affair for Bell, and even though he gave up a two out single, he got Andrew Brown to flyout harmlessly to center to secure the save and the win.
It wasn't the most predictable of results. Who'd have thought the D-backs would end their slide against Matt Harvey of all pitchers? Or that Randall Delgado would break the streak of starting pitchers not getting a win? Well, you know what they say (over and over): can't predict ball.
Source: FanGraphs
X-Wing: Cody Ross (37.5%)
A-Wing: Miguel Montero (13.1%), Eric Chavez (12.6%)
Corran Horn: Martin Prado (-13.4%)
Z-95: Jason Kubel (-11.3%)
Busy Gameday Thread tonight, which might be partially attributed to the later start. BulldogsNotZags led the way, being the only one to crack 100 comments. He was joined by: AJV19, Airwave, AzDbackfanInDc, AzRattler, Clefo, Diamondhacks, Fangdango, GuruB, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, PR151, Paper Clip, Rockkstarr12, TolkienBard, Zavada's Moustache, asteroid, azshadowwalker, blank_38, cheese1213, dbacks79, dbrowell, hotclaws, kristina, onedotfive, piratedan7, preston.salisbury, rd33, snakecharmer, soco, and xmet.
Comment of the Day goes to asteroid for this gem, summing up the game:
#faveflave
Tomorrow is the 4th of July, which in America is a holiday to celebrate giving a finger to our British Overlords. Everywhere else in the world it's a Thursday. Also tomorrow is another D-backs/Mets contest, as if we didn't already have enough of those, so hopefully Arizona will tie up the series and limp on home with some dignity. First pitch is at 10:10am Arizona time, and features Ian Kennedy facing Dillon Gee. Murrica!