Record: 47-49. Pace: 79-83. Change on last season: -3

After the first five Dodgers had reached base, and they had scored three runs, with men on second and third with no-one out, it was looking like the night would bring nothing more than some unexpected attention to the unwatched DVD pile. It probably would have been better for all concerned had that actually been the case: instead, four hours later, the result was exactly the same, but only after a great deal of additional effort and tension on the part of all concerned - not least, the 1,000+ comments which were typed into the Gameday Thread.

Early on, it seemed as if our offense was going to blow past the Dodgers. After Chris Young's triple led off the third inning, our hitters had, to that point, gone 9-for-15. However, it was as if someone turned off the offensive faucet when LA starter Kuroda left the game after the second: in nine subsequent innings against the Dodger bullpen, we managed only seven hits and one run. That was the biggest difference between the two teams last night: the Dodgers pen just kept hurling very good arms at us. With the exception of Falkenborg - who faced one hitter - everyone else had an ERA of no worse than 3.32, and that's with closer Saito and his 2.18 ERA on the disabled list. The LA relievers we faced last night had a combined ERA of 2.47 - only Lyon is below three for us.

One factor was the absence of Chad Qualls: we expected to see him in the seventh inning, with the Diamondbacks clinging to a one-run lead. However, while warming up, he felt a twinge in his lower back. Qualls said, "I started getting going in the seventh inning and I thought I was in there. It was a little sore, a little tight and during the pitching change they decided to go with Rosie. I guess they're just more on the safer side." Safer for Qualls, but not for that lead, as the designated replacement, Leo Rosales, retired one batter, then allowed a tying homer and a long, ground-rule double, which hardly counts as stepping up and getting it done, by any means.

That did expose the weakness of our bullpen - its disturbing lack of depth, especially with Qualls unavailable, and Juan Cruz on the disabled list. Once you get past Lyon and Peña [who combined for 2.2 innings, and retired all eight hitters that they faced], things get painfully slim, with the likes of Rosales, Robertson and Doug Slaten, whom Melvin tried to squeeze two innings out of, for the second time in his entire career. Any guesses how that worked out? If your answer was 'game-losing homer,' then you have more accurate, if less optimistic, expectations than Bob Melvin. Kudos, however, to the Petit Unit, forced into an extended outing by the early departure of Doug Davis, and who allowed one hit and one run over three innings.

Davis was horrible. As noted above, the first five Dodgers reached, and it took a niftily-turned double-play by Mark Reynolds, tagging the runner off third, then throwing to first, to avoid us being in a much worse hole than three runs down after the first. He got through the second without problem, and even the opening two batters in the third. However, a walk and a home-run to Nomar brought LA right back into the game, and Davis's night was over one batter later. He will likely not thank me for reminding him of the following line: three innings, five hits, three walks, five runs, four earned.

Fortunately, Kuroda was even worse. After getting Drew to ground out, he also allowed five straight hitters to reach safely - in our case, on five straight singles - and a groundout by Young had given us a first-inning lead that had looked extremely unlikely, only a few minutes before. We added two more runs in the second and another in the third, but that was our lot. Oh, if we'd only been able to take advantage of one of the opportunities to add on more runs; the Diamondbacks were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position after the second inning. Perhaps the best of these was in the sixth, when we loaded the bases with one out. However, Chad Tracy popped up to the shallow outfield on the first pitch he saw, and Mark Reynolds went down swinging.

All told, however, we can't really blame the offense for dropping this one, not when they got 15 hits [even with the maddeningly-inconsistent strikezone of home-plate umpire, Jim Reynolds, who was not giving the same pitches to both sides]. Conor Jackson had the best night, reaching base safely on five occasions, with three hits and two walks. However, he was also charged with two errors on the same play in the opening inning, first bobbling the ball in left, and then making a poor throw to third which allowed the runner to advance. [This is my fault, having pointed out his errorless streak at LF in my midterm report!] Hudson had three hits and a walk, while Young and Tracy each added a pair of knocks. It just wasn't enough, on a night where Doug Davis was basically no use, and our already-thin bullpen gave up too many long balls, with three homers in eight innings.

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Master of his domain: Tony Pena, +23.3%
Honorable mention: Jackson, +17.9%; Lyon, +14.3%
God-emperor of suck: Doug Davis, -29.1%
Dishonorable mentions: Rosales, -22.2; Slaten, -18.9%

Definitely a high volume thread: as already noted, we passed 1,000 for the first time in a while, with ten posters delivering forty or more comments. Here's the rollcall for the game: 4 Corners Fan, kishi, soco, DbacksSkins, Scrbl, utahdbacksfan, hotclaws, TwinnerA, mrssoco, DiamondbacksWIn, emilylovesthedbacks, Stile4aly, snakecharmer, AF DBacks Fanatic, unnamedDBacksfan, UofAZGrad and Muu. Thanks to them for their passion: occasionally a little too much passion, and the new SnakePit policy, effective as of last night, is that posts which include profanity will immediately be hidden by the moderators, unless a free-fire zone has been announced by myself. And, believe me, that won't happen often. I don't want to censor free expression - but if you can't think of anything better to type than "F***!", then you're not trying hard enough. [Foreign language cursing - particularly in tongues not understood by the mods - remains fine. :-)]

Worth noting that the All-Star break hasn't cooled off our bats: we have had 12 or more hits for five straight games, and are batting .315 over that span. That's the longest run for us since we went six in a row back at the end of April and into early May during the 1999 season, and only three NL teams have passed five since then [Houston had seven in June 2007, while Atlanta [July 2006] and Cincinnati [April 2000] both managed six]. Unfortunately, we still have a losing record over that span, as our pitching has allowed 29 runs in those five games. Still, little steps - though if we can maintain that streak against Billingsley this evening, I will be really impressed.

Record: 43-45. Pace: 79-83. Change on last season: -4

"It’s just kind of the same old theme here. They get a couple of runs and we have a hard time coming back. We just have to start playing better. We have to start scoring runs, getting some good at-bats and getting a different feeling from the group. We don’t have as confident a look in our eye." -- Bob Melvin

No kidding, Bob. It's a symptom of how bad things have got in Diamondbacksland of late, that we were left relying on [and, worse yet, cheering for] a late comeback by the Giants to hold on to the top of the National League West - at least, for another day. Arizona, to no great surprise, struggled against the reigning Cy Young winner in Jake Peavy, who shut us out for seven innings. That's now thirteen straight zeros posted by the Padres starters against us so far in this series, with a total of just five hits and three walks over those thirteen innings, with thirteen strikeouts.

This game was, to all intents and purposes, over when former D-back Scott Hairston latched onto a Doug Davis curveball, and deposited it into the bleachers, giving San Diego a 2-0 lead in the top of the third. Even though we'd already stranded four runners on base over the first two innings, there just wasn't a sense that the Diamondbacks had shown up with any aggression or desire to win. Things basically went downhill from there. Hairston added another homer and, though Hudson did double in a run in the eighth to make it a two-run game, the Padres immediately restored the lead with another long-ball.

Drew got his 12th homer, off Hoffman in the ninth, and Montero managed to flail a single to right, getting the tying run to the plate. However, Alex Romero flied out to right for the last out of the game, meaning another series is already lost to the opposition, and we need to win tomorrow to avoid the sweep at home. The most dispiriting thing about the whole event was probably a series of shots of the Arizona players as they occupied the field in the latter stages: the last time I saw such lack of hope etched deep into faces, I think I was watching Schindler's List.  The body-language on view was infinitely depressing - this is a team that has absolutely lost the will to win.

Doug Davis: another quality start, another loss. He has one win in seven outings, going back to the start of June, despite an ERA over that time of 3.32. Today, it was the long-ball that hurt him, but he still pitched eight innings, for the first time since August last year. He allowed seven hits and a walk, with a solid seven strikeouts - the only damage was three runs off Hairston's homers. The 122 pitches thrown by Davis was a season high for any Diamondbacks starter, and hasn't been surpassed since Hernandez 2.0 went 124 on May 22 last year, facing Colorado. I note that the number of occasions pitchers go deep has severely dropped for us: Davis is the first one to reach 120 this season. Here's the total, year-by year

Obviously, the presence of Johnson (17 starts in 2000!), and to a lesser extent Schilling, has a big effect on these overall numbers. But Omar Daal had six of those 1999 starts - as many as our entire rotation has had since the start of last season. Heck, even Webb had a pair in each of 2003 and 2004 - he hasn't reached 120 pitches once since July 26, 2004. So this restraint with regard to pitch count does seem like a relatively recent development.

More bad news on the injury front followed Davis's departure, as Juan Cruz came in, threw three pitches, and left with a strained left oblique - maybe he knew what was coming, as Peña immediately coughed up a homer when he came in to replace Famine. Melvin apparently reports that Cruz is likely headed to the disabled list, which will leave us with a significant hole to fill in the bullpen, since he has been one of the most reliable arms there. Looks like someone will be making the trip up from Tucson: maybe Connor Robertson, who will barely have had time to drop his suitcase on the bed.

Meanwhile, the offense has so many holes in it, it's difficult to know where to start. But today brought home, in particularly, the issues - largely of our own making - in the outfield. Here is the line-up we could have had there tonight - based entirely on players traded away by the front-office during the past year.

LF: Carlos Gonzalez: .277/.301/.445 = .776 OPS
CF: Scott Hairston: .246/.296/.461 = .757 OPS
RF: Carlos Quentin: .273/.378/.513 = .891 OPS

Now, compare that to our standard one for this season so far:

LF: Eric Byrnes, .209/.272/.369 = .641 OPS
CF: Chris Young: .235/.301/.421 = .722 OPS
RF: Justin Upton: .237/.351/.419 = .770 OPS

Even without taking the boost provided to our hitters by Chase into account, it's clear that we somehow managed to dump an entire outfield that are performing better than our preferred lineup. What did we get for these players, who are now performing solidly at the highest level? Hairston netted us a mop-up reliever in Leo Rosales. For Carlos Quentin, we got A-ball first-baseman Chris Carter - Carter, along with Carlos Gonzalez, became components in the trade that brought Dan Haren to Arizona. So, basically, looks like we traded three major-league players for one.

Really, what were the front-office thinking? They were clearly relying that a) the twenty-year old Justin Upton would immediately be able to hit big-league pitching, and b) Eric Byrnes would live up to the terms of his fat contract. Each was largely in defiance of history in these matters, but we were, apparently, simply crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. Now, the strip-mining of our outfield depth has come home to roost. For thanks to Byrnes' injury and Upton's ineffectiveness, today's outfield featured, alongside Young, Conor Jackson in left - with nine previous major-league appearances at the position - and Emilio Bonifacio in right, who had played once in right-field, over his entire professional career. The pit we are in, we dug for ourselves.

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Master of his domain: Orlando Hudson, +5.1%
God-emperor of suck: Emilio Bonifacio, -12.5%
Dishonorable mention: Augie Ojeda, -11.0%

Thanks to the Gameday attendees this evening. kishi top-scored, with 103 comments, and unnamedDBacksfan was the only other to pass forty. Also present were soco, TwinnerA, Jim McLennan, dahlian, mrssoco, Diamondhacks, hotclaws, njjohn, Muu, RAMJB, DbacksSkins, emilylovesthedbacks, DiamondbacksWIn, Mr. Philosophical, luckycc, 4 Corners Fan and srdmad, so their input was appreciated. We do remain in first, through no skill of our own, as the Giants came back to beat the Dodgers in San Francisco. Anyone feel optimistic that the Big Unit will pitch us to victory tomorrow and we'll still be in first?

Don't all rush...

Record: 42-41. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season: -4

As this game wore on, it seemed the question was going to be, less whether Arizona would score enough runs, than whether they would have enough able bodies to man all nine positions. First, Eric Byrnes basically collapsed half-way between second and third, as he tried to steal a base in the second: he never even made it to third. Though he limped off the infield under his own steam, he went straight to the dugout, and it looks likely that he is going back onto the DL with a re-occurrence of the hamstring injury which kept him out for four weeks earlier this month. If it is the same problem, one has to wonder whether he came back too soon, before the injury healed properly - especially since it came basically the first time he hit full speed. If so, whose fault is it? Byrnes, for claiming fitness, or the Diamondbacks' training staff for not spotting it?

He was replaced in left-field by Jeff Salazar, and the game continued. However, in the fourth inning,. Chris Snyder also got taken out of the game - in rather unfortunate fashion. The Republic describes it as "an unspecified injury," but here's what happened. A foul ball ricocheted off the ground and up into... Well, let's be honest here: Snyder's crotch. Now, catchers do wear a protective cup, but that's designed to protect the family jewels from frontal assault. Judging by the way our catcher dropped to the ground like a stunned heifer, this ball managed to bypass the armor with a degree of accuracy that would have made Lee Harvey Oswald proud. Mark Grace was not exactly sympathetic, squeaking "I'm not quite ready yet!" in a high-pitched voice as Snyder got back down, somewhat uncomfortably, behind the plate. Chris toughed out the inning, but was replaced by Montero for his at-bat in the bottom of the fourth.

The fifth inning saw another bump at home-plate. We had men on second and third, when Jackson hit a ball to right-field. Hart successfully duped Ojeda, on third, into thinking he'd have to tag to score, even though the ball dropped in front of him. Augie scurried home, getting there at the same time as the ball, and ended up colliding with Kendall and going down in a heap. The ball got away, and Drew scored behind Ojeda as well, though there seemed to be a bit of a clinch going on between Augie and Brewers' catcher Kendall. Not quite sure who was to blame there, but Kendall probably needs to pick on someone his own size. No-one touches the Littlest Ballplayer and gets away with it. :-)

That play, and a subsequent RBI double by Reynolds, proved to be the turning points in the game, giving Arizona a three-run lead. Not that it was all chocolate and flowers from there on, the sixth inning being particularly interesting, shall we say. It started with Davis plunking Prince Fielder, presumably some kind of attempt by Doug to prove that, yes, he can hit the broad side of a barn. Two walks followed, and Davis was yanked in favor of - cue screams from the assembled masses - Mr. Inherited Runner, Chad Qualls. Yes, probably the last person we wanted to see with the bases loaded, and a mob with torches began to assemble in the foyer at Chase Field. He then walked in a run for Milwaukee, but with the tying run a bloop away, managed to get Weeks swinging for the third out. The mob decided to go to Chili's instead, and put away their copies of 'Skins visual aid regarding Qualls.

Mark Reynolds was the offensive force of the game, going 3-for-3 with a walk, and all three hits being for extra-bases - including his 17th homer of the year, matching his total from all of last year, despite 91 fewer at-bats to date. The three runs driven in gave Special K 52 in total, and he is currently on pace to become the first Diamondback to reach three figures for a season, since Luis Gonzalez had 104 RBI in 2003. Augie Ojeda had two hits from the lead-off spot, and scored both times he got on base. This makes perfect sense, since it's what the lead-off hitter is supposed to do, and his on-base percentage (.394) is second only to Jackson (.400). Certainly beats Drew (.297) and Byrnes (.272), though since he was only in the starting line-up to give O-Dawg a day off, expect normal service to be resumed tomorrow. Drew had two hits, and Montero a pair of walks.

Doug Davis picked up the win, but his control issues in the sixth meant he fell one out short of a fourth straight quality start. He began in somewhat wobbly form, falling behind 2-0 before retiring the second Brewer of the night, but buckled down from there. The only further damage was the run charged to him on Qualls' bases-loaded walk in the sixth: Davis's final line was 5.2 innings, with five hits, four walks and three strikeouts. Qualls came back out for the seventh and pitched around a lead-off double, while Pena came in for the eighth and Lyon the ninth. Be very interesting to see what happens in the event of a close game tomorrow, as both Pestileñce and War have now pitched in the past three games. Cruz to close and Qualls to set-up?

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Master of his domain: Mark Reynolds, +25.8%
Honorable mention: Stephen Drew, +12.8%
God-emperor of suck: Justin Upton, -10.1%

Looked like it was going to be a low-key Gameday Thread early on, but just as the Diamondbacks did, participants kicked up their output in the middle innings, and finished strong - albeit somewhat off-topic. Dbackskins cracked the two hundred mark, while everyone else lollygagged in double-digits: also present were kishi, 4 Corners Fan, hotclaws, seton hall snake pit, DbacksSkins, soco, unnamedDBacksfan, mrssoco, emilylovesthedbacks, Muu, snakecharmer, LucaMaz3, DiamondbacksWIn and The Main Man, so thanks to all those who showed up.

Dodgers lost. Giants lost. Rockies lost spectacularly, coughing up an 8-3 lead to lose 15-8 to the Padres, for their eighth defeat in a row. The net result is that the standings in the NL West are basically unchanged from what they were on June 8, even though we've gone 8-12 in that time:

Finally, a quick note on Micah Owings, since injuries seem to be the theme of the day. It's still up in the air whether he'll make his scheduled start on Wednesday: He said, "We're planning on it right now, but we'll see how it feels after I do some more treatment... I wish I could explain it. When I went down for the ball, my lower right side and upper glute just locked up on me... I've never had anything like that happen." The Petit Unit looks likely to get the start if Owings is not ready to go.

Oh, and tomorrow is a special Gameday Thread, in which all discussion of the game in the comments will be prohibited while it is in progress. Marshals will be carefully monitoring for any violations of this condition and all violators will be punished harshly. Suggestions of alternative topics to discuss are welcome.

Record: 37-31. Pace: 88-74. Change on last season: -1

Breaking records here and there: your 2008 Arizona Diamondbacks. For the first time in Dbacks history, we've now played three straight extra inning games. After finishing 9 full innings tied at love all, Chad Tracy came through with the first walkoff home run of his career to win the game 1-0 in the bottom of the 10th inning. It was our first 1-0 win since August 11th of last year, when Webby beat Washington's John Lannan during Brandon's gazillion-inning scoreless streak. All told, we played in a total of four 1-0 games last year -- two of them wins by Webb, one an EdGon loss to Zito, (ouch!) and one 1-0 win last August 3rd -- pitched by Double D against Chad Billingsley in Los Angeles. Yep, the same Double D who shut out the woeful Royals for 7 innings tonight, to give our bullpen a bit of much-needed relief. Davis sprinkled 5 singles, a double, and 4 walks through 7 frames while striking out 7 Royals as well; in the process, lowering his season ERA from 4.88 to 3.99. If there's any night he deserved to win, it was tonight, yet he was stuck with a no decision.

It's a damned good thing our pitching was so good, too. I find my tongue planted firmly in cheek in calling the Royals woeful, because the Diamondbacks hitters tonight were abysmal. Granted, Zach Greinke is no scrub, and our hitters always seem to do badly when facing a starter for the first time, but even though Greinke held us to 1 Tracy single and 2 Drew singles through those 7 innings, we had plenty of chances to score. Why? Because Greinke walked a whopping seven (count 'em!) hitters -- over 7 innings. Royals reliever Ron Mahay added an 8th walk in the bottom of the 9th. Upton, in the 8 spot, was the recipient of 3 of those, and Drew, CoJack, Tracy, Reynolds, and Snyder all drew free passes as well. In fact, Hudson and Young were the ONLY members of our starting 8 not to reach on balls. Snyder also singled in the 8th. So, what did we do with those 12 baserunners through the first 9 innings? Well.... you get the picture. It was UGLY. In the 2nd, Greinke walked Upton to load the bases and get to Davis, who promptly obliged by grounding back to the mound. He's Doug Davis; can't really blame him for THAT. However, the very next inning, on a Drew single and walks to Tracy and CoJack, the bases were loaded with two outs for Reynolds. It wasn't too much of a shocker (although it was quite a disappointment) when Reynolds struck out on a full count to end the inning. To be blunt, you're not going to win too many freaking games when you strand 12 men through 9, and we were only lucky to score before Kansas City did. I sure hope that the entire starting lineup bought the beer for Davis tonight.

As noted, Upton continued his torrid rate of -- walking, and he's now on pace for a Bondsian 93 by the end of the season. Lefties Drew and Tracy were both 2-4 with a walk each, and... those were basically the bright spots of the offense, plus Snyderman's single in the 8th. On the other hand, our leadoff hitter -- no, in this case, our leadoff batter -- who will remain nameless, wore the Texas star, going 0-5, including 4 strikeouts. At least two of those, it should be noted, were called third strikes at least an inch and a half inside. In fact, on the night, it seemed home plate umpire Lance Barksdale decided to move the entire dish 2 inches inside without telling anyone; from my own viewing, it seemed that the inside corner was being called a strike with extreme prejudice, while the outside 2 inches of the plate was not. It was like having an NL strike zone on the inside and an AL strike zone on the outside. I may respectfully suggest that Barksdale have his peripheral vision checked.

Both starters left after putting up seven goose eggs, but neither team fared well against the bullpen, either. Obviously, Arizona's was slightly sharper than Kansas City's, with Qualls, Peña and former Royal and AAA callup Billy Buckner (for the last time... NO RELATION) combining for 3 shutout innings, no walks, 3 strikeouts and only a blown call on a ball that was actually caught by Upton and ruled a single. Buckner, in his first appearance with the Diamondbacks since being traded from the Royals for Alberto "I-can't-hit-a-ball-but-I-can-hit-my-wife" Callaspo, gave up a few hard hit balls but, with the exception of the aforementioned blown call, pitched an otherwise perfect top of the 10th to earn the win. It was a damn good thing Tracy was able to walkoff the team against Yasuhiko "Say-my-name-five-times-fast" Yabuta, because our bullpen right now is more like a cage full of double amputees. I think I saw Augie jogging down to the 'pen to warm up right before Tracy won it for us.

It's worth noting that both Chad Qualls and Tony Peña seem to have gotten through their rough patches, with both coming out and packing heat and looking pretty sharp on the mound. Peña hasn't allowed a run now since mid-May, and his ERA is down to a more 2007-like 2.84; Qualls got a K, a K, and a grounder in his inning, and lowered his ERA to 2.45.

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Consuls of their domain: Doug Davis, +45.3%; Chad Tracy, +39.3%
Honorable mentions: Buckner & Peña, +14.3%; Qualls, +11.0%
God-emperor of suck: Chris K. Young, -17.5%

That EKG-like printout (which appears to culminate in a cocaine overdose) is not exactly a ringing endorsement of our offense; besides Tracy, only Drew (+5.1%) and Upton (+2.0%) were in the black. Greinke, of course, also received the same +45.3% as Davis, and just like Johan Santana yesterday, Davis and Greinke were rewarded with... Chacon's bane, the no-decision.

The GameDay Thread was talkative and, as always, eclectic; topics included science fiction books, foulpole's player nicknames, Emily's sign for tomorrow, mrssoco's love of all Dbacks first basemen, and the suggestion that I have a Napoleonic complex. For the second night in a row, we were careful not to post an overflow thread while transitioning to extras, although we ended up with over 610 comments. Present and accounted for were 4 Corners Fan, TwinnerA, Jim, foulpole, Muu, myself, emilylovesthedbacks, hotclaws, soco, kishi, unnamedDBacksfan, Stile4aly, DiamondbacksWIn, Azreous, dstorm, UofAZGrad, luckycc, dahlian, srdmad, mrssoco, and Zephon.

Although we usually score more than... oh, I dunno, one run while at home, I'll take the end result, and we start this homestand 1-0. Randy Johnson goes for his 289th win... again... tomorrow, and you KNOW he's gotta be frustrated. So, you won't want to miss what happens to the first Royals batter who so much as accidentally spits a sunflower seed shell in his general direction. I'll say this much: there will be blood.

Hopefully, Mr. and Mrs. Snakepit enjoyed the fireworks after the game, despite the lack of fireworks IN the game through the first 9, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that we're all pretty disappointed that the Snakepits weren't shown on camera. Now Jim HAS to tell us what his sign(s) said.

Jim's Game Notes

• Met up with Shoe for drinks before, and discussed how to relieve the problems ailing the team's offense. Trying a few more bunt hits seems like a good idea: not only would we have a good chance to succeed with the speed of Upton, Young, etc. but forcing the infield to play in would also help.
• Young looked awful in the leadoff spot, going 0-for-5 with 4 K's. It took him eleven pitches, over three at-bats, before he touched the ball. Drew had a couple of solid hits, and looked pretty good; Upton had three walks though one was intentional and another unintentionally-intentional; and I was pleased to see Tracy round into form. The rest of the lineup? Sheesh.
• What is up with chief Rallyback Mike's hair? And whatever it is, can he please stop it?
• Doug Davis's curve = awesome. First time he's pitched seven shutout innings at Chase since joining us,
• When the announcement came in the ninth, "Now pitching for Arizona, Billy Buckner," the sense of "Who?" was palpable.
• We sit twenty-two rows back, looking up the third-base line, and even we knew Justin Upton caught that ball. How in hell did the four umpires get together and come to a different conclusion? If we'd lost due to that, I'd have been miffed. Looked like it rattled Buckner, and the double-play which followed was a blessed relief.
• The pitch before Tracy's homer, he just fouled off an 0-2 pitch that ended up about three feet behind home plate.
• The firework show was appropriately Friday the 13th themed, with music from Psycho, Jaws, The Twilight Zone, Ghostbusters, Friday the 13th and Attack of the Giant Leeches. Ok, maybe not the last one.
  
• Afterwards, more beers with Shoe and Scott S, where we picked their brains about a possible baseball trip for Mrs. SnakePit and I, to Washington and Philadelphia next month. Good times.

Random fun facts

• Last team to play three consecutive extra-inning game and concede less than the seven runs we've allowed: the Braves in September 1993.
• Second 1-0, extra-inning win in franchise history. First was the 18-inning monster vs. the Giants, May 29, 2001. 
• First walk-off homer since Tony Clark's in the 11th against Atlanta, July 27 last year.
• The two teams combined to leave twenty-one runners on base before Chad sent us all home. That number hasn't been surpassed in a 1-0 NL game, since September 2, 2001, where Arizona stranded 19 and San Diego 5, as we went down 1-0 in thirteen innings. The one before that was the marathon against the Giants mentioned above, where thirty were left on base.

And since Skins asked, here's our sign... :-)

Record: 34-29. Pace: 87-75. Change on last season: -2

Double-D has made 39 starts since coming to Arizona. In the 16 where has allowed less than three walks, his record is 9-2. In the now eleven starts where he has handed out more than three free passes, it's 2-8. So, from the moment Doug Davis walked two Pittburgh batters in the first inning - even though one of them looked like a pretty good strike three - it was clear this was going to be a struggle for the Diamondbacks. When Davis walks people, whether the result of a miserly umpire, a lack of control or, as today, a bit of both, trouble tends to result, sooner or later.

In this case, it took a bit of time. The Pirates stranded five men on base in the first three innings, without scoring. But Pittsburgh made no such mistake in the fourth, getting five hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly to plate five runs. The game was blown open, and Davis yanked after just 3.2 innings in which he allowed seven hits and four walks - simply too many base-runners to be effective. It's not necessarily the walks themselves; today, only one of the four came round to score. However, it does drive up his pitch-count - he'd passed fifty before getting out of the second today - and means the hits which Davis will give up are more likely to score runs.

Arizona took the lead on a passed ball in the second, allowing Jackson to trot home from third. However, the next time we got a runner past first-base, we were four runs behind: Mark Reynolds homered to lead off the fifth, but Max Scherzer struggled with his own control in the bottom half. He walked one batter, hit two more and then allowed an RBI single to push the Pirates lead back to four. Even so, we had our chances thereafter: we loaded the bases up and brought the tying run to the plate in the sixth, but Reynolds grounded out. We got two men on in the seventh...and Hudson flew out. Reynolds cut the Pirates' lead in half with his second homer of the day in the eighth, and when Ojeda singled with two outs in the ninth, we had the tying run at the plate once again. However, O-Dawg grounded out to complete an 0-for-5 day, and the winning streak was over.

Pretty much a standard day for Arizona at the plate over the past month: 6-8 hits once more - twelve games in a row for that little streak now - five runs or less [13 straight] and a defeaeach had a pair of hits and a walk, while Reynolds had his two homers, giving him thirteen on the year and 39 RBI, both leading the team. Special K is one of the few Diamondbacks to have been hitting of late; since May 18, he is batting .323 [20-for-62], with six homers and 11 RBI in 18 games. [Despite the ohfer today, O-Dawg is still hot, batting .321 post his return]

The B-squad was out today, with Ojeda, Burke and Romero all starting. I am still not quite sure what Melvin is trying to accomplish by putting Burke in a) the starting lineup, and b) the lead-off spot. I've seen very little to convince me that he is a better option than Jeff Salazar, even taking into account the handedness of the opposing starting pitcher. 0-for-3 with a walk for Burke, dropping his season average to .184. Romero started in right, replacing Upton, whose slump showed no signs of abating with a pinch-strikeout in the seventh. At this stage, it's hard to say what we should do with J-Up. Much as I'd like to see him stay here and work his way through it, there has got to be a point where a young hitter may need to take a step backwards, in order to keep going forward. 6-for-62 with thirty K's, would seem precariously close to that point.

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Master of his domain: Conor Jackson, +9.2%
God-Emperor of suck: Doug Davis, -30.9%
Dishonorable mention: Orlando Hudson, -11.8%

Thanks to kishi for starting the overflow thread today. How wise of me to give him the ability to to do so...about two months ago :-) He's now been "properly" promoted to the page footer, alongside the other editors. I like the pyramidal structure, with one manager, two editors and three authors...  Anyway, present for this morning's entertainment were soco, foulpole, DbacksSkins, mrssoco, kishi, Azreous, hotclaws, dahlian, TwinnerA, Wimb, emilylovesthedbacks, CPAYNEonaplane, luckycc, unnamedDBacksfan and Muu.

Have to say, this was the game in the series I was least optimistic about winning: Davis is still not a pitcher I can bank on for a quality start in the same way as Webb, Haren - and, increasingly, Randy Johnson. If we can get a win tomorrow [and that depends upon whether our offense can rub the sleep from their eyes in time for an unholy first pitch - 12:35 in Pittsburgh, which is about 4 am, Arizona time or something], then that'll be fine. Three wins out of four for a road series is pretty good. Meanwhile, we wait to see whether the inevitable Dodger loss after a Diamondbacks loss ensues as expected.

Record: 32-26. Pace: 89-73. Change on last season: -2

Ooh, look at the Diamondbacks queuing up for the all-you-can-eat Blame Buffet this evening. There's Mark Reynolds, piling his plate high. Chad Qualls looks particularly hungry too. Doug 'Batting Practice' Slaten is forming an orderly line, right in front of Augie 'Mini EB' Ojeda. I see Chris Snyder, letting Prince Fielder steal in, right before his eyes. And Bob Melvin is coming back for a second helping, while we try to work out the logic behind his baffling managerial choices. Even Doug Davis is nibbling on an appetizer, since Fielder's theft of third-base was likely as much on his head as Snyder's.

Otherwise, though, up until the seventh inning, Davis was pretty much everything you could want, with just one run on five hits and a walk. Sure, the Brewers had runners in scoring position with no outs in the first and second inning, and two outs in the third, but the only damage after six frames was Fielder's manufactured run: single, wild-pitch, steal, sacrifice fly. I was more than a little surprised - and said so at the time - that he was allowed to bat for himself in the sixth, then go back to the mound for the seventh. With a fully-rested bullpen [only two innings over Saturday and Sunday], it seemed to be pushing our luck somewhat, especially as we only had a two-run lead.

And events proved these fears entirely justified. Another infield single [one of five on the night, which seems like an awful lot], Drew's off-line throw pulling Tracy off the bag, and then a walk, marked the end of Doug's night, but was only a warm-up for the atrocity exhibition to come. Chad Qualls came in, and Kendall tried to sacrifice - Qualls, with plenty of time to get the runner, threw wildly and again pulled the fielder covering first away from the base. That meant everyone was safe, with the bases now loaded with Brewers, and still no-one was out. Worse was to follow: Qualls then coaxed a ground-ball to Reynolds, who fired the ball home. Or, more accurately, fired the ball about five yards to Snyder's right, allowing two runs to score and tying the game.

Remarkably, Qualls then managed to escape the second and third, nobody out jam without further damage, on a strikeout, a walk and a double-play - let's just review the Win Probability as the inning unfolded:

Milwaukee Win Probabilty - 22.3%
B Hall Single - 29.3%
J Hardy    Walk - 39.7%
C Qualls relieved D Davis
J Kendall SacBunt+Err - 53.0%
G Kapler FC+Err - 82.3%
R Weeks Strikeout - 73.5%
M Cameron Walk - 73.5%
R Braun    Ground DP - 50.0%

"Ok, we somehow got out with the score still tied. We just need our bullpen to..." Barely had that thought crossed my mind, when Doug Slaten served up a fatty to a fatty, and Prince Fielder promptly crushed the ball to deep center. It may not have landed yet - the results of that pitching change made the NL Manager of the Year look a bit crap, didn't it? In the ninth, some luck finally broke Arizona's way: back-to-back errors by the Brewers allowed Reynolds and Upton to reach. With the tying run on second, we were back in the game; a sacrifice bunt by Snyder [and, for once, this actually increased our Win Probability, albeit by a massive one-half of one percent] brought the tying run to third with one out. Even a sacrifice fly would do.

But there then followed a pair of mystifying decisions by Melvin. Firstly, letting Burke - about the worst hitter on the roster - hit for himself. Somehow he managed to work a walk, loading the bases for a pinch-hitter. Who do you think Melvin sent up? Miguel Montero? Jeff Salazar? Even, perhaps, the injured Conor Jackson, for some Kirk Gibsonesque heroics? No: try Augie Ojeda, a man who has been in the majors since 2000, has amassed eight sacrifice flies in that time and was getting his first at-bat since May 25. Really: much as I love the littlest ballplayer, he's not who I wanted to see at the plate. I have a better chance of driving the ball to the outfield than Ojeda. He immediately fell behind 0-2, just got a piece of a couple of pitches that were miles outside the zone, then popped up weakly on the infield. Drew got screwed by the umpire for strike three, though the way we played over those final innings, we can hardly complain - we don't deserve to win a game for the rest of the season.

The bullpen picked up its tenth loss of the season, against only three wins, wasting another quality start. The Diamondbacks' rotation has now gone 29-16, the most victories in the majors - even including the AL, where starters go deeper and so have more chance of a decision. In comparison, last year, our relievers didn't pick up their tenth defeat for another entire month, until July 4. It's turning into a real Achilles heel for the team: Qualls and Slaten have combined to go 0-7, in just 43.2 innings of work. I know wins and losses are not the most reliable method of judging performance - especially for relievers - but a 3-10 record would seem to provide credible cause for concern.

The offense sputtered, coughed, and fell back into the trough from whence they came, going 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. And even that hit resulted in an out: Reynolds singled to the infield, scoring Drew from third - but Chris Young motored around too, trying to score from second and was thrown out at the plate. That run would have been very nice to have later on, shall we say. Reynolds and Snyder has a pair of hits apiece, with Snyder adding his fifth homer of the year. Burke had a hit and two walks, while Drew reached twice, on a hit and a walk - he was caught stealing on a strikeout/thrown-out double play. That's the first time he's been nailed in the majors, after 13 successful attempts.

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Master of his domain: Chris Snyder, +22.5%
Honorary mention: Mark Reynolds, +21.1% No, I'm calling that null and void
God-emperor of suck: oh, where to start? Deep breath...
Augie Ojeda, -22.4%
Stephen Drew, -23.3%
Doug Slaten, -25.5%

Tonight's fangraph looks like the overnight pulse-rate of a man whose bedroom was visited at 4am by Al Qaeda, 5am by Jenna Jameson, and finally, at 6am by the Grim Reaper. Not one for the ages, shall we say. I did still mostly enjoy the Gameday Thread, so thanks to the contributors: DbacksSkins, Azreous, kishi, dahlian, foulpole, mr.tunes [welcome!], hotclaws, soco, luckycc, DiamondbacksWIn, Wimb, RAMJB, LucaMaz3, njjohn, Zephon, 4 Corners Fan, Goose, TwinnerA, unnamedDBacksfan, mrssoco and shoewizard.

No-one seems to know how long Jackson will be out. He took batting practice today and is scheduled to run some agility drills tomorrow, which will hopefully answer some questions there. The MRI he received on Saturday showed a small tear in his quadriceps, and Melvin said yesterday that "We're going to try to shut him down for potentially three or four days and see where we're at. If he's back in the lineup a couple days after that, it's kind of what we're hoping for." Seems like it might be the middle of the Pittsburgh series before we get him back fulltime, at best. The latter story does say Jackson might be available as a pinch-hitter, and Melvin describes him as "usable, but not my first option." Which makes his absence in the ninth today all the more puzzling.

The Dodgers, to no-one's great surprise, closed the gap to 3.5 by beating the Rockies, who dropped their eighth game in a row. If Colorado keep this up, they are going to end up right alongside the 1998 fire-sale Marlins, for the biggest implosions in baseball history: Florida went from 92 wins and World Series champions, to just 54 the next year; the Rockies have now lost 16 of their last 21 games, and are on pace to go from the World Series to a 56-106 season. More importantly, we can't expect them to take the next two games from Los Angeles, and so winning tomorrow and Wednesday become doubly-important. 

Record: 30-23. Pace: 92-70. Change on last season: 0

I'm sorry: these are not the San Francisco Giants I signed up to face. I signed up for the franchise widely predicted to have the worst record in the National League, and probably lose somewhere around 100 games. There appears to have been some kind of mistake - these Giants came into the impregnable fortress known as Chase, and pounded our butts to the tune of 17-6 in the first two games. I would like to return them for the anticipated woeful bunch of Bonds-less losers. I still have the receipt somewhere.

Ouch. That'll leave a mark. And, I note from the opening line, bring us back on track with the 2007 version of the team for the first time in a long while. Since they went on to win games #54-56 inclusive, we're going to have to seriously pull up our socks if we don't want to end this homestand in negative territory and trailing ourselves from last season. We can't hit, we can't pitch and we can't play defense. How in hell is this team still 3.5 games ahead in the NL West? We've now lost five of our last seven games and yet, have actually increased our lead by half a game in that time. Sheesh: I can only imagine what the rest of the division has been doing.  Oh, yeah: losing to the other divisions. The NL West now has a combined record of 22-31 against the East and 31-47 facing the Central.

Where to start tonight? Not that I really want to, for this is the kind of humiliating defeat that is best ignored entirely. As tonight's Gameday Thread proved, in which we managed to accumulate more than 750 comments, most of them not dealing with the actual game at all. Can't say I blame anyone. Let's being with Doug Davis, who was awful: nine hits, three walks and six earned runs in five innings of work. That said, he just about kept us in the game until the four-run fifth, and he would probably have got out of that unscathed, except for an ill-conceived stab at a comebacker with the bases-loaded. That turned a potential double-play into an RBI infield single; an RBI walk and a two-run single later, the Giants were 6-0 up and the discussion of ice-cream could begin in earnest.

Our bullpen hardly covered itself in glory, allowing five earned runs in the four frames of mop-up duty. Juan Cruz was the worst offender, with what started off as a fairly typical Cruz performance: walk, swinging K, walk. He then allowed a double and was lifted from the game complaining of a sore neck. This was also experienced by the 24,336 in attendance, who strained their muscles watching the Giants players whizz around the base-paths. Slaten and Gonzalez followed, while Brandon Lyon appeared in among the least save-like situations of his career, as we trailed 11-3. [On August 24, 2005, he did come in to a game against the Mets when we were 16-0 down!] He struck out the side, around a couple of hits, becoming the only pitcher to escape unscathed.

That was a rare pleasant point on a night where we sucked on just about every level. If we're clutching at straws, Justin Upton finally got a hit, ending his streak at 0-for-27. He thereby dodged setting the franchise record for such things, which remains at 0-for-30, by both Steve Finley in April 2001, and Travis Lee in July-August 1999. J-Up, however, had rather more strikeouts during his streak, than that pair combined - he added another two K's tonight, and is now tied with Mark Reynolds on 62, equal third in the majors [Ryan Howard, remarkably, is already on 76, on pace to smash all known strikeout records into oblivion. By about the All-Star break...]

By the time Upton put us on the board with his two-run double, we were already ten runs down, so the words "damned with faint praise" come to mind as far as our offensive performance went tonight. Mark Reynolds showed signs of life with two hits, including his ninth homer, and a walk - if we can get him and Upton back on track, that will be a major step towards this team breaking out of their funk at the plate of late. In April, we collectively batted .268; in May so far, much the same roster has slumped to only .246. We are taking a few more walks, but the power outage has been dramatic; we had 36 homers through the end of April, but Reynolds' shot was only the team's 20th in May, with just three days to go. Reynolds, Upton and Jackson combined for 17 homers in the first month, but have only four since then.

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Master of his domain: Conor Jackson, +6.7%
God-emperor of suck: Doug Davis, -22.8%

Our worst performance in quite some time, but the best Gameday Thread turnout in a while too. I blame 'Skins, who cracked the double-century of posts, but got valuable assistance from: srdmad, soco, hotclaws, kishi, UofAZGrad, victor frankenstein, dahlian, mrssoco, likeavirgin, foulpole, 4 Corners Fan, RAMJB, Wimb, unnamedDBacksfan, IndyDBack and Zephon, the last-named who had the misfortune to be present at the game. Wisely, he left with the score 6-0, and it didn't get much better from there on.

As they say, it's always darkest before the dawn, and these couple of games have been pretty damn dark - ergo, it's time for light to peer over the horizon. Tomorrow sees a battle of more or less over-paid starters; normally the prospect of facing someone who's 1-8 would be an encouraging sign, but the way the offense has been playing of late, we'll probably get no-hit by Mr. Zito. I know it doesn't feel like it, but do please try to remember that we are not just still atop the division, we have also got the biggest lead in all baseball. The rest of the season starts here...

Record: 29-19. Pace: 98-64. Change on last season: +4

Y'know, given how badly this started, it was a particularly kick-ass day. I had one of the worst night's sleep I've had in a very long time: the SnakePitette's new puppy ended up sharing our bed last night. Which I didn't realize, until I came to bed - and stretched my arm out, only for something to begin licking my fingers. It took me a while to work out it wasn't Mrs. SnakePit. I think it was the barking that gave it away. Anyway, turned out we were puppysitting overnight, which was fine, until the little canine opted to pounce on my face. That will wake you up, i don't care who you are. To cut a long (sleepless) story short, today was only survived with the aid of a large quantity of caffeinated beverages.

The evening though? Particularly wonderful. Indeed, the wonderfulness started not long after first pitch, as by the time we reached the middle of the first inning, we'd already scored more runs than in the entire Marlins series. By the end of the game, the D-backs had outscored their total from the previous five games combined, and had singlehandedly matched their home-run production in the last eleven. We gave up on the game as a blowout victory after Chris Young pounded a two-run shot to make it 10-1, and then went to dinner with legendary B-movie producer/director Charles Band, is town for his horror roadshow tomorrow, which Mrs. SnakePit is road manager for this year. He has some great, great stories, such as the late great Klaus Kinski holding a knife to the throat of the director of Crawlspace, while on set in Italy. We're really looking forward to seeing Band's latest epic, Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust.

But, I digress. Tonight was a complete vindication: after last night's shutout, I said this team wasn't really that bad. I didn't quite expect them to prove me right quite so fast, with our first double-digit margin of victory in almost exactly a year - the last one was Friday, May 25th last season, against Houston, when we won 13-3. If only we could take the scoring tonight, and backdate it to the three games against the Marlins, we could have won almost all those as well. However, this is baseball, not mutual funds, so we can simply settle for ending the losing streak in the most emphatic fashion possible. This was no cheap win either: the Braves came in with a 20-5 record at Turner Field, and having just swept the Mets in a four-game series, by a combined margin of 27-9.

However, despite a five-game winning streak, before their first hitter came to the plate, Atlanta's win probability found itself already reduced to just 14.4%, as Arizona plundered five runs in the top of the first. Drew homered with one out, Snyder added a two-run double with two outs, and Byrnes immediately followed with a two-run homer, part of his latest slump-busting attempt. After the misery which was our at-bats in Florida, this was like an orange sorbet, washing away the taste of boiled broccoli. That was only the start. Young singled home a couple of runs in the fourth; Jackson homered in the fifth; Young homered with Reynolds aboard in the sixth, to take us into double-figures; and Reynolds himself capped it off with our fifth long-ball of the night, to lead off the eighth.

The Diamondbacks proved remarkably efficient, scoring eleven runs on only nine hits; we left just three men on base all night. Young, Drew and Byrnes each had two hit nights, with Jackson and Snyder reaching safely twice, on a hit and a walk apiece, while Upton drew a pair of free passed. I am forced to correct DbacksSkins however, since those five home-runs is not actually a team record, as he reported in the thread. We homered six times in a wind-assisted 15-4 victory at Wrigley Field, on July 31st, 2006. We have now homered five times on eleven occasions, most recently on July 31st, 2005, also at Wrigley.

Tonight, however, the hero is not the offense, and even they would likely be happy to take a back seat to Doug Davis. He made his first start since his thyroid removal, and allowed one run in seven innings, flummoxing the Braves with 82 mph fastballs and timely double-plays. As is usual, he had his share of trouble, particularly early on. It looked like the Braves might mound a comeback in the second, getting a run in and putting runners on second and third with only one out. However, he struck out the opposing pitcher, and then Upton made an all-or-nothing dive in right to save a couple of runs, atoning for an error earlier in the inning. The first two Braves also reached in the third, but a Teixeira double-play proved a turning point: aided by a couple more twin killings, Davis faced the minimum from there through the end of the seventh. The "W" was rarely more deserved by a starter.

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God-emperor of his domain: Doug Davis, plus several million
Honorary mention: Chris Snyder, +14.9%
God-emperor of suck: Orlando Hudson, -3.3%

It's almost a complete reversal from last night, where hardly anyone was in positive territory. In this game only Hudson and Davis (at the plate) were less than zero, and the latter's contribution on the mound more than outweighed what he did at the dish - his two sacrifice bunts actually reduced our Win Probability by 0.1%, even though the second one came with the score 8-1 in our favor. A much more upbeat Gameday Thread for obvious reasons - hey, we should score five runs every first inning. Present were Azreous, dahlian, DbacksSkins, hotclaws, Augie's Army, acidtongue (now, that was fun!), foulpole, luckycc, isoldout, kishi, Muu, TwinnerA, OnlineHomeopath and snakecharmer.

So, we kicked ass, restoring normal order to the universe. Dodgers lost too, restoring our lead in the division back to 3.5 games. All of a sudden, things look a great deal better than they did 24 hours ago, and here's to that trend continuing over the rest of the long weekend. Not going to about much tomorrow, because the aforementioned Horror Roadshow - Azreous has agreed to be on recap duties for that one. But If anyone wants to join us at The Sets in the evening, mention the SnakePit and we'll let you in for free. Yes, an 11-1 victory has left us filled with the very milk of human kindness: I'm off to hug a puppy and go to bed!