Diamondbacks 4, Braves 11: Farewell to Firs.. No! Wait!

Record: 59-58. Pace: 82-80. Change in last season: -7

"For the first time in over four months, the Diamondbacks find themselves sitting in second place in the National League West, the result of the Dodgers' extra-innings victory over the Giants." Dammit, I had a perfectly-good recap all written, bemoaning our fall into second. But the Los Angeles Chokers coughed up a tenth-inning lead in San Francisco, and so we still cling on to top spot, by our fingernails. It's a position we hardly deserve, particulary after a wretched sixth inning against the Braves, where a perfect storm of incompetence - management, pitching, defense - and bad luck, allowed Atlanta to score seven runs.

Arizona actually entered with a 3-2 lead. They clawed their way back into the game, thanks largely to an error by Escobar with one out in the fifth, that turned a potential double-play off the bat of Jackson into the tying run. A sacrifice fly by Tracy then gave us the lead. However, Haren's pitch-count was at 100, and given the score situation - and the "must win" nature of the contest - he should have been on a very short leash. A laser-beam to Romero in right was an out, but a single and double followed, and Haren should have been lifted. However, Melvin, adhering to his usual philosophy of mishandling pitchers, left Haren out there to surrender the tying and go-ahead runs to Atlanta, as well as another single, before coming to get him.

Worse - much worse, in any number of ways - followed. Juan Cruz came in, walked the first batter on four pitches, then hit the next guy. At this point, it was clear he had nothing, and I was reduced to hoping Melvin would yank him before the game was entirely out of range. Cruz did fan Jones, but a single to left scored three runs. It would have been two, except that a wild throw from Cruz to second - what we  called a "hospital pass" in my soccer days - sent O-Dawg right into the path of McCann, snapping his wrist back, and leaving him flapping on the deck like a stranded fish and having to be helped off the field, his wrist supported. Cruz then committed another error that let McCann score from second, completing the disaster. We came into the inning with a 65.7% Win Probability, and left it at 3.4%,

Outside of the first inning, where he allowed a two-run homer, Haren was okay. He clearly didn't have his best stuff, but those two runs were the only ones he allowed through the front five. However, his final line was an ugly 5.1 innings, 10 hits, three walks and six earned runs. He struggled with his control - it's only his second three-walk game of the season, and his ERA over his past two starts has gone up from 2.62 to 3.00. I hope he doesn't suffer the curse of the long-term contract that has already affected a few other Diamondbacks over the past couple of years: Eric Byrnes and Chad Tracy being the most obvious examples.

The rest of the pitching staff had a night to forget too, allowing five runs over 3.2 innings, though only two of them were earned - after Cruz came Pena, who continued to struggle, with two runs (one earned) coming in his inning of work, Qualls was the only one we sent out there to escape damage to his ERA, with a scoreless ninth. Our defense was pretty wretched too, with four errors in total: two for Cruz and one by Reynolds, both during the sixth, while Romero was also charged with an E, as he chased a ball around the outfield corner, like a dog following a car. Jackson also had an issue, taking a bad route to a fly-ball in left, that ended up being a double, and Drew threw wildly to first trying to complete a double-play, though fortunately, the runner didn't get to advance.

Offensively, it was good to see the team make their way back into the game, but after the sixth, they can hardly be blamed for giving up a little bit. Stephen Drew had a pair of extra-base hits, extending his hitting streak to twelve games. Miguel Montero also had two hits, while Tony Clark - who came into the game as part of a double-switch for Haren - reached twice, on a walk and a hit. However, the final play of the game pretty much summed up the night, as Jackson ran into his own batted ball, going up the first base line, and was out on batter's interference. That ended a wretched night for the Diamondbacks, one which I think everyone who works for or supports the team will want to forget.

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Master of his domain:  Conor Jackson: +11.3%
God-emperor of suck: Dan Haren, -35.5%
Dishonorable mention: Juan Cruz, -17.9%

Not the finest of nights in the Gameday Thread, with - probably understandably - a fair bit of negativity, as we slid out of the playoff spot for the first time since almost the beginning of the season. Still, it's nice to share the pain: thanks to hotclaws, snakecharmer, 4 Corners Fan, ZonaBacks10, Jim McLennan, soco, unnamedDBacksfan, njjohn, AZWILDCATS [who is now forbidden from mentioning the Dodgers - any such comments will be removed], TwinnerA, Muu, AF DBacks Fanatic, srdmad, foulpole, Scrbl, dbacksbj, Zephon and jazzbo13 for taking part in the pain-sharing. Atlanta has now outscored us 28-14 in the first three games, and it's up to Brandon Webb if we are to avoid the series sweep tomorrow.

The scope of Orlando Hudson's injury is still unclear, but it doesn't look good. Speaking after the game, Bob Melvin sounded very gloomy, stating that surgery seems likely, which would basically be likely to take Hudson out of things for the rest of the season. But they are waiting for him to be examined by a hand specialist in the morning, and the decision will likely be made then. However, it seems certain that, at the very least, we'll be seeing Augie Ojeda starting at second - and likely a lot more of Chris Burke...

Finally, as I'm writing this recap, I've also been watching The Eric Byrnes Show, and in this episode, there's footage taken at the North Phoenix Baptist Church card show, where he talks about how much he loves meeting the fans. Hmm. Or not so much. According to this piece about the event, "Autographs are $29 each per item. This will be the only autograph appearance Byrnes will make during the 2008 season." So much for "the opportunity to meet so many people I would otherwise never have met." As long as they have twenty-nine bucks to spare, it would appear... Yeah, I'm grumpy. I'm off to bed, to watch some Olympics. Maybe that'll cheer me up.