Diamondbacks 3, Pirates 1: An Early Night

Record: 59-54. Pace: 85-77. Change on last season: -4

It's nice to find myself writing a recap for a game at Chase before 9pm. For Brandon Webb - not for the first time this year - apparently had an appointment elsewhere, buzz-sawing his way through opposing hitters with alacrity. As well as a sinker. Had he not run into a spot of bother in the ninth, this would likely have surpassed his earlier shutout in Phoenix, when he took 1:52 to defeat the Nationals. Tonight, he took three minutes longer, and the shutout was gone during that nervous ninth, where Pittsburgh got hits from their first three batters, and had the tying run in scoring position with one out. However, Webb reached deep, and struck out the next two with beautiful change-ups, to give us victory.

That was the first time the Pirates had got anyone past first base all night. Webb scattered a total of nine hits, but only one - Sanchez's double, leading off the ninth - was for extra bases, and he benefited from three twin killings, which helped keep his pitch-count down. He relied almost exclusively on his sinker, with very few curves and, until he needed it for those last two batters, rarely even the change-up. The result was no fewer than 21 groundball outs for Webb, with only two in the air, and four strikeouts - for the second night in a row, our starter didn't issue any walks. Of his 103 pitches, 67 were for strikes, as he picked up another win, running his record to 16-4 and taking is ERA down to 2.93.

The past couple of games have been fortuitous, in terms of our offense and pitching syncing with each other. Yesterday, when our performances on the mound left a bit to be desired, the batters stepped it up and pulled out the win. Tonight, when our hitters found Zach Duke almost as baffling as the Pirates found Webb, the tables were turned and they found themselves bailed out by stellar pitching. We were outhit 9-6 by Pittsburgh, but made the most of our chances: four of those hits were for extra bases, each came with two outs in the inning, and they combined to produce all three of our runs.

In the bottom of the third, Duke started through the order for a second time - first time through, we'd gone 1-for-9 against him, with the sole hit a Hudson single. However, we immediately had better success, with Drew doubling to deep right with two outs. Young then came up and golfed a pitch from down around his ankles, into the left-field bullpen, to break the scoreless tie and give the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead. That was Young's fifteenth homer of the year, and the good news is, that means he has already matched his total for each of June and July in August. The bad news is, that would be "one."

We only got two more runners into scoring position - and one of those came on a balk - over the next five innings, nor were we able to progress either past second. The final tally came with two outs in the eighth, with Hudson doubling to deep left, his second hit of the evening, and then Jackson bouncing one over the wall for a ground-rule double. That run extended the lead to 3-0, and certainly provided us with some comfort during the next half-inning, which proved more nerve wracking than most of us would have liked, even though our Win Probability never dropped lower than 72.4%.

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Master of his domain: Brandon Webb, +53.1%
Honorable mention: Chris Young, +16.1%
God-emperor of suck: Tony Clark, -4.5%

Thanks to everyone in the Gameday Thread, which pottered on after our own contest was over, as we waited for the Cardinals to beat the Dodgers. That took a little longer than expected, thanks to Los Angeles scoring four times in the ninth, but the end result was still what we wanted, albeit slightly later! Good job too, or I'd have had to start an overflow thread... Present there were: kishi, unnamedDBacksfan, utahdbacksfan, Wimb, snakecharmer, foulpole, hotclaws, soco, J Up (welcome!), Shums, Scrbl, TwinnerA, DiamondbacksWIn, Red Reign, luckycc, singaporedbacksfan, Snakebitten, 4 Corners Fan, srdmad, the mystical one, Muu, and SongBird.

The win, combined with that Dodgers loss, extends our lead back to 2.5 games in the division. We win the series, running our unbeaten streak there to five, and have the chance to go for the sweep tomorrow, Randy Johnson seeking to take his sixth victory in a row. It's an afternoon game, please note, with first pitch at 12:40, Arizona time. I look forward to a good turnout from the British contingent for that one!