Diamondbacks 13, Pirates 7 - Non-stop Hit Parade

Record: 58-54. Pace: 84-78. Change on last season: -4

1st inning. This is not the start I wanted to see. Rather than us teeing off against the worst pitchers in the National League, it's Dan Haren who is being smacked about like a Little Leaguer. Three hits - albeit one a checked-swing bloop - and a wild-pitch give Pittsburgh the lead, and they have men on second and third with only one out. A strikeout gives hope of escaping without further damage, but he grooves one to Moss, who uncorks a two-run double off the wall in center. All of a sudden, we are staring at a three-run deficit.

Important to start getting back those runs quickly. Herrera has allowed opposing hitters to bat at a .408 clip, which in encouraging. Drew doesn't even need to bother, walking on four straight pitches, which is a start. Two more balls fly out of the zone before the seventh pitch finally finds the zone. The eighth gets slapped right back up the middle by Hudson, and we have two on with no outs. Jackson grounds out, but O-Dawg does a nice job of breaking up the double-play. Tracy walks on four straight too, loading them up for Reynolds. He swats the first pitch to left-center, and we're on the board, still with the bases loaded. However, Romero swings at a 3-1 pitch and grounds into a double-play. Blast. Still: Herrera looks eminently hittable, to say the least.

2nd inning. Need Haren to post a zero. He does, with a great deal more conviction than in the first, retiring the Pirates in order and hardly breaking a sweat. Time for us to keep clawing our way out of the sand on this one, having been buried up to our necks below the high-water mark, to use an appropriately piratical metaphor. Young legs out an infield hit, then takes second on a passed-ball. Snyder walks - the third already - and I'd be thinking about not having Haren bunt, since Herrera doesn't deserve to have any outs given to him. Still, Dan gets it down, and it's up to the top of the order. Drew does the job, two runs somehow scoring on a ball that doesn't quite get out of the infield. That ends Herrera's night, having coughed up the entire three-run lead in four outs, and we are into the Pirates bullpen already. Hudson grounds out, and Jackson flies out, but we're back in this one.

3rd inning. A sudden rush of comedic spectators distracts me (along with the unexpected arrival of The Complete Frank Miller Batman), and I am discomfited to see that the Pirates have somehow taken the lead again: I'm presuming a homer was involved, given the lack of men on base. However, that is all the damage, and we come out swinging, with a lead-off single to Tracy. Reynolds takes strike three, though it didn't look like it to me. Hmmph. Romero and Young fail to do much, so the Pirates have their first zero of the game and we still trail by one run.

4th inning. Another leadoff single against Haren, but outs follow - in particular a nice, leaping grab and swipe-tag by Hudson of a wild throw from Reynolds as he tried to start a double-play. There's nothing doing for the Pirates thereafter. Unfortunately, there's nothing doing for the Diamondbacks in our half of the inning either, and we are retired in order. Is it too late to ask for the Pirates to bring Herrera back? We miss him...

5th inning. Another lead-off hit: that's four in five now for the Pirates. Worse is to follow, with the next batter reaching too, and there's activity in the Arizona bullpen. A fielder's choice gets one out, but a wild pitch brings back memories of the first inning. However, Haren bears down and ends the inning without damage, keeping it a one-run game. We get a lead-off walk for Hudson, and Jackson ties the game with a double into the left-center gap. Tracy has a productive out to advance Jackson to third, but Reynolds doesn't, grounding out to third. Romero, however, gives Arizona the lead for the first time with a single, then steals second: he tries to reach home on a single by Young, but is gunned down quite easily. Doesn't show much faith in Snyder. We are now ahead for the first time, 5-4.

6th inning. It certainly didn't look like we'd still be seeing Haren at this point after he allowed three runs in the first. This might be his most impressive frame yet, as the Pirates go down easily, without a ball leaving the infield. Be nice to pad the lead a bit, and a leadoff walk gives us the opportunity, but the pinch-hitting Tony Clark grounds inNorto a double play. Drew reaches, and then steals second - our aggressive running-game raising its head again. Hudson walks, giving Jackson a chance to extend the lead. He comes through with a single and though Tracy goes down, the lead is up to two.

7th inning. Haren is done, and Pena comes in. It's looking like it could be a long nine outs, with a leadoff homer. But there's no more damage and we still have a one-run lead as we stand and stretch. The lead is immediately re-extended in the bottom half, with Reynolds' 23rd homer - we're now helping to increase the Pirates' road average. After Romero pops out, but Young triples down into the left-field corner: it looked like he was going to try for an inside the park homer, and thought better of it. He still managed to make the out at home, getting caught in a rundown after a botched suicide squeeze by Snyder. Shame, since Snyder and Clark then singled. So much for aggression, eh?

8th inning. Rauch out of the bullpen. A pair of rather too long to be comfortable fly-balls and a strikeout later, we are done with that, and the Pirates are down to their last three outs. Hudson leads off our half of the eighth with a double, becoming the fifth D-back to have a multi-hit game tonight - Young leads the way with three hits. "Anyone but the Dodgers," seems to be his motto. An Ojeda single makes it a three-run lead - and for the firs time tonight, I feel somewhat comfortable.

Reynolds adds another tally, and we are officially piling-on. Bases-loaded walk? Sure. Ground-rule double for Tony Clark? Bring it on. Run-scoring wild pitch? Don't mind if we do. We may have learned only one thing tonight: the Pirates pitchers clearly are as bad as we heard. It's something of a relief when Hudson grounds into his eighteenth double-play of the year to end the inning, with the game blown apart and the score 13-5. Fifty games still to go, and O-Dawg is already #6 on the franchise all-time list for GIDPs in a season.

9th inning. Surprised to see Lyon out for the ninth, but I guess he was warmed up. Maybe he got cold again, as he walks the first hitter and after a strikeout, gives up back-to-back hits to help the Pirates give the score some respectability. Another single loads the bases for McLouth, Pittsburgh's best hitter, and I begin to shift nervously, as a long ball here would make things...interesting. He singles, and the Fangraph, which flatlined after the eighth, twitches as if hit with a defibrillator. Fortunately, with Cruz warming in the pen, a flyout and groundout ends things.

Focusing on the positive; season high for runs and hits. Three hits each for Reynolds and Young, while Drew, Hudson and Snyder all reached safely four times, on hits and walks, and Jackson added a couple of hits. A grand total of 28 base-runners, on eighteen hits and ten walks - that's one below the franchise record for a regulation nine innings [September 26, 2001, against Milwaukee: also eighteen hits and ten walks, but we had someone reach on an error too].

The pitching... About the only nice thing I can say is, it's the first time we've won this season while giving up seven or more earned runs. Haren did jack up his K:BB ration, with eight more strikeouts and no walks, and after that first inning, he pitched commendably. Having had a few tough decisions go against him early on, it's about time he got a W in a game where he might not have fully deserved it, based on his performance. Our bullpen is certainly in a lot better shape than the Pirates', who were forced into 6.1 innings of work this evening.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Conor Jackson, +22.0%
Honorable mentions: Drew, +13.5%; Hudson, +12.0%
God-emperor of suck: Dan Haren, -6.1%

The Gameday Thread was very, very busy, with 31 participants: DbacksSkins clearly missed us while he was away, returning with 231 comments. Some of which even were to do with the game. :-) [I would gently remind participants that we have an off-topic chat room for a reason... Basically, when the thread can't go any further right, go chat-roomwards.] Also present, were 4 Corners Fan, kishi, snakecharmer, Zephon, soco, TwinnerA, Shums, G Dub, utahdbacksfan, J Up, hotclaws, Wimb, unnamedDBacksfan, njjohn, the mystical one, Muu, srdmad, singaporedbacksfan, MamaLing, dahlian, DiamondbacksWIn, foulpole, AZWILDCATS, nargel, TuLoRocks2008, AJforAZ, JUPTON10, Scrbl, mrssoco, and emilylovesthedbacks. Sorry to have missed discussing this one.

Not quite the well-pitched exhibition I anticipate, though you can't complain any time you score more than a dozen runs. Limited action in the rest of baseball; no Dodgers game, so we are 1.5 games clear, fractionally more breathing space for Arizona. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't the start of Haren's second-half slump. However, the team victory is the most important thing, starting off the home-stand on the right foot; let's just not make a habit of needing to score eight or more runs for victory, shall we?