Record: 66-60. Pace: 85-77. Change on last season: -5.
Magic number: 35. Playoff odds: 62.4%

I apologize for the typo in the preview to today's game. When I said, "If I were you, I wouldn't blink tonight, or you might miss three innings," that should, of course, have been, "...or you might miss three runs." I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

Well, the expected pitching duel didn't quite turn up, did it? A pair of starters, both with ERAs under three, combined to allow ten earned runs in eleven innings, on sixteen hits and four walks. The score was 6-4 to Arizona by the end of the second, the Diamondbacks showing remarkable fortitude in coming back after Haren allowed the Padres to leap out to a four-run lead. After a double by Ojeda and a walk to Jackson, Dunn launched his second Adam Bomb in as many games, with a three-run shot that went from zero to the bleachers in about 1.8 seconds.

All of a sudden, Arizona was right back in it, and Snyder's 13th homer of the season, with one out in the second, brought everything right back to square one. Not content with that, however, Dan Haren then drew a walk against Peavy - the last time the Padres ace walked an opposing pitcher was May 6 last year. Drew singled, and both men advanced an extra ninety feet, as the Padres' RF totally muffed the play. Though Ojeda popped out, Jackson then lofted a beautiful bloop to right, scoring both men - and a Win Probability of only 18.7% after the Padres went 4-0 up, had suddenly improved radically, and was now a much more acceptable 72.6%.

After this unexpected extension of batting practice, things settled down, with six zeros being posted between the two starters. Though, to be honest, Haren was still far from his best, with the lead-off man for the Padres reaching in each of the first four inning, and San Diego mastering a total of eleven hits off Dan. The good thing is, he didn't walk anyone in his six innings, and became the first Arizona pitcher to allow so many hits and get a W, since May 27 last year - no prizes for guessing the last man to do it [indeed, the last two!] was Livan Hernandez. Haren was still some way off the worst-ever outing by a winning D-backs pitcher. That belongs to Casey Daigle; in May 2004, he pitched five innings, allowed twelve hits, three walks and seven runs, but we took that one 12-8.

The Padres did get one run back before Haren departed, but Qualls and Peña were extremely solid, both pitching perfect innings, on eleven and fourteen pitches respectively. A couple of extremely valuable insurance runs were plated for our side in the seventh, taking advantage of some more Padres wildness. Three walks loaded the bases, and Mark Reynolds swatted a double down the left-field run, for RBI numbers #84 and #85. With 36 games to go, Special K has already driven in more runs than any Diamondbacks hitter since 2005, when Troy Glaus has 97 and Tony Clark 87. Both of those should fall, as Reynolds is on pace for 112, which would be the best since Gonzo's 2001 figure of 142.

Eight more walks took us to 50 free passes in the eight games since Adam Dunn joined the club. Two more for him - eleven since arriving in total, giving the Donkey a line of .308/.500/.615. Compare that to Mandy's .403/.488/.716, and thus far, it looks like Arizona have picked up a comparable offensive threat. I'm particularly impressed that we have scored fifteen runs this series and taken both games, despite having batted only .220 [13-for-59] and been outhit almost two-to-one by the Padres, at 25-13. Heaven knows what we might do if this team started hitting...

Brandon Lyon was 'unavailable' in the ninth. I think this was perhaps on the basis that his appearance on the mound in a save situation would have resulted in a crowd reaction that made Disco Demolition Night look like a palace tea-party. Instead, Jon Rauch took the mound and threw strikes - despite the best efforts of home-plate umpire Chuck Meriwether to call them otherwise. Sure, Jody 'Snake Killer' Gerut smacked one of them into the right-field bleachers to make it a two-run game. However, that was all the damage done, and we could turn our attention to Chavez Ravine, where the Rockies were coming back from 3-0 down...

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Adam Dunn, +22.0%
Honorable mentions: Jackson, +14.2%; Snyder, +10.0%
God-emperor of suck: Dan Haren, -11.7%

Thanks to everyone in the Gameday Thread for their contributions: DbacksSkins, 4 Corners Fan, Zephon, Eric SanInocencio, singaporedbacksfan, kishi, hotclaws, J Up, Muu, Diamondhacks, foulpole, utahdbacksfan, AJforAZ, Azreous, Scrbl, njjohn, SongBird and TwinnerA. That was fun: a lot more so, after we'd clawed our way back from the four-run, first-inning deficit. It's good to see the team showing the fortitude to do that against an opposing ace - something of a contrast to their performance on Sunday, though Oswalt was simply dominating on that day, and few lineups could have withstood his performance.

The Rockies duly completed the comeback, and we have a whole two games of breathing-room at the top of the division now. It seems like forever since we were that far clear, but it's actually only two weeks - the last was the night that the Pirates' Karstens nearly perfectoed us. However, the victory also moves us six games over .500, and it has been a long while since we were that far above parity: June 13th, to be exact. With Brandon Webb going for us tomorrow, as he aims for his nineteenth victory, and we aim for a sweep of the Padres, I am beginning to feel, cautiously, more optimistic about this team than I have for a while - certainly, since they took the first two games of the Dodgers series at the end of July. Still, let's win again tomorrow - I may have mentioned this before, but as long as we keep doing that, we'll be fine.