Arizona 7, San Francisco 9 - The Dog Days Are Over

The Dog days are over, as Florence and the Machine sing.

Today was bring your dog to the game day, which was fair enough because it was a "bitch" of a game. I wasn't particularly hopeful because Rodrigo Lopez was pitching and he has been less than stellar lately. Stephen Drew continued his run of good form by a single to start with. Justin Upton doubled and though Kelly Johnson struck out, CY walked loading the bases for our  two power hitters. Could they score a run between them? Could they heck as like.

Lopez dispatched the three hitters he faced smartly giving us hope. Nothing much doing by either team in the second. Hopes were hugely raised by Drew's solo HR at the top of the third but then, oh then my best beloved. Eli Whiteside doubles, Matt Cain bunts for a single, Andres Torres doubles to bring in a run. Freddie Sanchez gets Cain home with a fly ball. There was a visit to the mound but we knew by then mere words were useless. The utter misery continued; Aubrey Huff played into a force out and Torres scored, Pablo Sandoval doubled and Huff scored then mercifully Lopez got the final out, probably because the Giants were tired of running.

The bases loaded fail of the first inning really hurt now. Though Mark Reynolds managed a double in the fourth, it went for naught and the Giants piled on another run In the fifth. Our prayers were answered and Ryan Church came in for Lopez. Then a series of bizarre events happened. Church struck out swinging but got to first on a wild pitch; another wild pitch sent him to second; yet another got him to third where Drew ground out but Church scored. So the D'backs were back in it.

Sandoval was lured to first base by cake but nothing came of it. CY singled and stole a base but again, no-one could capitalise, but DJ Carrasco in for Lopez prevented any further damage. The seventh got complicated. Were you paying attention? I present it as a list.

• Parra singles
• Ryal came in for DJ but struck out swinging.
• Drew singled
• Casilla replaced Cain.
• Justin doubled,scoring Parra.
• Kelly got a wild pitch which sent Upton to 3rd, then walked.
• CY struck out
• Affeldt replaced Casilla
• LaRoche doubled, 2 runs scored and we had the lead.

So they walked Mark to get to Miggy, wisely as it turned out because he popped up. So, we get the lead back, what could go wrong? I can't bear to write it up, suffice it to say, a catalogue of horrible stuff happened and our hard earned lead was squandered yet again by the bullpen Hope tantalised us again in the 8th, with Parra getting on base,Ryan doing a nice job of sac bunting him over and as Drew singled, some smart base running got him across home plate. But Gutierrez coughed up another run in the bottom of the eighth.

Despite an enthusiastic capslock rally from the Snakepit, the D'backs went down feebly in the ninth. Well, to be fair, Adam LaRoche got a single, but tee hee, I wrote it in my notes as "LaFail singles". So sadness all round. Reynolds and LaRoche showed some good defence  but oh what could have been if they had capitalised in the first inning. I take consolation in the fact that the D'backs took two out of three.

Highlight of the TV broadcast was a pug dog in a lifejacket which pretty much sums up the game.

via www.fangraphs.com

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