Record: 25-15. Pace: 101-61. Change on last season: +4

The good news is, yes, The Sets now has wi-fi. The bad news is, my PC never went past "Acquiring network address", so full connectivity proved elusive this evening. Still, I was able to watch some of the game, albeit on a TV with a dodgy cable connection. This was a different one from last week's frozen mosaic device: this one was old-school lines and static. Still, he are are my notes, pretty much written as the game unfolded. I arrived just in time to see Eric Byrnes' first at-bat of the evening, which can only be described as possessing all the hideous fascination of a car-accident. Even when he was 3-0 ahead, you knew it was going to end in another Flying Nun, and after swinging at ball four, that's exactly what happened as he struck out swinging. There were some poignant and painfully appropriate signs in the crowd: the one that sticks in my mind said "Eric: don't hit it here. Just hit it."

De La Rosa had a very nice curveball; makes you wonder if he'll eventually be another one of those pitchers we look back on and regret trading away [a.k.a. the Brad Penny Hall of Fame]. Turns out he passed through our organization not once, but twice: we signed him back in March 1998, then sold him to Monterrey in 2000, before his brief transit as part of both the Schilling and Sexson trades. He struck out Owings and Young with it in the third, despite the sign in the crowd saying "Our lineup has nine hitters. Does yours?" - the more cynical among you are probably muttering that this is being somewhat kind to certain members of said lineup. Interesting to see Snyder trying to drop down a bunt with Reynolds on first. Not many times you'll see the #8 hitter in an NL lineup doing that, with the pitcher on deck. Just another way that the presence of Pwnings changes the dynamics of the game.

Owings was pitching with admirable efficiency - well, from what I can tell anyway. The entire top of the fourth, bar the final fly-ball, happened in the time it took me to write the above paragraph [my laptop is out of sight of the television, so I keep having to scurry across the bar, watch some baseball, and then run back to our table.] We finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth; a Drew double, an infield single by Hudson, and a Jackson single, spectacularly misplayed into a double by Hawpe, which brought the first run home. The Rockies walked Upton to get to Byrnes, who promptly obliged by grounding into a double-play, albeit one that did score another run. He was just trying SO hard, it was...sad and painful and about a dozen other emotions, all in one. The volume was down on the TV - how was the crowd reaction?

Perhaps the biggest hit was Orlando Hudson's two-RBI knock in the bottom of the fifth, that doubled our lead and made the score 4-0. We had men on second and third with one outs, but Drew struck out and it looked as if De La Rosa was going to escape the inning unscathed. However, O-Dawg muscled a bloop into the outfield, and both base-runners advanced. A walk to Jackson ended the Colorado starter's evening with two outs in the fourth, but another free pass, to Upton, meant that Byrnes came up with the bases-loaded again. One headfirst slide later, the inning was over - ironically, just in time for the start of the comedy show, which basically suspended my ability to pay much attention to the game, except sneaking surreptitious glances out of the corner of my eye.

What I did see, in a squinty way, was Colorado gradually pulling closer after Owings left. In contrast to yesterday, while much the same bullpen was in operation, they didn't exactly look lights out - tonight, it was seven hits and three runs in three innings. Each of Qualls, Slaten and Peña were tagged for a run by the Rockies, which meant Lyon was faced with a one-run lead in the ninth. If one pitch can be said to have decided the outcome, it was a 3-1 pitch to Matt Holliday that he thought was ball four: the home-plate umpire disagreed and Holliday grounded out. That proved crucial as Lyon subsequently allowed a pair of two-out singles that put the tying run at third-base. However, he then got Hawpe to pop out to Reynolds, for his fifteenth straight shutout inning, eleventh save and Arizona's 25th victory.

Excellent outing by Owings, who gave us six scoreless innings, on five hits and two walks, with five K's. He got into and out of trouble in the first, loading the bases with one out, but got a crucial strikeout of Atkins and escaped without damage. The Rockies didn't get another runner past second base until the last batter Owings faced, to end the sixth inning. However, Owings did go ohfer, dropping his average down to "only" .370 - he might have been robbed by a call at first, however. Arizona was actually outhit quite significantly by the Rockies, 12-7, but they left the bases littered with wasted opportunities, stranding a dozen men. Drew and Hudson had two hits, the latter also surviving a nasty moment when he stumbled coming out of the batter's box, which led to the grounds crew drying up the area around home-plate.

[Click to enlarge in new window]
Master of his domain: Micah Owings, +31.5%
Honorary mention: Orlando Hudson, +16.0%
God-emperor of suck: Eric Byrnes, -8.8%

Solid turnout in the Gameday Thread - we might even have needed an overflow thread, if I'd been able to get connected. However, thanks to those who did not experience technical difficulties; soco, mrssoco, DbacksSkins, Wimb, unnamedDBacksfan, 4 Corners Fan, kishi (happy birthday!), foulpole, snakecharmer, hotclaws, TwinnerA, isoldout, dstorm, frienetic, dahlian, UptonMVP, batster, srdmad, seton hall snake pit, Zephon and singaporedbacksfan. With tomorrow night's marquee pitching match-up, however, I will be clearing the decks and should be in full effect.

Finally, here's one of those player comparison things:
Left-fielder A: .214/.275/.357     
Left-fielder B: .276/.343/.429
I think we all know who Player A is, so let's move on, shall we? Player B, however, might surprise you: Luis Gonzalez, in a less-than-full time role for the surprising (and NL East leading) Florida Marlins. Over on Major-League Jerk, Hef speculates on how Gonzo's career might have played out, had he decided to stay here. It's an interesting domino-esque effect, had Gonzo stayed as the fourth outfielder in 2006, backing up Quentin, Young and Byrnes. Who can say?

Record: 22-13. Pace: 102-60. Change on last season: +3

Your attention please. During the early stages of today's Gameday Thread, a picture was posted which contained a small typographical error. A corrected version of this photograph follows below.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

The quote that form today's title is courtesy of Dahlian in the Gameday Thread, and eloquently captures the frustrating nature of today's defeat. Either that, or a cat wandered across his keyboard. I can cope with Byrnes' relentless recent streak of suck: he's now 5-for-50 in the past dozen games, with no walks or extra-base hits and 12 K's. But today, his flamboyant flailing at strikes finally caught up with him in the eighth inning, and set a new nadir. The victim was Augie Ojeda, who'd singled to lead off [in a one-run game, mind], but was called out as he stole second, on catcher interference by Byrnes. Eric's violent afterswing was judged to have blocked the Cubs' catcher's attempt to nail Ojeda, wiping the tying run off base. Yes, Byrnes is the only player we have who can strike out into a double-play... :-(

And it started so well too, with Chris Young homering in the first inning, which must have brought back memories to the Cubs faithful, since he did exactly the same thing in the same stadium, the last time these two teams met, in what turned out to be the finale of the 2007 NLDS. We sat back, and waited for the offense to kick the door in against the shaky Lilly.

And we waited.

And we waited.

But nothing showed up. We had two-out hits. We had runners in scoring position. We just never quite managed to combine the two, and get hits on the rare occasions we had runners in scoring position. Our best chance was probably the fourth, where Jackson walked, then stole second [as pointed out in the Gameday Thread, he is 3-0 in stolen bases this year, better than a certain someone's 4-2...] with no outs. However, Upton, Reynolds and Snyder all went down swinging. Conversely, the Cubs did their damage the hard way. After Haren had fanned the first two hitters in the fifth, DeRosa doubled, and Johnson was intentionally walked to get to the pitcher...who promptly drove in the tying run with a single. An RBI double then gave the Cubs the lead, and inevitably led to some second-guessing of Melvin, especially since Haren had retired 15 of 17 hitters when the walk was called for.

Said Melvin, "You've got to. In a 1-0 game like that, you have to. Johnson's hitting [.346] with runners in scoring position and if Johnson gets a hit there, I feel worse than I do. You've got to make the pitcher beat you in that situation." This is where I point out a) the evidence for clutch hitting is scant at best, b) and becomes basically non-existent, when your sample-size is 26 at-bats. Yes, that .346 figure is based upon exactly nine hits for Johnson with RISP this year. S'funny: 26 at-bats are sufficient to get a guy an intentional walk, but almost twice as many are apparently not enought evidence to merit moving a certain someone down the order. This is one aspect of Melvin's managerial style that drives me nuts: the abuse of stats, such as batter vs. hitter match-ups, to decide lineups and tactics. In this case, it bit him in the ass.

Good outing by Haren; if only he could have got the last out in the fifth. Up until that point, his stuff was nasty and causing a lot of problems for the Cubs hitters. He pitched seven innings, allowing just those two fifth-inning runs, on a total of five hits, two walks and five strikeouts. The Tribune reports that Haren actually lost 10 pounds in weight, after he went down with an upper respiratory infection earlier this season - that'd be the one providing all those "flu-like symptoms." And, quite probably, the same one currently treating my upper respiratory system as some kind of biological theme-park. "I felt great. I’m finally getting back to normal,"  he said after the game. Encouraging to see: I particularly liked the solid groundball-flyball ratio of 11:5 posted by Haren today.

Cruz pitched the eighth and final inning to the Cubs hitters, and performed his one-man version of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The good would be the three K's; the bad, the homer allowed to Lee; the ugly, probably the two walks and two hits he gave up, but as the homer was the first of these, he sauntered off with the bases loaded and no further damage down. Still, that's 12 walks and 17 strikeouts in only 13.2 innings: there's rarely nothing eventful about a Juan Cruz relief appearance. Nothing much to write home about at the plate, as we managed only four hits and two walks, while fanning twelve times. Jackson was the only player to reach safely more than once, getting both free passes.

I do wonder why Burke got the start - he went 0-for-3, to reduce his season average to .140, while Ojeda has his pinch-hit single, increasing his BA to .368. One also questions what purpose Robbie Hammock serves on the roster, now he has apparently fallen out of favor as Randy Johnson's personal catcher. In seventeen games the D-backs have played since Hammock's last start, he has just five plate-appearances - and three of those were in the extra-inning defeat to the Padres on the 26th. Speaking of catchers, Chris Snyder gets props, saying he has worked with hitting coach Rick Schu: "Chris’ bat speed is really good when that (left) shoulder really stays closed and his hands work," Schu said. Whatever they're doing is clearly working.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Dan Haren, +9.2%
God-emperor of suck: Eric Byrnes, -13.2%

Only two D-backs made it into positive territory win-wise: Haren, despite being tagged with the L, and Jackson, at +4.7%. The WP dip in the eighth inning will henceforth be known as the Byrnes Trench. Thanks to those who skipped work or otherwise made it the day game this afternoon. Present, at least in spirit, at Wrigley were: El Stuart, 4 Corners Fan, kishi, njjohn, hotclaws, foulpole, Turambar, isoldout, singaporedbacksfan, IndyDBack, dahlian, Craig from Az, TwinnerA, Augie's Army, shoewizard, DbacksSkins, Azreous, Snakebitten, Xeifrank, snakecharmer, peeklay, manphibian, srdmad and soco.

Another day game tomorrow, with Scherzer getting his second start - hopefully with better results. Disturbing to realize that we just lost the game pitched by our best starter this series, but it looks unlikely to lose us any real ground, as the Astros are 6-0 up over the Dodgers with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. And with that, I'm off to dose myself with NyQuil and go to sleep!

Record: 23-12. Pace: 106-56. Change on last season: +4.

Outside of a somewhat wobbly top of the first inning, where our defense again gifted the opposition a run, this was just what the doctor ordered. Brandon Webb gave the bullpen a much-needed day off, with his first complete game of the season, and the offense came through, providing plentiful run support - they've scored eighteen runs for their ace over his last two starts.

Webb was particularly dominant through the first eight innings, allowing only an unearned run. That came as the result of a passed ball by Chris Snyder, through Burke should also have made the play at first, and there could have been a twin-killing during the inning. However, Webb settled down and retired 16 of 17 Phillies, the only one to reach being Bruntlett, hit by a pitch. He had a three-hitter going, entering the ninth: while he did see to flag somewhat there, allowing two runs on three hits, he finished off by getting another double-play with his 104th pitch, to complete his 13th career complete-game.

His final line was six hits, no walks and four strikeouts over the nine innings, with three runs allowed, two earned: up until the final stretch, this was probably his best outing of the year so far. Even so, it still runs Webb's record to 8-0, a stunning achievement given that no-one else in the National League has more than five wins so far. That's also Brandon's tenth victory in a row, the longest run in the National League since John Smoltz won eleven consecutive games for Atlanta near the start of 1996. The only other NL pitcher to reach double-digits over the past 30 years, is Andy Hawkins, who matched Webb, with ten straight in 1985.

After the Phillies took the lead, Arizona jumped right back out there, on Young's two-run homer in the bottom of the first. his eighth of the year, giving him the team lead. But it was in the fourth where the D-backs really blew things open, scoring four times on three hits, two walks, an error and a sacrifice fly. Chris Snyder had the key knock, a two-run double, which meant he went 10-for-24 on the homestand, with six RBI. Over the twenty games he's played after his batting average sunk to .083 on April 11, Snyder has hit .357. It's time for him to be moved out of the eighth spot, and get more use out of his offense.

On the other hand, let us now speak of Eric Byrnes,, who went 0-for-5 this afternoon, and was saved by a Jenkins error from hitting into a double-play. That reduces his season average to .232 - startling, given that he was batting .293 on April 26, less than two weeks ago. Since then, he is 5-for-46, with no walks or extra-base hits, one RBI and ten strikeouts. He batted leadoff for the D-backs today, and was the only position player a) not to get a hit, and b) not to drive in or score a run. There are really only two possibilities left: he's injured, or he sucks. In neither case, should he be in the top third of the batting order any longer - yet as I mentioned in the Gameday Thread, the worse he gets, the higher up the order he moves. His OBP is now below .300, the worst of the regular eight starters. Much as I love Byrnes...he's killing us.

There were a couple of interesting changes in the lineup today, one of them enforced by the absence of Jackson and Hudson, but the other was more optional. Chris Young started out of the lead-off spot for the first time this season, and was in the three-hole instead, somewhere he was last seen late in 2006. And behind him, making his debut batting fourth, was Justin Upton: how many teams have a 20-year old in the clean-up slot? Seemed to work pretty well for both of them: they combined to go 3-for-7 with three runs scored and three driven in, and each had a homer.

Upton's line for the season is now .344/.407/.566: I know it's early, but if he sustains an OPS of .973 by the end of the year, it'll be the fourth-best ever by a player his age. He'll be trailing Ted Williams (1.045 in 1939), Alex Rodriguez (1.045 in 1996) and Mel Ott (1.084 in 1929). Even if he loses a hundred points of OPS the rest of the way, that'd still be second only to A-Rod since 1959, when Vada Pinson put up a .316/.371/.509 year for the Cincinnati Red. Today, however, Mark Reynolds was the star, getting his first three-hit game of the season; we'll even forgive Webb going 0-for-4 with five men left on base. Happy to take the complete game any time.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Brandon Webb, +17.8%
Honorary mention: Chris Young, +15.3%
God-Emperor of suck: Chris Burke, -7.2%

The afternoon game inevitably affected Gameday Thread attendance a bit, and perhaps there was a hangover from yesterday's fiasco too. I managed to sneak in for a bit at lunchtime, and also present were paqs, Bcawz, unnamedDBacksfan, soco, El Stuart, IndyDBack, kishi, dahlian, Craig from Az, Lisalisa8 [welcome!], 4 Corners Fan, hotclaws, SongBird, peeklay, Azreous, Smoltz's Beard, dstorm, DbacksSkins and singaporedbacksfan. And, hey, no irritating Dodgers fans to be found...and I so wanted to use the ban button for the first non-spamming time on SB Nation 2.0! We'll see what happens tomorrow, but bear in mind that it's another day-game: indeed, more of a morning game here in Arizona, so I will have to remember how to get something up before starting work!

Looks like there'll be no DL for Hudson, with Melvin saying before today's game, "At this point, I look to start [Hudson] Saturday, but he's in a pinch-hit role today and tomorrow." I hope that is indeed true, though I have heard an over-optimistic prognosis out of Melvin before in this case. Conor Jackson also looks to be ready to return, and could have been used as a pinch-hitter today had he been needed. "I'm surprised my arm is OK, to tell you the truth," he said. "I think that kind of took the brunt of it, but the helmet got me pretty good right below the temple, kind of in the orbit of the eye. I never lost consciousness, but I was definitely seeing stars." Remember, folks: please don't try those kind of moves at home, because Conor Jackson is a trained professional... :-)

Here's a reminder of something from last December by Nick Piecoro, which will probably have you gnawing off the odd limb in frustration. "Can you believe what Cliff Lee has been doing? The guy goes into New York last night and improves to 6-0 with seven shutout innings. And to think the Diamondbacks nearly had him. Twice. They were close on a deal last year at the All-Star break and then again prior to the winter meetings. Both deals were built around Carlos Quentin." Yes, the same Quentin whom we eventually handed over to the White Sox for an A-ball first-baseman... Sleep well, folks: see you in Chicago tomorrow!

Record: 21-10. Pace: 110-52. Change on last season: +5.

This was a particularly infuriating loss. To put it into gaming terms, it was like defeating the big boss, and then falling off the final platform just before you get to rescue the princess. Dan Haren held his own against Johan Santana, getting the Mets ace out of the game with only a one-run deficit, and then a broken-bat blooper from Mark Reynolds tied the game up [kudos there should go to Justin Upton, for the walk immediately beforehand, that pushed Conor Jackson into scoring position].

The turning point was probably the at-bat leading off the bottom of the eighth. Chris Burke laid down a bunt, and the throw to first was wide. However, rather than stop at second, Burke opted to try for third, and was nailed there, admittedly by a perfect throw from Church in right. This violated the Unwritten Rules of Baseball #5, "Never make the first or third out at third" - a subsequent wild-pitch and Owings' infield single would probably have scored Burke from second, giving Arizona a 3-2 lead, going into the ninth inning.

Instead, the score was tied, but some defensive mis-cues cost Arizona dearly. First, there was a single to right that Jackson might have gloved. Then, there was a double-play ball that wasn't, due to the big defensive shift from Alou. And, worst of all, there was a third groundball, this time to Jackson, which he promptly threw into left-field while trying to start the double-play. The go-ahead run scored, and a sacrifice, pinch-hit single and a sac. fly gave the Mets a three-run lead, which was about two more than Billy Wagner needed to nail down the save, with a 1-2-3 ninth. One day after our final three outs exploded against the New York bullpen, the boot was firmly on the other foot this time.

Arizona left twelve men on base, the most in a nine-inning loss since stranding thirteen against Atlanta, back in July 2005. We piled up ten hits and five walks, beating the Mets in both areas, but just couldn't seem to get the breakthrough hit. Santana showed why he will be one of the Cy Young candidates at the end of the year, striking out eight D-backs in six innings, and continually getting the big outs when he needed them. We had men on base in every inning until the ninth, and had men in scoring position in the first, second and fourth (each with one out), as well as the sixth + seventh (both with two outs) and eighth (no outs).

But all we could muster was Snyder's first career triple - I'm still trying to work out how that stayed in the park, somehow ricocheting back into play off the padding next to our bullpen in left - and Reynolds RBI single. Ojeda, Reynolds and Snyder had two hits each: good to see our catcher begin to put things together, having improved his average from a low of .178 on April 20th, and is now batting .243 on the season. That same day also marked Special K's last multi-hit game before today, so we hope he can now turn it around and go on one of his much-loved hot streaks.

Eric Byrnes, however... I don't know if it's his hamstrings or what, but it was painful to watch him struggle at the plate this afternoon. He was 0-for-5 with three more K's, to drop his average down to .242. It makes him 2-for-28 going back to last Sunday's game, with no walks, no extra-base hits, and eight K's. I know Byrnes is a gamer, who wants to be in the lineup every day, but there is a certain point where personal considerations need to be put aside. If it takes a couple of weeks on the DL to get him back to being right, then that's what it takes. We can play Salazar for a bit, and call Alex Romero back up. The production can hardly be any worse than we've got out of Byrnes recently. And until that takes place, take him out of the #3 spot. It has got to the stage where there is a collective wince when Byrnes come to the plate.

Dan Haren provided a quality start, allowing two runs on only three hits and a walk over six innings. He struck out seven Mets, and the duel between him and Santana was as advertised - if Ojeda has managed to turn an admittedly-difficult double-play, there'd have been one run less for the Mets. Haren could likely have continued, throwing only 85 pitches through those six innings, but his spot came up in the order during the bottom of the sixth, with men in scoring position. I think Melvin's decision to pinch-hit for him at that stage was appropriate, as runs were proving so hard to come by. Hudson was the replacement, and he walked, but it was apparent from the way he moved, that his hamstrings are not entirely healed either. I wouldn't be surprised to see him sitting tomorrow for the opener of the Phillies series.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Mark Reynolds, +19.2%
God-emperor of suck: Chad Qualls, -45.6% -
but with a major contribution from Conor Jackson

Certainly made for a lively Gameday Thread, which came back up to overflow levels, with almost 800 comments in total. Thanks to: unnamedDBacksfan, snakecharmer, foulpole, seton hall snake pit, El Stuart, luckycc, 4 Corners Fan, Augie's Army, LucaMaz3, hotclaws, DbacksSkins, Muu, Snakebitten, soco, mrssoco, TwinnerA, dahlian, friendly visiting fan RAMJB and Azreous for their contributions. Just a shame it couldn't have been in a more victorious cause.

Still, worth pointing out that it's the first time we have lost a series since the opening one in Cincinnati, more than a month ago. I guess it had to happen eventually, but Chase continues to be a happy hunting ground for the Mets. There no doubting the strength of that lineup; Church is probably the one who impressed me most over the series, not just for his bat, but also the cannon of an arm he showcased on a couple of occasions. The good news is, the Dodgers lost in Colorado today, so there was nothing further taken off our lead: the Dodgers and Mets now face each other, though Los Angeles will manage to dodge Santana.

We, meanwhile, welcome the Phillies to town, and we'll be eagerly anticipating the debut as a starter of Max Scherzer. He was aged two, when opposing starter Jamie Moyer made his major-league debut, back in. 1986. I think this might be a lot of fun. But if Arizona can avoid the horrific defense that cost them dearly in the first and last games of this series, I'd be a lot happier.

Record: 20-9. Pace: 112-50. Change on last season: +4

It certainly looks like the shine has gone off the start of the season for our offense. Over the past ten games, they have a collective line of .238/.311/.394. While they're still averaging an acceptable number of runs [4.7], they have an ugly K:BB ratio of almost 3:1 [94:32]. Of particular concern over this time are:
   Mark Reynolds: 4-for-36, 3 BB, 21 K
   Eric Byrnes: 5-for-32, 1 BB, 6 K
   Stephen Drew: 6-for-32, 4 BB. 4 K
I know that Reynolds was incredibly streaky last year, but he was one K away from having ten consecutive games with multiple strikeouts. The seven in a row he did manage, was a franchise record, and hasn't been surpassed in the majors since Cory Snyder's eight, from Sep. 27-Oct 5, 1986. Ten would have been the longest since Baseball-Reference.com records began, in 1956.

Last night was a poor performance on just about every level - when our hitting, pitching fielding and managing all sucked, to one degree or another, it seems almost petty to start pointing out specifics. Still, that's what I'm here for. :-( To go through these in reverse order, first off, I'm with dahlian on this one: it was questionable to run Owings out there at all. He could have been given extra days off without having to pitch anyone on short rest; he was visibly limping when running the bases on Wednesday. Using Webb tonight and Haren tomorrow would also have given us the pitching edge in two of the three games. 

Owings said afterwards: "I wasn't too sharp. I didn't go into the game feeling 100 percent, but I had to keep battling. You could tell I definitely didn't have all my stuff tonight out of the chute." Unfortunately, Melvin apparently couldn't - running Owings out there for the sixth inning was a particularly poor decision. I know our manager wanted to get him one more AB [he was up third in the bottom of the sixth], but after five, Owings' line was 9 H, 3 BB, 2 K, 5 ER. We should have been grateful still to be in the game, and turned things over to the bullpen at that point - if necessary, making a double switch to get a couple of innings out of Medders [who was instead used for six pitches to get one out] or Cruz [nine pitches]. But Owings instead allowed two more runs on a long-ball, effectively ending the game as a contest.

Defense. I must confess, after Hudson's howling blunder in the opening inning, letting what should have been a double-play ball through to the outfield, my first thought - when I'd calmed down - was, "What will foulpole say?" The answer is, apparently, very little [I do not see a Fanpost this morning, yelling "Headline News! O-Dawg sucks!", as Hairston received]. In Orlando's defense, the ball did apparently tip fractionally off Owings' glove, but it was hardly a missile: how it wasn't scored an error on someone, I have no idea. if we'd turned that, it would have been only a one-run lead for the Mets. Instead, by the time we finally escaped, they were 3-0 up, and we would never get nearer than those additional two runs. That wasn't the only miscue; it was, however, easily the most obvious and costly.

Hitting. We had our moments when we could have come back into the game. We had the tying run at the plate in the first, on-base in the second with only one man out, and at the plate, again with one out, in the fifth. We went 0-for-5 there, which coincidentally is Eric Byrnes line for the night. I don't know if his hamstrings are still bothering him, but he looked pretty bad, right from the first offering he saw, which he popped up to the second baseman. Five at-bats; fourteen pitches in total. That's only two more than Owings saw in a single plate-appearance. Reynolds went 0-for-4 with two K's, and we only managed one walk outside of the pitcher's spot. Though it has to be said, we did have a number of hard-hit balls that seemed to find Mets leather.

Pitching. This has largely been covered above; Owings refused to blame the ankle, saying, "Never going to point a finger. I decided I was going to go tonight, that's what we decided and it felt pretty good." He seemed to be missing his spots, however; according to Montero, "The beginning of the game, he was dragging his arm a little bit. In the beginning of the game, he was trying to do too much." That's back-to-back poor outing for Owings, who has now allowed 12 earned runs in the last 10.2 innings, on sixteen hits, six walks and three homers. On the plus side, the bullpen were again solid, mostly the B-corps giving us 3.1 scoreless innings. That takes our relievers' collective ERA down to 2.49 this year.

Orlando Hudson had to come out of the game after his double in the fifth, with what the report calls "a strained right hamstring," though his opinion on it somewhat less severe. "It's just tightness. It's not the first time I've been through it. I went through it a couple of times in Toronto, but you know, I've got the best strength coach and the best trainer, so it's going to be good. Probably, I'll be off, and hopefully back at it Sunday." Hope that's the case - he's one of the D-backs who has been hitting of late [113-for-39 in those last ten games] and given that, we can ill afford to be without him for any extended period.

Game Notes

• Sorry for the lack of pictures again. I think Mrs. SnakePit hates visual evidence, having erased the photos from the Dodgers game, and left the camera at the office last night.
• Micah Owings' at-bats were things of wonder. I've criticized his aggressiveness before, but this time he saw nineteen pitches and walked both times, including a fabulous twelve-pitch battle the second time. The last time any pitcher came up twice and got two walks was back in 2004, when Tom Glavine did it. Owings' OBP is now exactly .500.
  
• Compare and contrast Jackson running through the cycle in a blowout, giving a teammate an RBI opportunity, to Jose Reyes selfishly trying to get home in the ninth for an inside-the-parker to complete his cycle, and being easily thrown out. I know who is the better team player.
  
• I don't think we'll be eating the burros from Garcias again. Ick.
• Lot of Mets fans in attendance, or maybe it's just that the AZ fans were shut down by that horrible first inning.  They fall into two categories ["Welcome to Sweeping Generalizations with your host, Jim McLennan..."]: the loud and noxious, who appear to be rehearsing for walk-on parts in The Sopranos, and the almost-invisible, only detectable by the Mets caps.
• For 'Skins, Eric's entrance music is The Outfield's Your Love. You can listen to it here. Or not. But I promise, it isn't Rick Astley.
  
• Mrs. SnakePit was very amused by the "Car!" thing, once it was explained to her. That scratching sound you hear is dahlian crossing her off his Christmas card list... ;-)
• Yes, Amare Stoudemire was in the house, and got a warm reception from those who recognized him. Which initially excluded us - hey, he's just a large dude in a Suns jersey. But isn't there something odd about a sports superstar going round town wearing a shirt with his own name on it? D'you think Brandon Webb goes to Fry's with his #17 on?
• Enjoyed the fireworks afterwards; they seemed to have more variety. Ended with Beethoven's Ode to Joy, so that sharpened us up and made us ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence. Well, a Tivo'd ep of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles, when we came home.
  

 
[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Chris Young, +6.5%
God-emperor of suck: Micah Owings, -34.1%
Dishonorable mention: Mark Reynolds, -13.7%

Looks like I needn't have been worried about the need for an overflow thread, as we barely crawled past 400. Difficult to sustain much enthusiasm for the game...even when you were at it. Here, courtesy of 'charmer's awesome automated roll-call script, are the attendees: seton hall snake pit, soco, unnamedDBacksfan, kishi, Smoltz's Beard, Azreous, DbacksSkins, Muu, foulpole, hotclaws, DiamondbacksWIn, Turambar, singaporedbacksfan, dahlian, Elway4Prez, Wactivist, TwinnerA, dstorm, 4 Corners Fan, srdmad and snakecharmer. And with that, I'd better get this up, since first-pitch in today's afternoon game is barely an hour away now. So, expect that to follow very shortly...

Record: 9-3. Pace: 122-40. Change on last season: +1

Can't win 'em all. And if you're going to lose, you might as well do so in a blowout fashion, with your starter going only three innings, the previously-reliable bullpen coughing up a ten-spot the rest of the way, and the top third of your order going 2-for-13. Add in base baserunning (Upton getting picked off, a move that probably stopped us from getting the tying run to third with one out in the sixth), questionable fielding (not least Upton again) and an inexplicable apparent ignorance of the infield-fly rule by Orlando Hudson: yes, this game contained enough suckitude to make up for the near-flawless play of the last week,

It is, therefore, not a contest upon which I want to dwell. This should be swept rapidly under the carpet, the team moving on to begin another winning streak, starting with Randy Johnson's return against the Giants tomorrow. But duty compels me to review the horrors which unfolded today, starting with Edgar Gonzalez, who felt compelled to pitch permanently from the stretch, allowing the Rockies' leadoff man to reach in every inning. He was gone after three innings in which he faced eighteen batters, yet escaped with allowing three earned runs,

The bullpen which followed were even more forgettable, with the honorable exception of Brandon Medders, who posted a scoreless sixth. All told, the combined line was six innings of work, ten hits, four walks, two hit batters [in addition to the two EdGon plunked, overall tying the franchise record of four, set against LA on July 3rd, 2006] and ten earned runs. Admittedly, it was mostly the B-pen, but Tony Pena was only saved from giving up a grand-slam in the ninth, by the wild-pitch he uncorked immediately beforehand. That was more runs for the relief corps than in the eleven previous games combined, single-handedly raising our bullpen ERA from 2.64 to 5.43, dropping us from first to thirteenth in the NL, over one afternoon.

In the face of such mediocrity, the offense would have been hard pushed to catch up. They did have their moments, getting the tying run on base in the fourth, and to the plate in the sixth, but the absence of Young in the leadoff spot was sorely felt. Eric Byrnes hit there instead, and went 1-for-5, seeing a total of just ten pitches in those five trips to the plate. Down the order, there was good work done by Stephen Drew and Chris Snyder, each having three-hit games and adding a walk and an RBI. Snyder's performance was particularly pleasing to see, since he came into the game with just three hits on the season. Jeff Salazar added two hits and three RBI; Hudson, Reynolds and Upton all reached safely twice, and we did manage 12 hits in total.

One good thing: attendance continues to impress. Obviously, the tenth-anniversary celebrations and some cool giveaways likely helped lure more people to the ballpark. But compared to the equivalent second home series in 2007 [which was also over the weekend against the Rockies], crowds were up more than 30%: 92,309 to 69,844. Now we've got the festivities out of the way, we'll see how things settle down, but it'd be nice to see average crowds around the 30,000 mark as we go through the first-half of the season, then ramp up as we head down the stretch towards the playoffs.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Jeff Salazar, +16.5%
God-emperor of suck: Edgar Gonzalez, -16.3%

TwinnerA, kishi, foulpole, soco, DbacksSkins, hotclaws, DbacksSkins, 4 Corners Fan, paqs [Welcome to the threads!], dstorm, Muu, unnamedDBacksfan, seton hall snake pit, singaporedbacksfan, LucaMaz3, Stile4aly, Turambar, Azreous and snakecharmer were the inhabitants in the Gameday Thread, bravely struggling on, even after the technical pixies stole the voices away from Mr. Sutton and Mr. Grace. Yes, all told, this will definitely be the kind of game that should be put behind us, as rapidly as possible. And what better way to do it, than by going to the consensus worst team in the division, with a five-time Cy Young winner on the mound?

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.