Record: 64-60. Pace: 84-78. Change on last season: -7

Just our luck to meet Roy Oswalt on the day he decides to revert back to being among the most dominant pitchers of the past five years; today was his 80th win since the start of 2004, which ties him with Johan Santana [Webb, in case you're wondering, is fourth on 73, three back of Carlos Zambrano]. He one-hit the Diamondbacks over eight thoroughly dominant innings, and while he could likely have completed the shutout himself, then gave way to former Arizona closer, Jose Valverde, whom came in for the ninth and got the save.

I can't really complain about this one: it was one of those days where you simply meet an irresistible force - it's not as if we can expect to score eleven or twelve runs every game. All the offensive outpouring that we had on Friday and Saturday seemed a very long way ago, with Oswalt painting the corners like Rembrandt, flummoxing the Diamondbacks with everything from low-90's heat, to mid-60's curveballs. He faced just one batter over the minimum, and averaged four balls per inning out of the strike-zone. Looking at him today, you had to wonder how the hell this was only his eleventh win in 24 starts.

Only Stephen Drew and Chris Snyder reached base all afternoon. Snyder was the first base-runner, walking to lead off the third inning. Johnson sacrificed him to second with one out, and Drew [who'd walked to lead off the game, before being lined off first by Tracy] then squeezed a single through the infield. Chip Hale enthusiastically waved Snyder around third, despite the shallowness of the ball and a bad jump off second. Even a crap throw from Pence, which sailed some way up the line, proved more than good enough to get Snyder gunned down at the plate, with relative ease. I've lost count of how many outs we've made on the base-paths this year, and how many runners have been gunned down at home, courtesy of Hale and the much-vaunted "aggressive base-running."

Mark Grace was going on afterwards, about how it was a good decision. Er, no. In a tied game, perhaps - but we were already three runs behind at that point, and base-runners were clearly a precious commodity. Sending the slowest runner on the roster home was a suicidal move: even in the best possible scenario, if he'd made it, we'd still only have had the tying run at the plate - exactly the same as if Snyder had been held at third. Instead of having the red-hot Chris Young up [10-for-23 with eight RBI in the past week], representing that tying run, the rally was snuffed out and AZ was still three down. The next seventeen Diamondbacks' hitters were retired in order, and the only other time we got a runner into scoring position was on fielders' indifference in the ninth, after Drew singled off Valverde.

Randy Johnson pitched well, outside of one mistake to Wigginton, who promptly took advantage of that, along with the short distance to the left-field bleachers. Unfortunately, there were two men on base at that point, courtesy of the Big Unit's only free pass of the afternoon, and a seeing-eye squib from Tejada, that made it through the left side of the infield. It soon became clear that those three runs were going to prove monumentally tough for the visitors to pull back. Even though Johnson righted the ship and posted six zeroes after that, win #295 eluded him - he now needs to get the victory in five of seven remaining starts if he's going to make it to three hundred this season. He scattered eight hits and that solitary walk over seven innings, striking out five. Qualls pitched a scoreless eighth.

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Master of his domain: Chris Snyder, +1.7%
God-emperor of suck: Chris Young, -9.3%

Not much positive to come out of the Fangraph today, as you can tell from the huge plus value posted by Snyder - Qualls and Drew, at +0.7% each, were the only other Diamondbacks to reach anything above zero. Young just pipped Johnson (-9.2%) for the title at the other end of the scale. The first inning deficit pretty much took all the steam out of the Gameday Thread too, with it struggling to pass two hundred, as just about everyone found better things to do. Present were Azreous, soco, britdback, hotclaws, Wimb, kishi, srdmad, snakecharmer, TwinnerA, 4 Corners Fan, foulpole, njjohn, emilylovesthedbacks, Diamondhacks and AZWILDCATS.

All told, a 4-2 road trip is not bad, but the Dodgers have kept right in step with us - they managed to stave off a furious, four-run, ninth-inning comeback by the Brewers, so we are back to being tied with them ONCE again. After the off-day on Monday, the Diamondbacks now head back home to face San Diego for three games at Chase, and then the Marlins come to town over the weekend. Los Angeles hit the road, also after an off-day Monday, to take on the Rockies and the Phillies. While it'd be nice for these teams to give Arizona some help, the most important thing is for the Diamondbacks to keep winning their own games. Do that, and we'll be fine.