The Diamondbacks put together threats in the first and second innings, but nothing came of either of them. In the first, Paul Goldschmidt (shockingly) took a two out walk, and Yasmany Tomas followed that up with a single, sending Goldy to second. However, Jake Lamb struck out to end the inning. It was similar in the second inning. Wellington Castillo lead things off with a single, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia walked, still with no outs. Chris Owings, bunted into a double play. Owings was out on the pop up, and Salty was out at first.
Meanwhile, Robbie Ray was dealing. He gave up a two out walk to Prince "Are We Still Bitter About the Home Run Derby Thing?" Fielder in the first. After that, he kept sitting the Rangers down in order through the fourth inning. As the radio crew put it, he wasn't really fooling anyone, but he kept hitting his locations, and all the Rangers lineup could do was ground out to the infield for most of the night.
The offense continued to put pressure on the Rangers in the fourth. Lamb walked, Castillo singled, Salty struck out, and Owings walked to load the bases, with just the one out. Nick Ahmed ended the inning by hitting the first pitch he saw into an inning-ending double play, preventing any damage from being done.
That would't be the case in fifth, though. David Peralta hit a one out triple, and then Goldy walked to put runners on the corners with one out. Tomas struck out, but Goldschmidt stole second to get into scoring position. Next up was Jake Lamb. He singled, scoring both Peralta and Goldy, to give the Dbacks the lead. 2-0 Dbacks
The no hitter ended in the fifth, when Elvis Andrus hit a two out single. After that, the Rangers were quiet until the eighth inning.
In the sixth, the Diamondbacks added an insurance run off Gallardo, thanks to an A. J. Pollock RBI single. Goldy added a fourth run in the eighth, giving the Dbacks their final tally
Those runs would look a lot more important by the end of the eighth, though. Robbie Ray was still pitching, having cruised through the first seven innings. Elvis Andrus lead off, and hit a ball that clanked off the glove of Tomas, allowing Andrus to get to third. He scored on a Sin Soo Choo sac fly, to put the Rangers on the board for the first time that night. Robinson Chirinos poppped up to Wellington Castillo in foul territory. He had to make an acrobatic play to get there in time, but two outs. Delino DeShields hit a double, and was immediately brought home by a Rougned Odor single. 4-2 Dbacks. That was the end of the road for Robbie Ray. Chip Hale brought in Oliver Perez, and he got Prince Fielder to ground out and end the inning.
That was basically the ball game. The Dbacks got a single in the ninth, but nothing else. Brad Ziegler came on to close it out. He got two ground outs, and and a strike out. Final score 4-2, Diamondbacks.
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2015-07-07&team=Rangers&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2015-07-07&team=Rangers&dh=0&season=2015">FanGraphs</a></span>
Master of his Domain: Robbie Ray, 31.6%
Serf: Nick Ahmed, -22.5%
A very busy GDT tonight, with 834 comments on the night. AzDbacksFanInDC lead the way with... holy crap 231 comments. Guru B was a distant second with 60. All present were:
AzDbackfanInDc, AzRattler, BIGredmc, BenSharp, Clefo, DbacksSkins, DeadmanG, GuruB, James Attwood, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Makakilo, SenSurround, SongBird, asteroid, bbtng, cardshuffle, freeland1787, gamepass, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, noblevillain, nolanriley13, onedotfive, piratedan7, preston.salisbury, shoewizard, soco, thunderpumpkin87, xmet
No comment of the night tonight, because I didn't see any that I found worthy. Anyway, join us again tomorrow, at the same time as the same two teams face off in the second game of this two game series.