FanPost

Arizona Diamondbacks 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 6: A Symphony of Suck

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Record: 21-18. Pace: 87-75. Change on 2016: +4.

After last night’s frustrating loss, the Diamondbacks were looking to at least salvage the series win. But Robby Ray was pretty awful (4IP, 4ER, 88 pitches thrown), the D-Backs offense couldn’t do anything at all with runners on base for the second game in a row, and the bullpen, though it was again exemplary today, had to break down sometime, and it did in the top of the tenth. David Peralta and AJ Pollock both had to leave the game due to injury. All in all, a pretty awful Mother’s Day for the D-Backs and their fans.

Where to begin? Robbie Ray was excruciating to watch today, and it was clear immediately that he had no command. First three Pirates reached in the first, with a single, a hit-by-pitch, and a walk. Miraculously, the only run that scored was Frazier, the leadoff hitter, on a Gregory Polanco double play grounder. Robbie’s pitch count was 27 at the end of the frame, 13 of which had been thrown for strikes. Yeah, it was all like that.

The good guys answered in the bottom of the first, with a Peralta single off Pirates starter Ivan Nova and a long home run to left by Goldy. One out later, Owings doubled to right, and Hermann drew a walk, conjuring the hope that it could be a big inning.

[cue sad trombones]

In the first of many rally-killers of the day, Ahmed struck out to end the frame.

Robbie Ray was up to 51 pitches by the end of the second inning, and the wheels really came off for him in the third, where he gave up a home run to Andrew McCutchen, a single to Polanco, and a second home run to Josh Bell. 25 pitches that inning. He pitched around a one-out single in the fourth, but his day ended there, when he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the frame.

Not that the Diamondbacks were really threatening, sadly. Nova had settled down, giving up a meaningless single in the second and retiring the side in the third. Gregor Blanco, continuing to bump up his batting numbers in low-leverage situations, had hit a two-out single in the fourth, Tomas came in to pinch hit for Ray, and grounded out to end the inning.

Oh, also, Gregor Blanco also showed off his fielding prowess for the second day in a row in the second inning, when he strayed into center field and actually collided with Pollock as A.J. was catching a fly ball from Josh Harrison. Luckily, Pollock hung on, but man, effing Gregor Blanco.

In case you hadn’t gathered, I really, really, REALLY hate Gregor Blanco. Anyway.

Goldschmidt hit his second home run of the game in the fifth, with a two-out solo moonshot to straightaway center that traveled 453’ to bounce off his hit total on the jumbotron. That, at least, was pretty great. Lamb then doubled, so maybe with a runner in scoring position we could scratch across the tying run somehow?

[cue sad trombones]

So then we loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, and Pollock stepped up to the plate and—

[cue sad trombones]

GIDP.

Meanwhile, Delgado pitched a scoreless fifth and sixth, De La Rosa pitched a scoreless seventh, and Archie Bradley and His Beard mowed down the Pirates in the eighth, retiring the side on eight pitches, seven of which were strikes. Yay bullpen, continuing to be an unexpected bright spot this season.

The Diamondbacks tied in up in the eighth, not with their bats but with some very, very good plate discipline over a series of very tense at bats. Ex-Diamondback Daniel Hudson was on the mound by then for the Pirates, and he walked Ahmed, Descalso and Pollock, with a Hermann flyout and a Gregor Blanco line-out (in, of course, a high-leverage situation, where Gregor excels at sucking). That chased Hudson, and something called a Wade LeBlanc replaced him and walked Jeff Mathis with the bases loaded to score the tying run. Two outs again, sure, but Goldy was at the plate, and had already hit two home runs on the day…

What? What? Did you say that at this point, you’re expecting the sad trombones? *sigh*

[cue sad trombones]

Goldy wound up striking out, looking, for his third strikeout of the day. A deeply crappy 2-1 strike call by home plate umpire Jerry Meals is kind of what screwed us there, because the pitch that froze Goldy would probably have garnered a different response (or been a different pitch) had the count been 3-1, as it should have been, rather than 2-2. Meals had made a similar bullsh*t call during Pollack’s at bat, but Pollack had managed to draw the walk anyway. Goldy wasn’t so lucky.

Fernando Rodney came on to pitch the ninth, which should fill all sane people with a feeling of dread, especially when he’s coming on in a non-save situation, but to Rodney’s credit he pitched very well and without causing undue stress to the viewer, giving up only a two-out walk in an otherwise clean and efficient inning of work. At this point, the Diamondbacks relievers had pitched 5 scoreless. Again, yay bullpen.

In the bottom of the ninth, Lamb and Owings reached to lead off, Owings getting to first on a nifty sac bunt that he turned into an infield single by outrunning the defenders who were churning around to field his bunt.

[sad trombones]

See? I didn’t even have to cue them this time. They’ve been getting enough work this weekend, they know when it’s time. Hermann and Ahmed executed a devastating one-tow rally-killing punch. Hermann popped up his sac bunt attempt, and Ahmed ground into a double play to end things.

Tom Wilhelmsen came on for the top of the tenth, and retired the first two batters quickly before, well, completely losing the strike zone. He walked Gift Mgoepe on something like five pitches, then went to 3-1 with Pedro Osuna (who’d come on at some point in the game, replacing someone and playing some position), when Osuna jacked a pitch up and out to left-center.

[sad trom—] No, no, no, not this time. This was bound to happen sooner or later, and Wilhelmsen was pitching for the third day in a row, and he’s not a reliever who’s built to do that, I don’t think. The bullpen has been so good recently, and was so good yesterday and today especially, that something had to give, and what gave was WIlhelmsen’s control. Not his fault…the game shouldn’t have gotten to this point, and the fact that it did is entirely on the offense.

We did have a last glimmer of (false) hope in the bottom of the tenth, with Descalso leading off with a single and an fielding error by McCutchen in center that allowed him to take second base. This was followed by a Pollock single, but [cue ominous tubas] he tweaked something in his leg or groin running to first, and left the game. We were out of position players by then, so Zack Grienke came in to pinch-run for Pollack, and Patrick Corbin pinch hit for Wilhelmsen with runners on first and third. Corbin struck out, as one might have expected, and then Goldy was given the intentional pass. Lamb, who had gone 3 for 5 so far with two singles and a double, was the last hope, and, well, you know it’s coming. I think everyone watching knew it was coming, really, by that point. Anyway, Lamb—

[cue sad trombones, with full orchestral accompaniment, rising slowly to a minor key crescendo]

Lamb grounded out to second, ending the ordeal. Game over, and by that point, it was kind of a relief, really.

Bells and whistles, by Jim


Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com
Duke Ellington and His Cotton Club Orchestra: Jeff Mathis, +26.3%
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir: Goldschmidt, +16.6%;
Rodney, +14.7%; Delgado, +10.3%, Descalso, +10.1%
SadTrombone.com [Yes, it's a thing!]: Tom Wilhelmsen, -39.8%
Jeff Sessions' Down Home Jug Band: Herrmann, -23.6%; Ray, -21.8%;
Ahmed, -12.9%; Pollock, -12.3%; Corbin, -12.2%

So much Win Probability to go around... In the Gameday Thread, we saw AzDbackfanInDc, DORRITO, Diamondhacks, GuruB, Hazzard21, I suppose I'm a Pessimist, Jackwriter, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Keegan Thompson, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, MrMrrbi, Oldenschoole, Oscar Goldman, SongBird, Ubersnake, aldma, blue_bulldog, catbat, ford.williams.10, hotclaws, noblevillain, onedotfive, pcmonk, shoewizard, since_98, smartplays and soco. Thanks to dano_in_tucson for his efforts on this one, comment of the thread to AzDbackfanInDc, for this shameless, yet highly effective, bit of whoring for recs. :)

Tomorrow, the shaky Mets come to town, and the D-backs will try and win that series, I guess. It's a battle of the Zacks, as Godley takes on Wheeler, with a 6:40pm first pitch.