Diamondbacks 4, Athletics 5 - Lack of Ninth Inning Rally Dooms Dbacks
by snakecharmer on Jul 2, 2011 1:51 AM EDT
in Diamondbacks Game Reports
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Record: 44-39. Pace: 86-76. Change on last season: +12
A few weeks ago, Bob Melvin marked this weekend on his calendar, but not because his current team, the Oakland Athletics, were playing his former team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. No, he initially marked this series down as a homecoming for the Bay Area native as he worked as a radio commentator alongside Greg Schulte. Instead, Melvin finds himself in green and gold and managing against a very different team than the one he was fired from two seasons ago.
Melvin got the last laugh tonight as Oakland took the opening game of the series. Josh Collmenter struggled the third time through the order and home runs by Wily Mo Peña and Kelly Johnson couldn't bail him out. More details in the usual place.
It was Rich Harden's first start off the disabled list and his first start as an A since 2008, so nobody really knew what to expect tonight. (Honestly, I expected him to struggle a bit.) As it turns out, his changeup was working real well tonight as he struck out Kelly Johnson and Stephen Drew in the 1st inning and Miguel Montero in the 2nd. He struck out Drew and Montero again in the 4th inning.
Josh Collmenter handled the A's fairly quickly in the first two innings. In the 3rd inning, Josh Collmenter started to walk off the field after the second out, then allowed a single to Jemile Weeks which allowed David DeJesus to get to third, but Cliff Pennington flew out to Chris Young in center to give Collmenter his actual third out of the inning.
Wily Mo Peña got the Diamondbacks on the board first with a solo home run to the left field bleachers in the 2nd inning. The A's got even in the 4th inning, Hideki Matsui walked and stole second base (his first of the year) on a poor throw from Montero. That became important when, with two outs, Ryan Sweeney singled to score Matsui and tie the game at one apiece.
It was the third time through the order that doomed Collmenter once again. In the 5th inning, DeJesus and Sizemore hit back-to-back singles, and both scored with two outs on singles by Pennington and Coco Crisp. Matsui then doubled down the right field line to bring in Pennington and Crisp, the A's had a 5-1 lead, and Collmenter exited stage left. Sam Demel came in and got Chris Carter to fly out deep to left and the inning was over but the damage was done.
In the 6th, Kelly Johnson doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Drew to get a run back and cut the lead to three. But with Chris Young at the plate, Drew was caught stealing for the third out. Rich Harden was done after 6 innings, only threw 77 pitches, and allowed four hits, no walks and struck out six.
Juan Miranda walked against Brian Fuentes to open the 7th inning and Gerardo Parra nearly hit into a double play but was safe at first. Then Kelly Johnson came up to bat and hit a deep home run to the center field bleachers to give the game a score of 5-4. Of Arizona's six hits tonight, two of them were home runs.
Aaron Heilman came in and had what seems to be a usual outing for him - he got two easy outs, then gave up a single and then another single that was almost an out, but he eventually got Weeks to strike out to keep it a one-run game going into the 9th inning. But Young popped out to catcher, Montero hit a deep fly ball to center, and Wily Mo Peña struck out swinging to end the game.
Hero: K Johnson, +12.2%
Goat: C Young, -9.9%
Villain: J Collmenter, -31.3%
Not much offensive production tonight, something Kirk Gibson mentioned postgame. Only six hits, one walk and 10 strikeouts sounds much more like 2010's team. He also mentioned that Josh Collmenter has to learn to make adjustments the third time through the batting order. One of us mentioned it last week on Twitter I believe - it's tough having Duke and Collmenter be #4 and #5 in the rotation and often needing to dig into the bullpen early for both starters. We were lucky there was an off day yesterday, and I'm glad we have Demel back from the DL.
Just piped 1,000 comments tonight. justin and I were in triple digits (he with only five more than I) and Bulldogs was third with 82. All present were NASCARbernet, justin1985, xmet, DbacksSkins, Bryan J. Boltik, Dallas D'Back Fan, asteroid, piratedan7, Rockkstarr12, Jim McLennan, mrssoco, hotclaws, txzona, rfffr, dbacksfann, Sprankton, kishi, Backin'the'Backs, snakecharmer, 4 Corners Fan, dbacks25, IHateSouthBend, blue bulldog, SenSurround, Scottyyy, JoeCB1991, BulldogsNotZags, blank_38, Amit, Brian MacKinney, Husk, and AZDBACKR
Had we come back to win, I would've given COTD to kishi for his Star Wars quote, but instead, it goes to this response to Oakland's upcoming MC Hammer bobblehead promotion:
Wasn't he a bat boy for the As?
And he was famous for being very possessive of the bats. He kept saying, "Can’t touch this."
I usually say "Day game tomorrow, folks" in my Friday recaps but I DON'T get to do that tonight because it's FIREWORKS night at The (O Dot Co) Coliseum tomorrow evening!! I'm sure they scheduled that just for me. Have a good weekend, everyone!
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I think many of us our in agreement
Josh Collmenter had a great run for us as a starter, but needs to move back into the bullpen. Coupled with the continuous disappointments of Zach Duke, it seems we need two new starters.
Many of us differ on whether we should promote on either Barry Enright or Patrick Corbin. Personally, I agree with many saying that Corbin is in not ready to pitch in the big leagues. Not just yet. I doubt our team will try to rush up a player that quickly in a desperate move that could hurt us. That being said, it may be prudent for us to consider whether or not to try to trade for some starting pitching. Perhaps, since the recent dissent towards Juan Miranda, possibly attempting to make a package deal of Miranda and perhaps some younger prospects in order for us to start buying for the trade deadline.
I ask the ’Pit this: A) Do you feel it is worth trying to acquire another starting pitcher via trade? Or within the organization? and B) Who would we consider acquiring/promoting, other than the two aforementioned players (Enright and Corbin)
Wagner Mateo's 2011 Stats: 9 Games, .147 AVG, 2 HRs, 3 RBIs, 6 Runs Scored, 8 BBs, 17 Ks
I say give Collmenter one more start
I know, it’s sentimental of me, but I love the guy and I really want to see him succeed as a starter. I think he’s earned one final shot before the All-Star break to see if he can pull it off.
Duke, on the other hand, I have little patience with. He has a track record of being exactly what he’s been for us: a fly-ball pitcher who struggles with control. I guess I’d give him one more start, too, then figure out what to do for him.
So what to do going forward? I don’t know whether Kuroda is the right guy to get, but I would absolutely trade for someone like Kuroda — that is, somebody really good whom we can pump-and-dump at the end of the season to make room for the new talent. We don’t need any new long-term starters with the crew down in Double-A plus Bauer coming up strong. So, Kennedy, Hudson, Saunders, Kuroda, and I say give Enright the first shot at #5, with the idea that some combination of Enright/Owings/Corbin/Collmenter can get it done for the second half of the season.
The real question is, what to do with Duke and Collmenter if they’re not starters? Somebody here suggested putting Duke in the ‘pen, but I don’t think that’s a viable option — the guy gives up runs even in his first inning of work. I’d say trade Duke for some offensive power if we possibly can, or maybe for some bullpen support (if we could get another guy like David Hernandez for him, that would be fantastic). Collmenter has the opposite problem. He clearly has a sparkling future in the ‘pen, but should we send him down instead and give him a chance to work on that curveball? I say no. Collmenter hasn’t shown any signs that he can master that curveball in his years in the minors, plus we really really really need him in the ’pen right now, especially if we are going to consider letting Owings start.
Agreed
A lot of us were worried about people catching on to Josh’s delivery after some time and it looks like that is happening now. In the bullpen, he can probably be more effective. With Duke, his first start was nice but it has been all downhill from there. He has to go.
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Phoenix Suns/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].
Corbin Probably Not Ready
Corbin has a 4.29 ERA in the pitcher-friendly Southern League. Yes, he has a very good 81K/19BB ratio, but I would be very surprised if the team thought he was ready for the Majors. Wade Miley was promoted from Mobile to Reno today, so he might be ahead of Corbin right now.
But Enright is almost definitely ahead of both of them – he’s won his last 6 starts in AAA, and has even struck out 17 batters in his last 12.1 IP.
I think it is honestly
Roemer-time and time to start taking a selling role on one year remaining players (including perhaps Putz).. This club requires at least 2 bats, 2 bullpen arms and 2 starters to compete in the playoffs.
Anyone who would go for promoting Bauer or Corbin right now would be committing an ill advised move. The DBacks would probably not turn into a playoff team with one or both of them. In the offseason, a 1st and 3rd baseman as well as a #3/4 starter have to be priorities.
Days until Aug. 18: 135
by Reynolds rapper on Jul 2, 2011 6:12 AM EDT up reply actions
you only need 4 starters for the playoffs
3 can work as well. Might need 5 to make the playoffs. Bauer needs to be shut down except for maybe one spetember start.
I'm a Saunders skeptic
so I’d want to hedge when it comes to playoff pitching. Right now, I view it as Hudson, IPK, then no way.
Days until Aug. 18: 135
by Reynolds rapper on Jul 2, 2011 2:55 PM EDT up reply actions
Saunders
has displayed some strong performances in games played in major markets. That might translate well to games being played for major stakes. I was his biggest critic here the end of last season and beginning this season, but I’ve seen enough over his past 6 outings or so to have come to believe that he is a solid major league starter.
An ancient Roman sculpture accurately predicting the torture of Giants fandom.
Collmenter's third time through problem theory
is not supported by his game logs, and he has pitched to 100 effectively on several occasions. That being said, whatever the reason, there is no doubt that he has problems starting, and should do very well in the pen.
"And here I sit so patiently, Waiting to find out what price, You have to pay to get out of, Going through all these things twice" B. Dylan
Here are the stats
Here are the opponents battings stats each time through:
1st PA in G: .126/.156/.172
2nd PA in G: .275/.326/.463
3rd PA in G: .313/.377/.500
Even the 2nd plate appearance shows a huge difference compared to the 1st.
Clearly points to the obvious.
Keeping him in a starting roll double hurts the team since he could be, and has been, a very effective reliever.
Has anyone heard of any Heilman shoulder problems since he returned from the DL?
Shoulder only, please.
"And here I sit so patiently, Waiting to find out what price, You have to pay to get out of, Going through all these things twice" B. Dylan
I hadn't heard anything
several of his fastballs last night looked pretty crisp in the 92 mph range.
An ancient Roman sculpture accurately predicting the torture of Giants fandom.
Collmenter is a two pitch pitcher right now
and since he doesn’t throw hard enough to throw by people, he is very vulnerable. I thought earlier in the season he varied his fastball grip between two and four seams, but clearly he hasn’t been doing that lately, pretending to be a power pitcher when in fact, he’s not.
An ancient Roman sculpture accurately predicting the torture of Giants fandom.
Sean Burroughs?
Released Melvin Mora just to start him at 3rd? Come on Towers!!
by Augdogs on Jul 2, 2011 9:26 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
I just read that Burroughs is probably going to start tonight at 3rd also.
I mean, do they know something we don’t? When has Sean Burroughs shown anything at this level? At least Ryan Roberts has shown the ABILITY to produce, even if he has regressed this past month. Burroughs is a constant regression.
"First of all, Life Sucks. Alright? Period. Done deal. You got it? There's your lesson. Enjoy it."-Coach McGuirk, Home Movies.
by BulldogsNotZags on Jul 2, 2011 11:56 AM EDT reply actions
Maybe Roberts has some kind of injury
and they’re holding him out a few games to prevent having to put him on the DL?
An ancient Roman sculpture accurately predicting the torture of Giants fandom.
by NASCARbernet on Jul 2, 2011 12:01 PM EDT up reply actions
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