Record: 13-4. Pace: 124-38. Change on last season: +3.

Today's game perhaps illustrated the greatest difference between this team and previous versions of the Diamondbacks. Last year, if the team was behind 3-1, and their only hit in the first five innings had been by their pitcher, it would probably have been time to plan for tomorrow. [In 2007, we were 10-50 when trailing after five innings] However, watching today's game, I felt little or no sense of despondency, more a calm certainty that our offense would come around. And lo, we scored a run in the sixth, added two more in the seventh to take the lead, and then blew it open by once again putting up a six-spot, Conor Jackson making both the first and the last out of the eighth inning.

I don't know if the Padres bullpen were still suffering a hangover from their 14 innings of work on Thursday. But Thatcher and Cameron, who'd thrown 24 and 27 pitches respectively in that marathon, proved pleasantly ineffective, combining for 1.2 innings, six hits, four walks and eight runs - though five were unearned, thanks to a complete miss of a grounder by Khalil Greene [I'm pretty sure the Gameday Thread resounded to the rafters after that one, though I have yet to check]. Thanks to the wildness [seven walks in total], we scored ten runs on only nine hits: Upton had a pair, though Byrnes reached safely twice on two walks and a hit.

Credit also to Jackson, who singled, then stole second and came home to score the tying run in the sixth on a single by Reynolds [Special K was thrown out on an ill-advised attempt to reach second, though the camera missed it entirely - all we got to see was Reynolds rolling in the infield dirt about ten feet past the base. Not quite sure what happened there] I know stealing off Josh Bard is like robbing the blind little match-girl, but he did so with such ease, I wouldn't be surprised to see him doing more. He seemed to enjoy showing off the new-found wheels: Jackson already has more triples this season (three) than in his 310 prior career games.

On the other hand, what was up with Orlando Hudson? I think someone needs to buy him a copy of the Official Rules. Last week, he tries to advance on an infield fly, then this afternoon, after our first two hitters get on, he tries to bunt them along, but gets called out for batter's interference, because his back foot was very obviously not in the box. Even if he'd done it right, it seems a strange decision - after the pitcher has walked the first two hitters, I'd be inclined to take a couple of pitches, and not give him an easy out, especially with the nuclear offense we are running out there these days. Did he do that on his own? Inquiring minds want to know: he has been scuffling lately, just 5-for-27 in the last seven games.

Solid enough outing by Edgar Gonzalez, who went six innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits and four walks - he battled control problems, but the only damage came on a pair of long balls. Some discussion in the thread about how what we should expect from EdGon. While I share Foulpole and Phil's concern about his HR rate, Jeff Sackmann took a look at this over at The Hardball Times, and found that the ERA of the average #5 pitcher in 2006 was a meaty 6.24. In his 32 starts, Gonzalez's ERA is now 5.69 - and that's pitching in a distinctly hitter-friendly home-park. I don't think even Edgar's mother would describe him as a potential Cy Young winner, but as a back of the rotation fill-in until Doug Davis returns, he's a lot better than most teams have available. [In another piece, Sackmann also found most teams use between ten and twelve starters per season, suggesting that depth is an important aspect of any rotation]

Elsewhere on the pitching side, is anyone else a little concerned about Juan Cruz? Sure, his ERA is a very nice 2.35, with only four hits in 7.2 innings. But after today, he has now walked eight hitters already - tied for most on the club, even including all the starters. Last season, he'd only walked eight hitters on June 7, though did have some time on the DL. His raw "stuff' seems as good as ever; I think I saw him hit 99 mph on the radar gun this afternoon. But a lot of the pitches that were missing the mark were not anywhere close to the plate. No damage today though; still, something to keep an eye on. Chad Qualls extended his scoreless streak with another zero, and Brandon Lyon, having warmed up, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth in what was a non-save situation, thanks to our six runs in the bottom of the eighth.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Chris Young, +23.4%
Honorary mention: Stephen Drew, +22.2%
God-emperor of suck: Orlando Hudson, +12.8%

I got to watch this one at my sister-in-law's, while enjoying some extremely tender ribs [not normally a fan; much like wings, they're often more trouble than they're worth, but these just fell off the bone], tiramisu and Stella Artois. The latter may have been partly responsible for my complete failure to understand Joe Garagiola Sr. when he started trying to burble about BABIP and what it meant. I love Joe, and think it's great he's trying to understand the new baseball math - even if the result is like watching your grandfather attempt to program the iPod he was given as an ill-advised Christmas present. However...a little more edumification on the basics, before attempting to discuss it on television, would help avoid him sound like the infamous "the Internet is a series of tubes" politician.

Anyway, present in the Gameday Thread here were: paqs, Captain D Bag, peachy rex, kishi, foulpole, DbacksSkins, soco, Philip from LA, seton hall snake pit, Snakebitten [welcome!], azshadowwalker, dahlian, Wimb, 4 Corners Fan, hotclaws [loved the macro!], Craig from Az, njjohn, singaporedbacksfan, Songbird and oklahomasooners. Though Skins appeared to spend more time over at GLB, posting pics of co-eds, in an apparently successful attempt to thaw relations with them. Perhaps this is something the State Department should look into: "Hey, Al Qaeda! Drop the jihad stuff and we'll give you all lifetime subscriptions to Maxim." It's insane, but...it...just...might...work...

Anyway, another series win in the back, and we continue to roll, with our fourth win in a row. The Rockies have matched us there, but the Padres (5.5 back) and Dodgers (six behind) are already beginning to find themselves looking up at a sizable gap. We've now scored exactly double the runs of our opponents in the 17 games so far, 112-56 - no other team in the majors has even reached three figures for runs. Long may that continue. And, finally, some good news on the Doug Davis front:

Nine days after undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer, Arizona LHP Doug Davis threw from 120 feet on Saturday afternoon. "I felt real good out there throwing the ball," Davis said. "I don’t feel any different right now than I did before surgery. A little sore in the neck area." Davis has targeted May 9 at the Chicago Cubs for his return to the rotation.

Get well soon, Doug, needless to say.

That's the way (uh-huh, uh-huh), we like it...

Record: 12-4. Pace: 122-40. Change on last season: +2

It's amazing how relaxed a time you can have, when the Win Probability for the Diamondbacks reaches 93.9% before your hitters have made the second out in the first inning. Quite a contrast to the last game I got to watch - Randy's first start, where the defense combusted spontaneously, on its way to a one-run defeat. The difference, on every level, between the two teams tonight was startling. Yeah, I know the Padres had come off a demoralizing 22-inning defeat and arrived in Arizona at 4am. But that last time I saw a performance phoned in to such a degree, was when I watched Cellular. Tonight was a mismatch, on a level not seen since the Christians had a three-game series on the road versus the Lions at the Coliseum in Rome. The Gameday Thread on GLB didn't turn up until their team was down seven; actually, neither did the Padres.

Certainly, that first inning was unique in my experiences at Chase as we scored six runs and sent eleven men to the plate. Let's just review it in full, shall we?

- C. Young singled to left
- E. Byrnes singled to right center, C. Young to second
- O. Hudson flied out to deep center, C. Young to third
- C. Jackson tripled to deep right center, E. Byrnes and C. Young scored
- M. Reynolds singled to pitcher
- J. Upton singled to center, C. Jackson scored, M. Reynolds to third, J. Upton to second advancing on throw
- S. Drew intentionally walked
- C. Snyder doubled to right, S. Drew, J. Upton and M. Reynolds scored
- D. Haren lined out to first
- C. Young walked
- E. Byrnes flied out to right

The key was, I think, Chris Snyder taking personally Maddux walking Drew to get him, and clearing the bases with a double into the gap. We already had a three-run lead at that point, but Snyder doubled it. We might still have been batting - or, at least, added the extra point after the touchdown - but for Gonzalez robbing Haren of a hit on a laser down the line. I have to say, Dan looks quite "hitterish", as Mark Grace would say: while he's not Micah v2.0 perhaps, he has good at-bats for a pitcher who spend the last three season in the American League. Some day he's going to run into a pitch, and it could be interesting.

Nice comment from a fan behind us after that outburst: "Guess it's not going to take us twenty-two innings to beat San Diego." That pretty much summed up the atmosphere at Chase; from then on, the only anticipation left available to fans were the fireworks after the game. Though the D-backs offense provided some more of their own, notably Conor Jackson, who chose to run through the cycle, instead becoming the first D-back to triple twice in a game since Robbie Hammock, on June 8, 2003. Eleven total bases or more in a game had only been done seven times before by a D-back at Chase [the last was Mark Reynolds, in his 5-for-5 with two homers contest], so I'm glad to have caught this once-per-season or less event.

"Psst! Adrian! Want any hitting tips?"

Plenty of praise to throw around though. Our 4-5-6 hitters [Jackson, Reynolds and Upton] were a combined 9-for-12 with six RBI and six runs. Upton had three hits, while Reynolds and Byrnes both had a pair of knocks. And let's not forget Dan Haren - while he may have been overshadowed by the early offensive explosion, he still threw seven shutout innings, giving up just three hits and one walk, to reduce his ERA for the season down to 1.80. Medders and Petit followed up and retired all six hitters they faced. The defense was also solid, with particularly-good plays by Reynolds, Drew and Young, the last named covering a ton of ground in center to preserve the shutout.

Despite his loosing of some non-PG language, I do have to give credit to Greg Maddux, for going out there and throwing 113 pitches, giving his team seven innings, on a night when he was clearly sucking one up for the team - and after the first, gave them a quality start. He hasn't thrown that many since September 2005; the time before that was June 2001. He has never allowed nine earned runs in a game before, and this was his 711th start. But he gave the bullpen the night off they desperately needed. In hindsight, scoring six in the first may have been counter-productive, since it basically ended any realistic chance San Diego had here. If had been close, we could have lured them into pulling Maddux early with the illusion that they might win, and then taken their bullpen out for the entire series.

Yes, a perfect night at the old ball-game...

Still, I'll happily settle for an emphatic nine-run victory, which takes us to 11-2 against our divisional rivals. I know they say titles can't be won in April, but heck, if we extrapolate from the first 10% of the season, and things continue as they have, we will win the NL West by forty-one games. That's how dominating this team has been over the first stretch of the season.

Game notes

• Roof open! Was a little surprised at that, but it was pretty much a perfect night. They said it was 85 degrees outside, about ten cooler inside at the time of first pitch.
  
• The new Jumbotron is pretty slick, despite some glitches tonight which had, for example, Chris Young's pic up there, but Chris Snyder's stats still hanging over from his at bat. Nice to see them use, and explain, things like OPS, and Mrs. SnakePit also appreciated the graphic showing who was on base where.

• Taking your kids to the ballgame is nice. Having to sit next to said kids, when their interest in the game has clearly waned - and been replaced by seeing how hard they can bang their seats down - is not so nice.
• Fireworks = mildly cool. Though there seemed a distinct lack of variety. They go up, they go pop, they explode into a sphere. I seem to remember there being different styles when I was young. However, that was in a country where they sold fireworks over the counter - the best ones had the instructions entirely in Chinese... I wonder if they have to clear the area of airplanes?
• The dreaded wave made an entirely-expected appearance in the sixth, and the Padres immediately threated. I was depressed to see how many people are still amused by waving their arms in the air and going "Woooo!" Still, this is also the country where American Idol is the most popular TV show, which explains a lot, I feel
• I do sense prices have dropped at the concession stands, which is great to see. Two Polish dogs, a large fries and a large soda cost us $20.25, which seems less than last season.
  

  
[Click on graph, to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Conor Jackson. +18.0%
Honorary Mention: Dan Haren, +11.5%
God-emperor of suck: Orlando Hudson, -3.1%

Okay, the graph above is more of an artist's impression, but I think you'll find it good enough for most practical purposes. :-) soco, unnamedDBacksfan, Captain D Bag, kishi, foulpole, seton hall snake pit, Wimb, hotclaws, Philip from LA, oklahomasooners, snakecharmer, DbacksSkins, Muu, peachy rex, frienetic, njjohn, Azreous, Turambar, babypuncher [welcome!], singaporedbacksfan, 4 Corners Fan and victor frankenstein were present in the Gameday Thread here, which bobbled along in the warm glow, much as you would expect.

Okay, we were facing a team who have now scored three runs in the last 43 innings and have batted .152 over the past six games. They don't have an offense, they have a futile. But they are still professional ball-players, and do not like having their asses kicked in a humiliating fashion. I know that if the boot was on the other foot, the D-backs would want to get right out there and prove themselves; I've little doubt the same is true for the Padres. With their bullpen now a little bit rested, and with their #2 on the mound this evening, against our #5, this series is not over by a long way. But, for one night, I was a privilege to watch our Arizona Diamondbacks, and see close-up why, right now, they are the best team in baseball.

Record: 7-2. Pace: 126-36. Change on last season: 0

The Arizona Diamondbacks: inhabiting Joe Torre's nightmares since 2001. He may have moved from one coast to the other, but he can't escape the torment caused by the Diamondbacks. We completed the sweep over the Dodgers, racking up our sixth win in a row - and, in sharp contrast to the offensive blowouts of the first two games, this was an old-school nailbiter, where there was never more than one run separating the two teams from the first pitch to the last. Kept homerless for the first time all year, this was much more like the 2007 version of the team, scratching out hits and grinding out a one-run win, as they did 32 times last year.

Micah Owings was just good enough: three runs on seven hits and a walk, but the key was that he pitched seven innings, thereby giving the besieged bullpen a much-needed breather. "There were times when he might not have the command that he did in Colorado, but boy, to give seven innings there when our bullpen was not full up down there, those guys know it," said Melvin after the game. Owings also made an opening statement, plunking Rafael Furcal to lead off the first inning - I have to think that was retaliation for the hit-fest inflicted on Arizona the night before.

Not that it stopped the Dodgers, with Conor Jackson forced to leave the game in the top of the sixth with a bruised left hand after being hit again, this time by Kuroda - CoJack's third HBP in two games. Fortunately, X-rays proved negative, and hopefully he'll be back in the lineup for the weekend series against the Rockies, after tomorrow's off-day. Chris Burke came in as a replacement, and went 1-for-2, though could be the recipient of some blame for Furcal's double down the line, on the first batter after he entered the game. Still, you take your impromptu corner infielders where you can get them, I suppose.

This was back and forth all game. The Dodgers took the lead in the second on a double by Pierre. The Diamondbacks returned, taking advantage of an error by Loney to score twice, on a groundout by Mark Reynolds and a Justin Upton single, in the fourth. The Dodgers tied it up again in the fifth, and a Loney homer made it 3-2 to them in the sixth. However, a crafty bunt single from Augie Ojeda, a more normal hit by Robby Hammock and a very-disciplined base on balls worked by Micah Owings, loaded the bases with one out. However, to much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, our newest multi-millionaire popped out [Young is 1-for-11 with 6 K's since signing the contract!].

But Eric Byrnes delivered his most important contribution of the season so far, with a two-run single that gave us the lead, this time for good. Byrnes enjoyed his first three-hit game since September 11, and was joined there by Augie Ojeda. The Littlest Ballplayer was making his first start of the year, playing shortstop in place of Drew [sitting this one out due to a sore right quad] and got his first three-hit game since August 28. Er, that's August 2004. Upton added two, his fourth multi-hit contest of the season, while Hammock, starting in place of Snyder after last night's lengthy contest, reached base twice on a hit and a walk.

After Owings completed the seventh inning, it was over to what was left of the bullpen. I can imagine them all looking nervously at each other when the phone rang, and going "Well, it's clearly not for me..." Juan Cruz was the lucky recipient of another outing and got around a one-out walk with the aid of a double-play. Then it was Lyon time, and though he gave up a deep fly to the first batter he faced, got the next man to ground out and then finished with a flourish, sending Andruw Jones down swinging, to notch his second save and seal the season sweep. Despite some qualms, the bullpen has been getting it done, posting a 2.36 ERA thus far, with seven earned runs in 26.2 innings.

Master of his domain: Eric Byrnes, +27.3%
Honorary mention: Brandon Lyon, +16.8%
God-Emperor of suck: Chris Young, -12.6%

Props over the past 24 hours to Azreous, for writing a kickass report after Tuesday's game - I'm hoping to get him doing regular recaps - and for watching over things in today's Gameday Thread, starting an overspill when the molasses crept in to the first one, around the 500 post mark.  We have a double-dose of 'Charmer roll-call goodness, starting with yesterday, where present in the comments w peachy rex, AZDarkKnight, dstorm, soco, foulpole, 4 Corners Fan, snakecharmer, Azreous, DbacksSkins, singaporedbacksfan, Wimb, TwinnerA, Turambar, jsk6788, kishi, hotclaws, Captain D Bag, DisplacedAZfan, Mr. Philosophical, Frank Squishy, peeklay, DiamondbacksWIn, seton hall snake pit, oklahomasooners and calltyriu.

Today was even more of a monster: 935 comments in total, which is not just a regular season best, it surpasses the all-time record of 932 in Game 2 of the NLDS last October. And this was for a weekday afternoon game, without much contribution from me. I think four figures is definitely within reach. jsk6788, 4 Corners Fan, hotclaws, AZDarkKnight, DbacksSkins, snakecharmer, soco, dstorm, seton hall snake pit, foulpole, jweech, TwinnerA, smartsnake [welcome!], Azreous, bcloirao, AZSEAfan, kishi, Craig from Az, Wimb, leemellon, batster, Captain D Bag, frienetic, Huxtable Reunion, TuLoRocks2008 [welcome, though you might get comments about your username!] and peachy rex were present this afternoon.

Another sweep against a divisional rival, and I find myself in the unusual position of cheering for the Giants, as they're battling the Padres to a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the eighth at the moment. Be nice if they came out on top, as that'd give us a 2.5 game cushion on top of the the division, as we welcome Colorado into the Shire, ready to administer some further strict discipline to those naughty Orckies. Actually, the imagery that sentence conjures up in my mind, is probably something I could have done without.

Randy Johnson made his second - and probably final - rehab start down in Tucson. This one seemed to go a good deal better than his first, as the Big Unit struck out seven in six innings, allowing three hits and a walk and throwing a total of 85 pitches. According to Nick Piecoro, "Working off a fastball that sat in the 89-92 mph range, Johnson also was effective with a slider, splitter and change-up," and all being well, should be ready to slot into fellow left-hander Doug Davis's spot in the rotation, when it comes up next on Monday, in San Franciso. Worth repeating at some length Randy's comments after the game:

It's a lot easier to say, 'You know what? I can pitch a major-league start and feel comfortable because I had a game like today. I'll wait and see what they (coaches) say. But I do feel a lot more positive about this start... I was pitching ahead in the count, and that makes all the difference. All three (off-speed) pitches were working. I was pitching both sides of the plate. Now, if you take those pitches and equate them to what would happen if a major-league batter is up? I don't know. But I would take my chances, because I was pitching where I want to pitch.

With the signing of Young, that appears to end the contract discussions for the foreseeable future. The question of Hudson remains lurking on the horizon, and the Tribune thinks O-Dawg is not going be cheap: "Hudson, a three-time Gold Glove winner who will become a free agent after this season, is said to be seeking a yearly salary similar to the $15 million Philadelphia’s Chase Utley will receive." Regrettably, I think this means that we will be playing Where in the World is Orlando Hudson? this off-season. I just do not see the Diamondbacks being prepared to commit to a long-term deal at those rates, especially as he turns 31 before the end of the year. 

Finally, an interesting tidbit at Fangraphs.com who point out that Mark Reynolds has "cut down on swinging at pitches outside the strike zone by 6%." Whatever he's doing, it's clearly having the right effect. And, hooray, the Giants prevailed over the Padres, 1-0, with a ninth-inning run. Surprisingly, Trevor Hoffman was not involved in that loss. But it leaves us with the hoped-for comfortable lead, and a very satisfactory off-day tomorrow. Lolback and random stuff to follow, no doubt.

Record: 1-1. Pace: 81-81. Change on last season: 0

Well, that ninth inning certainly gave me a chance to practice some of those choice epithets, from yesterday's "foul language in 19th century baseball" treatise. We entered the ninth, as in the opener, with a two-run lead, Qualls and Pena having again posted scoreless innings on the back of six frames from our starter. As above, so below. However, Brandon Lyon diverted drastically from Monday's script, going single, single, three-run homer (after a failed bunt!), to dramatically snatch defeat from the jaws of victory without even teasing us by, oh, retiring any hitters.

Expect the second guessing to begin immediately. For Jose Valverde never had an outing where he failed to retire a batter. He only allowed three earned runs in two of the 253 games he played for us. I also note that Brandon Medders and Jose Cruz were both warming up in the bullpen during Lyon's appearance, indicating that Melvin was perhaps not over confident in his closer. On the other hand, crank the Wayback Machine to the second game of last year, and you'll find Jose Valverde blowing the save that day too; he allowed two runs in the bottom of the eleventh at Coors, to end up tagged with the loss.

Still, when I wrote about Lyon and his qualifications as closer yesterday, "I suspect we won't know for sure until he's blown his first save - how he responds to that, will be the true test of his mettle," I must admit, I was kinda hoping it would take him less than 24 hours to deliver said blown save. :-( Lyon's incredible ability to avoid the long-ball last season, with no homers in his first 44 appearances, has not continued into this year, pretty much as predicted. And now we need to see whether he can follow the advice of famous baseball analyst Rudyard Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,..
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same...

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man closer, my son!

We'll see, before too long, whether Lyon is a man or a mouse. If he can come back from this - and it's difficult to imagine a more horrific, disastrous pit into which to be plunged - then we'll be okay. Best, perhaps, to get it out of the way early on. And with that, we'll move on.

Dan Haren made his first start, pitching five great innings and one fairly-sucky one. The net result was a quality start, with Davis going six innings and allowing three earned runs, all of them coming in the fourth inning, on a pair of home-runs, with a walk between them. We'll take that, especially since he was feeling less than 100% on his arrival at the park - seems a common issue, with Conor Jackson forced out of the game in the fifth inning [more on which later]. Haren allowed four hits and a walk in six innings, striking out four too. Overall, a very respectable start; the home-runs could be a problem (and this was thought likely to be an issue), but outside of those, he was solid, and even had a double and a sac-fly; not bad for someone whose last hit was in June 2005. Qualls and Pena were, once again, extremely solid, each with one hit in their inning.

On the offense, good outings by Hudson, 2-for-3 with a walk, and Stephen Drew, who also had two hits, including his first homer of the season. Chris Young had a double to lead off the game, and scoring our first run on a groundout, and had his first-ever three walk game, which is just what we want to see from our leadoff hitter. However, I certainly feel that we should have added on a few more runs; overall, the Diamondbacks were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. The most painful failure was in the top of the ninth, where we loaded the basis with one out. Byrnes  had a hideous AB, which ended when he managed to run into his own batted ball and was out on interference, then Chris Burke struck out swinging, setting the stage for Lyon's implosion.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Stephen Drew, +19.3%
God-emperor of suck: Brandon Lyon, -90.3%,
which appears to be an all-time low...

Still, what can you say? It's only one game, even if it's one we should certainly have won. I also note that Jose Valverde, in his Astros debut, coughed up the go-ahead run to the Padres in the eighth inning, but ended up the lucky winner, as Trevor 'I used to be quite good, y'know' Hoffman allowed four runs in the ninth. [On that note, a big hello to Phantom and California Penal over at GLB, who were gloating about AZ blowing the save, "On a three-run shot, no less," moments before Hoffman allowed a three-run HR of his own. Beautiful] To sum up, San Diego Colorado and the Dodgers all lost, so no ground lost to our rivals tonight. There are only two unbeaten teams left in the National League: the Brewers and...pauses to rub eyes...the Nationals? It's a long season.

The Conor Jackson issue is worrying. According to mlb.com, Jackson was taken to hospital after complaining of shortness of breath. Doctors there took chest X-rays, gave him some medication and said it was possible that he had pneumonia - so much for the "flu-like symptoms" which were reported, eh? That would be a real blow for our cleanup hitter, though he did get back to the park before the end of the game, "They're going to start me off on antibiotics and see what happens," he said. Hope he gets well soon - and, possibly just as important, doesn't infect anyone else on the roster.

Right up until the middle of the ninth inning, that was a thoroughly enjoyable Gameday Thread, with a turnout only fractionally short of Opening Day. Present and correct were bcloirao, kishi, dstorm, njjohn, Muu, Craig from Az, seton hall snake pit, DbacksSkins, Azreous, foulpole, Mr. Philosophical, hotclaws, 4 Corners Fan, unnamedDBacksfan, isoldout, oklahomasooners [welcome back!], Wimb, singaporedbacksfan, Captain D Bag, snakecharmer, frienetic and Wactivist. Early start tomorrow, folks: afternoon game in the Nati, so that'll be about as stern a test of Gameday Thread attendance as imaginable...

However, there is a 70% chance of rain there tomorrow afternoon, according to the forecast, so it seems there is a good chance the game might be delayed, or possibly even postponed. This is the only time we'll be in Cincinnati, so that would mean a return trip would have to be squeezed into the schedule somewhere. Wondering if that would mean they'll skip Davis's turn in the rotation (given his situation), or just push it back a day to Colorado? That's probably getting ahead of ourselves. Gameday Thread [weather permitting] to follow in the morning.