Diamondbacks 0, Rockies 1: Rookies Rolling

by kishi on Aug 22, 2010 8:13 PM EDT in Diamondbacks Game Reports

Record: 49-76. Pace: 64-98. Change on last season: -6
Hinch/Gibson Win %: .392/.391

Today's game was more than just another step in the trudging march to the end of the season, and a time to choose between sweeping a division rival or continue Tankapalooza. It was showdown between two rookie pitchers who, based on early results, could be anchoring rotations in the division for some years to come. This may just be the first of many showdowns we see between Dan Hudson and Jhoulys Chacin, and future outings could have much more weight than a fight between #4 and #5 in the division...

So, with so much hope on the shoulders of a good pitchers duel, what did we get to see? Pretty much as advertised. Hudson and Chacin both looked good out on the mound. Hudson gave up some hits early on, but worked out of any trouble- strike outs to end the first and third innings kept the Rockies from doing anything when they got a runner into scoring position.

The only real threat the Rockies had against Hudson was in the fourth inning. Two singles by the Rockies gave them a runner in scoring position with only one out. Hudson got a fly out to center from Ian Stewart, but Miguel Olivio knocked a two out single to center and Troy Tulowitzki rounded third to score. No luck for Colorado, though, as we got a great throw from Chris Young to Jon Hester, and a dive by Hester to block the Mullet and keep the Rockies scoreless. After that, Hudson retired the last nine Rockies he faced, shutting down their offense as he went through their lineup for the third time. He left the game having pitched 7 innings and struck out 9.

Our main problem? Jhoulys Chacin. He was even more effective at shutting down the bats than Hudson was, holding our offense to just three hits over 7.2 innings with 9 Ks. There were some hard hit balls that we got robbed on- a highlight reel grab by Dexter Fowler in the fourth turned an almost certain Adam LaRoche double into a deep out, and Stephen Drew deserved a better line than his 0 for 4 on the day. All in all, we couldn't do anything on offense- three hits and a walk, and no one even made it past first base. It got worse once Chacin left, too, as Joe Beimel and Huston Street came in from the bullpen and we went down without a fight.

The Diamondbacks bullpen, though, wasn't so effective. When Hudson left, Aaron Heilman came in to pitch in his 17th straight game, if memory serves. Things didn't go so well. A one out single from Eric Young and a stolen base gave the Rockies a runner in scoring position, and Dexter Fowler gave the Rockies a one run lead with an RBI single. Sam Demel gave us some worries in the ninth, allowing a leadoff walk and a one-out double to Ian Stewart, but managed to work out of the trouble. Still, that one run was more than our offense could match, and our boys in Sedona red failed to lock up the sweep we were looking for.

20100822_rockies_diamondbacks_0_70_lbig__medium

[Click to enlarge, at fangraphs.com]
Awesome: Daniel Hudson (+46.6%)
Lameosaurus: Aaron Heilman (-17.2%)

Not a lot of good from the team there- other than Hudson, only Demel's ninth inning and Church's PH single were good enough performances to put a player in the land of positive contributions. Meanwhile, we managed to put together a fairly active thread for a Sunday afternoon- we were pushing 550 by the final out. justin1985 won the comment race, edging out Jack Cromwell by a single comment, with hotclaws taking third. Also stopping by for the showdown: Rockkstarr12, Jim McLennan, Wailord, kishi, Andrew T. Fisher, jinnah, Azreous, snakecharmer, unnamedDBacksfan, marionette, NASCARbernet, Dallas D'Back Fan, BattleMoses, 4 Corners Fan, Zavada's Moustache, ChrisHansen, Amit, blank_38, emilylovesthedbacks, and IHateSouthBend.

For our Comment of the Day, we had several fine candidates- and you guys turned some other comments green, too. In the end, I'll give it to Dallas D'Back Fan, who reminded us:

Enright = Most Fiery Beard in Baseball
by Dallas D'Back Fan on Aug 22, 2010 1:16 PM MST

So we finish this home stand 2-4, but at least won the series against Colorado. A day off tomorrow, and then we head to California to face off against two teams that are making playoff plans- a series in San Diego, and then a series in San Francisco. Will Tankapalooza carry on, or might we get a little time to do that whole "spoiler' thing people keep mentioning? We'll see how things go.

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And that concludes this episode

of “D’Backs Waste Another Great Start”. Tune in next time.

Leads/ties blown by the Diamondbacks bullpen in '10: 36

by Jdub220 on Aug 22, 2010 8:18 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Yes.

Glad we got all that offense in the offseason.

The Great and Mighty....

by NASCARbernet on Aug 22, 2010 8:24 PM EDT up reply actions

11 strike outs by our

pitchers today: 9 of them by Hudson.

Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.

by unnamedDBacksfan on Aug 22, 2010 8:39 PM EDT up reply actions

dan hudson

is so sexy…

by blue bulldog on Aug 22, 2010 8:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Pretty decent matchup today I'd say

Pitcher’s duel it seemed throughout. Just wasn’t much offense in the way of our Dbacks

"Be more concerned w/ character than reputation. Character is what you are, reputation is what people think you are." ~ John Wooden

by Rockkstarr12 on Aug 22, 2010 10:26 PM EDT reply actions

i watched a replay of the game and i saw two things of particular note

1) dan hudson striking out carlos gonzalez behind in the count 3-1 was absolutely awesome…..still, gotta keep working on that slider. i think i saw him throw one the whole day, and it wasn’t pretty

2) top of the ninth, 1 out, runners on second and third with sam demel pitching to miguel olivo with first base open and melvin mora coming up next. i’m definitely very much in the “manager’s aren’t that big of a deal, whether we have gibson or hinch doesn’t make much of a difference” camp, but i think credit should be given when credit is due for a good decision. i’m sure many managers would have chosen to walk olivo to get to mora in this situation. after all, olivo is a better batter than mora, so why pitch to the better guy? especially when old school BA is telling you olivo hits 15 points better? however, walking olivo would have been a bad decision in my mind.

the simplest test is comparing A) striking out olivo while getting spilborghs out versus B) striking out mora while getting spilborghs out or getting mora to ground into a double play. olivo strikes out a whopping 31% of the time whereas mora only strikes out 13%….multiplying the difference by how much spilborghs doesn’t get on base (65% because his OBP is .350) means that for it to make sense to walk olivo and pitch to mora, you have to believe that mora will ground into a double play 11% of the time. it’s hard to find numbers about this, because you have to look at how many GIDP in plate appearances he has where there was a runner on first, but since he’s only grounded into 6 double plays in over 200 plate appearances this year, it seems hoping that mora will GIDP this time would have been very very foolish.

of course, i highly doubt this was running through gibson’s mind as he told demel to pitch to olivo. i mean, maybe he just wanted demel to get experience with having to strike someone out with a runner on third and only one out. but if gibson thought about it, and at least got as far as recognizing “olivo has a high chance at striking out so we should pitch to him instead of mora even though he’s better than mora”……then i think he deserves some credit

by blue bulldog on Aug 23, 2010 12:10 AM EDT reply actions

Its pretty late for him to learn how to throw a slider correctly

he’d probably be better off to go with the straight fastball, and come up with a variant of a splitter. I’ve said before that I’m not a fan of the cutter for pure power pitchers because it takes a few mph off the fastball and gives the over-matched hitter a ’puncher’s chance…’

The Great and Mighty....

by NASCARbernet on Aug 23, 2010 3:39 AM EDT up reply actions

i wonder if it will have been possible

for heilman to get the decision (wor l) for every dbacks game for the rest of the year.

by brian custer on Aug 23, 2010 12:10 AM EDT reply actions

Ask IHSB

The Great and Mighty....

by NASCARbernet on Aug 23, 2010 3:37 AM EDT up reply actions

You WANT him to pitch in every single remaining game?

Talk about a surefire way to throw out your arm……..

Things ’Skins has in common with foulpole for 400, please. -- soco

by snakecharmer on Aug 23, 2010 3:43 AM EDT up reply actions

That would definitely do it and most likely end Aaron's career too!

"Be more concerned w/ character than reputation. Character is what you are, reputation is what people think you are." ~ John Wooden

by Rockkstarr12 on Aug 23, 2010 11:48 AM EDT up reply actions

Yuck

When do we send Reynolds down to AAA. He can’t hit and is batting 214. Anybody below 250 should be let go.

Have a question when the other team moves their 3rd basemen to SS or closer to 2nd why don’t we bunt to 3rd for a easy single instead of trying to hit through the swift. LaRoche had that all series against the Rockies. We are not playing baseball anymore.

by jimaz62 on Aug 23, 2010 7:00 PM EDT reply actions

Look

If you can’t recognize the contributions that Reynolds brings to this team, I think you’re going to a lot of effort to deliberately ignore them.

No player should ever evaluated by one stat.

"It's a fez. I'm wearing a fez now. Fezes are cool."

by kishi on Aug 23, 2010 7:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Man,

this song is getting old.

by Azreous on Aug 23, 2010 7:42 PM EDT up reply actions

You're

a Bills fan, too, so I’ll cut you some slack but man you’re wrong. There can be more to a hitter’s production than batting average. Repeat this until it sinks in.

'Skins, I forbid you from hitting on Ramona!

by soco on Aug 23, 2010 8:10 PM EDT up reply actions