Diamondbacks 6, Braves 1: Webb Wins the Day

Record: 60-58. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season: -7

Brandon Webb did what was expected of him, picking up his seventeenth win of the season, with six innings of one-run ball against a Braves offense who had scored 28 runs in the previous three games. Meanwhile, the offense pounced early, scoring three times during the opening frame, and sending the opposing starter to the showers after scoring six runs in four innings.

Drew and Ojeda singled to get the bottom of the first off to a good start. Though Jackson fouled out, Reynolds drove them both in with a double. He then stole third, and came home on a squibber up the first-base line by Young. However, his strikeout in the fifth was his 146th of the year, passing Troy Glaus's total from 2005 to set a new franchise record - with 44 games still to go. He's currently on pace for 202 K's, which would surpass all previous hitters in the majors - though Ryan Howard is still a couple ahead of him this season. 

Chris Snyder homered to lead off the second inning. That's his tenth homer of the year, and makes him the sixth Arizona player to reach double-figures this season. The others are Reynolds (24), Young (15), Drew (14), Jackson (12) and Upton (11). Two more runs followed in the fourth, from an unlikely source: the Braves walked Burke intentionally to get to Webb - artificially inflating Burke's OBP further - but he smacked one to right-center over the head of the shallow-playing CF, scoring two runs with a double. He now driven in the same number of runs as Burke: with runners in scoring position, Webb is 5-for-20; Burke [who, thanks to hotclaws, will henceforth be referred to as The Chocolate Teapot] is 3-for-31...

That was largely it as far as the offense went, with all the damage being done against Hampton. In four innings from the Braves' relievers, we managed one hit and one walk, while striking out six times. Jamie D'Antona - making his first start ever in the majors - was the only player to reach twice, with a pair of walks. Drew's knock in the first did extend his hitting streak to thirteen games, tying his career high. One more game, and he'll also tie the best one of this season for the Diamondbacks, set between April 4-19, by Eric Byrnes.

Quick shout-out to the bullpen too, who closed out the game with three scoreless innings. Chad Qualls went two frames, allowing a single, and Jon Rauch came in for the ninth and struck out the side. That came after six innings by Webb, who allowed six hits and two walks, with five strikeouts. The only trouble for him was the sixth, where he loaded the bases with no outs: however, he got out of the jam with just one run scoring on a sacrifice fly, thanks to a nice 1-2-3 double-play off the bat of Francoeur, right back to Webb. His ERA is now down to 2.88, and he's 5-0 in his last seven outings and 51 innings, with seven quality starts and an ERA of 1.59.

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Master of his domain: Brandon Webb, +18.3%
Honorable mention: Mark Reynolds, +15.9%
God-emperor of suck: Conor Jackson, -4.4%

A relatively small, but still very entertaining Gameday Thread, as we got a very much-needed win, to avoid the sweep by Atlanta, ending our four-game losing streak. Present alongside me were: unnamedDBacksfan, soco, kishi, emilylovesthedbacks, njjohn, snakecharmer, TwinnerA, dbacksbj, hotclaws, AZWILDCATS, Scrbl and Wimb. Almost as entertaining was the fact that the Los Angeles Chokers did it again: they came into the ninth inning with a lead against the Giants, but for the second straight game, couldn't get the final three outs to close it out. San Francisco scored twice, and boom, Los Angeles lose. That drops them 1.5 games back behind Arizona.

That's a huge boost, on the day we got news that Orlando Hudson will miss the rest of the season: he had surgery late Saturday night to repair a dislocated bone in his left wrist. The team called up Jeff Salazar to replace him, which seems like an odd move - replacing an infielder with an outfielder? No game for Arizona tomorrow, so a random off-day thread will be posted for your general amusement. Thinking of going to see Iron Man tonight, as we've got to head down to Chandler and hang posters at the cinema for the Phoenix Fear Film Festival.

We reconvene for baseball purposes on Tuesday in Colorado. Two wins in the series would be fine, and would also seal and deliver victory in our season's bet with Purple Row, so we could look forward to SnakePit Day over there again during the off-season. Though they get to dodge Webb and Haren - and we, unfortunately, won't get to face Livan Hernandez, who gave up seven earned runs in 2.2 innings, during his debut for the Rockies, as they got hammered, 16-7, by San Diego. Here's to more of that from them in the next few days.