Record: 26-15. Pace: 103-59. Change on last season: +5.

Brandon Webb got his ninth win of the season tonight: no-one else in the National League has more than six. It was also his eleventh consecutive victory, a streak only seen once in the National League since they lowered the pitching mound before the 1969 season. This was, however, not a laugher. The ninth inning, in particular, was a masterpiece of tension worthy of Hitchcock himself, even though the Diamondbacks had a five-run lead as they started on the final trio of outs. Courtesy of Brandon Medders, the Rockies loaded the bases on three hits and forced Melvin to turn to closer Brandon Lyon. A chopper off home-plate and everyone was safe, meaning the Rockies had three chances with the tying run at the plate. However, Lyon yanked his belt up another notch, and retired Spilborghs, Barnes and Holliday to complete the sweep over Colorado.

Webb started off in phenomenal form, facing one batter over the minimum through the first five innings, brutalizing the opposing hitters with his usual mix of sinkers and changeups. He did tire somewhat towards the end, and Melvin admitted in his post-game comments that Webb was probably left out there a little too long. He ended up needing to be rescued in the eighth, and allowed three runs on six hits and a walk, with eight strikeouts, in 7.1 innings. It's the longest winning streak in the majors at the start of a season since Andy Hawkins took care of his first ten games for the 1985 Padres. The way Webb pitched early on, it is difficult to see Webb's streak ending anytime soon. His next start will be Wednesday in Florida.

The offense did a good job of responding whenever the Rockies threatened, doing just enough to ensure that the Diamondbacks were never headed. Early on, Cook's sinker was causing almost as many problems for Arizona, as Webb's was for Colorado. But we still took the lead in the first, Orlando Hudson continuing to be red-hot with runners in scoring position, singling home Chris Young, the third of three consecutive hits for the D-backs to start the game. We couldn't quite capitalize any more there, and over the next three innings, we had further chances that went begging: Drew at third with one down in the third, or getting the first two men on base in the fourth. I did start to wonder if we'd end up rueing all these wasted opportunities.

The fifth inning ended these doubts. Back-to-back doubles from Young and Drew made it a 2-0 game, and after a walk to Hudson, Chris Snyder took an 0-2 pitch, and slammed a three-run homer into the left-field bleachers. It was his third long-ball of the week, and he ended the day with two hits, raising his season average to .284. It was good to see him back in the #5 spot in the lineup: while that was probably because of his excellent record against Cook previously, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets to stay there. Over the past month, Snyder is hitting .333/.400/.600, which are the best figures from any of the eight regular starters. Jackson is next, at .330/.406/.532, and Drew third, with a line of .304/.366/.565.

Speaking of Drew, he went 4-for-5, finishing a homer short of the cycle. You could argue a case that he deserved a five-hit night - he reached in the eighth, but it was called an error on the Rockies' second-baseman. That was his second four-hit game against Colorado this season, and he really seems to enjoy facing them, batting a cool .457 versus them this year [16-for-35]. Young, Hudson and Burke also had two hits each, and it didn't seem that the offense missed Byrnes or Jackson, both of whom were given the night off. The Rockies came back in the eighth, getting the tying man to the plate there, and making the score 5-3, but the D-backs added three crucial insurance runs with two outs. Perhaps the most impressive at-bat was from Justin Upton: it looked like Fuentes was trying to hit him, but J-Up simply ripped a triple to the gap in right-center. The two RBI which resulted certainly came in very, very handy during the ninth.

Remarkably, the win came despite no less than four errors by the Diamondbacks. Reynolds and Hudson muffed ground-balls; Hudson also failed to handle a throw from the outfield (though it may have taken a weird bounce off the second-base bag); and Qualls threw the ball wildly to first. I think the last time we committed so many, was August 7th last year, when we lost 8-3 to Pittsburgh. However, that game will be remembered more for Justin Upton's home debut, where he ended a single short of the cycle.

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Co-masters of their domain: Brandon Webb (+20.9%)  and Stephen Drew (+21.3%)
God-emperor of suck: Jeff Salazar, -11.3%

That was a lot of fun - although the final couple of innings were better to look back on, once the win had been clinched, than to experience at the time! The victory was thus strangely reminiscent of last year in that way. Present in the Gameday Thread were 4 Corners Fan, unnamedDBacksfan, kishi, Wimb, foulpole, UofAZGrad (welcome!), dahlian, Azreous, DbacksSkins, hotclaws, singaporedbacksfan, visiting fan PinchHitLancePainter, srdmad, frienetic, Stile4aly, likeavirgin, Augie's Army and the late-arriving Turambar who, wisely, managed to avoid getting tagged with the "albatross" label as a result of his delayed showing.

The win runs our record against the West to an extremely-solid 20-5, and keeps our lead over the Dodgers at 4.5 games. We now head into our first encounter with the American League, in the shape of the underperforming Detroit Tigers, currently tied with the Mariners for fewest wins in the AL, I'm sure they will be glad to be missing Webb, but won't be looking forward to facing Arizona, who now have a 17-7 record n our home park. And an early warning. Sunday is KidKaster day. Those who had to endure that hideous ordeal on television last month will understand why I will be ensuring all exits are available from the living-room that day,

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.

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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: 21-9. Pace: 113-49. Change on last season: +5.

The final score makes this one look a lot more convincing than it was. Yes, Webb got his seventh win of the year. Sure, we out hit the Mets 15-6 and had a total of 23 baserunners. But, with three outs to get, this was only a one-run game and it looked like we would be relying on Brandon Lyon for a tense final inning. Then, the Mets' Duaner Sanchez imploded, retiring only one of the six hitters he faced and also uncorking a run-scoring wild pitch. By the time the innings finally ended, with Micah Owings striking out as a pinch-hitter, victory was no longer in any significant doubt, with Win Probability having gone from 86.5% to 99.7%.

All hail Augie Ojeda, replacing the injured Hudson, who joined an elite group: Diamondbacks with 6+ RBI during a game. There are now only ten names on that list - Steve Finley did it twice in 1999 - many not the ones you'd expect. Only two [Finley and Gonzo] appear in the franchise top ten RBI list: present instead are Micah Owings, Orlando Hudson, Damion Easley [starting, by coincidence, for the Mets today], Shea Hillenbrand, Carlos Baerga, Chad Moeller and Erubiel Durazo. Ojeda singled in two runs during the second, doubled down the right-field line to add two more in the fifth, and repeated the medicine as part of the five-run ninth. Given he'd never driven in more than three before - and that all the way back in 2001 - this was truly a day he'll remember.

He's not the only Diamondbacks to have a career game, though the other one has much less of a career - thus far, at least. With three hits and two walks, and at age 20 years and 252 days, Justin Upton became the youngest player to reach base safely five times in a game since Ken Griffey (20 years, 173 days) on May 13th, 1990. The one before that was Alan Tramell (20, 136) on July 7th 1978. Young, Drew, Jackson and Snyder all joined Upton and Ojeda with multiple hits: CY and CoJack also added walks, as we reached double-figures in runs for the first time in exactly two weeks.

This was a major relief since, despite being voted NL Pitcher of the Month for April (well, duh...), Brandon Webb did not have his best stuff, missing his spots and falling behind hitters much more often than he has cruising to a 6-0 record and an ERA below two. That said, he only really made one mistake he couldn't correct: that was a 1-1 pitch to Carlos Delgado with two outs in the sixth, which was promptly dispatched into the right-field corner for a three-run homer. All of a sudden, what had been looking a fairly comfortable 5-1 lead, suddenly became a great deal more nerve-wracking. Webb ended the day after that inning, having allowed four runs on only five hits and two walks.

The A-Bullpen were, however in full effect. Qualls extended his streak of innings without an earned run to 16.2 innings, and is now within sight of the franchise record for a reliever. That stands at 21 innings - from another surprising source, journeyman bullpen arm Willie Banks, over 16 games between June 25 and August 23 1998, after coming over from the Yankees. Tony Peña was perhaps the most impressive of the trio, as he mowed down the heart of the Mets 1-2-3, first taking Church to school [if you see what I mean...], then retiring Wright and Beltran. Lyon allowed a single to Easley, but that was it, and we evened up the series, in advance of what should be a great game tomorrow.

It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops today. Our defense was once agaib flaky, with errors being charged to Drew and Webb - the former letting a ground-ball under his glove, the latter apparently trying to throw a high chopper by Easley, before he'd actually caught it. Byrnes and Reynolds struggled again: before they came to bat in that eighth inning [Eric singled and Mark walked], they were a combined 0-for-8 with nine men left on base. Special K's average is now down to .226, and he was overtaken by both Young [.244] and Snyder [.227] today.

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Master of his domain: Augie Ojeda, +21.1%
Honorary mention: Justin Upton, +14.0%
God-emperor of suck: Mark Reynolds, -10.8%

After last night, it was definitely good to come out on the winning end of this one, and the emphatic margin will hopefully give us some momentum going into tomorrow [I'm not sure if there is such a thing or if it's one of those unproven myths like two-out runs being worse to give up]. I kinda thought we'd have more people in the thread today - for the second consecutive game, we didn't need an overflow thread. Still, thanks to those present: Turambar, Jim McLennan, 4 Corners Fan, foulpole, luckycc, Muu, hotclaws, dahlian, Snakebitten, DiamondbacksWIn, soco, mrssoco, kishi, Azreous, TwinnerA, snakecharmer and njjohn.

The victory was particularly crucial as the Giants and Padres have both won: the Dodgers and Rockies are in another slugfest at Coors [17 runs last night, 15 already this evening and we're only in the sixth], but LA look to have the edge there. And with that, we're thinking about heading off to see Iron Man tonight. We'll let you know if Mark Reynolds has a cameo role... :-)

Record: 3-2. Pace: 97-65. Change on last season: 0

They may be storing the balls in raspberry Jello or whatever at Coors these days, but a trip there still appears to be the perfect prescription to cure ailing bats: we have had at least one man reach base every inning so far. Arizona had more hits yesterday, than in the entire series against the Reds, and the two games thus far have raised the team's batting average from .154 to .241. Fifteen hits yesterday, with five of our eight starting position players having multi-hit games, and Conor Jackson and Justin Upton getting three hits apiece.

The former was both surprising and no shock: Jackson was still suffering from the lingering after-effects of a respiratory ailment, which was very obvious in the post-game interview. On the other hand, Jackson has owned Jeff Francis almost his entire career, and so seeing him back in the lineup was no surprise: that 3-for-4 off him yesterday improves CoJack's career average vs. Francis to .370 [10-for-27]. The good news for Arizona is, he also has excellent numbers against the aces of our other main rivals. He's batted .364 [8-for-22] against Jake Peavy, and .474 [9-for-19] against Brad Penny. Small sample sizes, obviously, but it's not difficult to see that Jackson will be crucial to the D-backs this season.

Chris Young also had a good day, making a statement early on by homering in his first at-bat, to lead off the game, and then adding another, with the score 3-2, to provide us with some much needed breathing space [we'd already blown two leads at that point, and keeping it a one-run game was asking for trouble, especially in Coors]. Interesting paragraph by Nick Piecoro, describing what happened in that at-bat by Young:

With a runner on in the sixth and ahead 3-1 in the count, Young thought back to his previous two at-bats. Both times Francis threw him change-ups. Both times, he grounded out. "If he's getting me out on it," Young thought, "why would he change it?" Francis threw another change-up, and Young hit it out for his sixth career multi-home run game... "Last year," Young said, "I might have been looking dead red the entire time, no matter what the count is, no matter what the situation is. That's the type of hitter I was. This year, I'm making an effort to make some adjustments."

Best of all, the second blast actually came with a runner on base - after nine consecutive solo homers from the team, I was beginning to wonder if Bud had passed some kind of rule forbidding the Diamondbacks from hitting the ball out of the park with anyone aboard. Young is tied with, perhaps surprisingly, Justin Upton, for the team lead, each having three homers.

Brandon Webb was masterful, continuing the form he showed against the Rockies in his last regular-season start of 2007, with just one earned run over seven innings, on five hits and a walk. Again, he made good use of his change-up, particularly against Taveras: "I kind of made some adjustments and hopefully I can continue that. I think I mixed it up maybe a hair more than I had been. I felt like I threw a lot of offspeed pitches, first-pitch curveballs and that kind of kept them off-balance and threw some changeups for strikeouts." He didn't even get flustered when Reynolds made errors on back-to-back balls hit to him in the second, which led to Colorado tying the score for the second time.

A couple of notes on defense. Reynolds' errors were bad; on the first, he couldn't get the ball out of his glove, forcing him to hurry a throw to second, which went wild. The second was perhaps even more embarrassing; he had plenty of time, and simply air-mailed his throw to first. However, he did redeem himself somewhat with a couple of good plays later on, notably with the bases-loaded in the eighth. Hudson also made a great dive to throw out the runner from his knees, saving a run; Young had a fine read on a deep drive to the track in center; and Drew took a hit and RBI away from Troyboy, diving to his right in the ninth, to leave Tulowitzki 0-for-5 on the day. My, how we laughed...

The Rockies certainly had their chances, but went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position, their runs coming on a solo homer and a groundout. The most startling failures came against our bullpen, Tony Peña and Brandon Lyon putting Colorado men at third with no outs, in the eighth and ninth inning respectively. But both were stranded there: Peña's performance was particularly impressive, as he had loaded the bases, meaning the tying run was in the on-deck circle. But he struck out Atkins and Ianetta, then got Spilborghs to ground out to Reynolds. [Memo to Tony: please bear in mind, we got rid of Valverde for making things 'interesting'...] Medders, meanwhile, was saved by Drew's beautiful catch, previously mentioned.

A few words of comfort for the Rockies' fans, however. Despite scoring only eight runs in your first five games, your team is not actually that bad. There is no conceivable way they will continue to be so un-clutch: thus far, you are hitting just .095 [4-for-42] with runners in scoring position, and your hitters are below the Uecker line overall, at .198. This will not last, any more than the Padres batting .299, or the Braves hitting .370 with RISP. However, if you wouldn't mind continuing to suck for one more day, that'd be okay with us. I also note that the D-backs have been un-clutchy thus far too, just a .190 BA, but are still scoring a very respectable 5.2 runs per game. That's entirely because of their MLB-leading ten homers.

Master of his domain: Chris Young, +22.7%
Honorary mention: Brandon Webb, +20.1%
God-Emperor of suck: Chris Snyder, -13.7%

Most voluminous GT since Opening Day. It ended up past 600, and I didn't notice much slowdown, even towards the end. Present were: kishi, soco, seton hall snake pit, Russ, DbacksSkins, peachy rex, hotclaws, LucaMaz3, foulpole, Wimb, The Main Man, Captain D Bag, DiamondbacksWIn, frienetic, AZDarkKnight, snakecharmer, azshadowwalker, 4 Corners Fan, Craig from Az, singaporedbacksfan, TwinnerA, Silverblood, njjohn, dstorm and unnamedDBacksfan, so thanks to them for their input.

Got an email with an interesting fantasy twist from Jack Collins. He's running a fantasy league where your roster is all the players on a particular team. He's looking for someone to run the Diamondbacks, using the Diamondbacks roster - though, obviously, the opportunity for you to actually manage will be limited. If anyone is interested, drop me a line. First come, first served.

Gameday Thread to follow quite soon, I think, since it's a noon start.

Record: 1-0 - Pace: 162-0 [!] - Change on last season: 0

On the basis of this game, it looks like 2008 is going to be just like 2007, with Arizona winning games on a basis of brilliant pitching, defensive solidity and just enough runs to frustrate the opposition. Brandon Webb and three of the New Relievers of the Apocalypse combined to three-hit the Reds, while Chris Young, Eric Byrnes and Jeff Salazar all went deep for Arizona. While it may not have been the longest bomb of the day - that'd be Young's upper-deck blast - it took Salazar precisely one 2008 plate-appearance to match his home-run tally for all of 2007, swatting a pinch-hit homer in the top of the seventh, which gave us a very welcome insurance run. Jeff is now on pace to hit 162 homers this season. I love early-season projections. :-)

Brandon Webb was his regal self, despite the odd control issue which saw him issue more walks than hits in his six innings of work. His change-up was particularly impressive, and responsible for five of his six strikeouts, including a pair of particularly-impressive K's of Ken Griffey Jr. Webb also used his curve-ball effectively, and that was enough on a day when he sometimes struggled to find the zone with his trademark sinker. He was lifted for a pinch-hitter after having thrown 91 pitches. That's in line with his first outings of the previous couple of years, which ran 96 and 98 pitches. No point in overexerting him in Game #1.

Equally good was the bullpen: first Qualls - we're still working on an appropriately apocalyptic name for him - then Peña and Lyon, combined to throw a trio of hitless innings, with no walks either, and the only base-runner a hit batter by Qualls. I was particularly impressed by (and, truth be told, somewhat relieved to see) Lyon's outing. It looked a bit flaky, as he fell behind Adam Dunn 3-1, but he came back to get him with a venomous bit of high heat, then nailed Encarnacion by getting him to flail at a beautiful curve. Hatteberg popped up, and Lyon had nailed down the save with a 1-2-3 ninth. That will go a long way to settling nerves caused by his poor spring and the departure of Jose Valverde - Papa Grande only had one perfect outing in our first 22 games last year.

On offense, this remained a generally underwhelming part of our game, as we managed only five hits, with Aaron Harang doing a fine job of tying up our bats with his off-speed pitches. His fast balls, on the other hand... Young and Byrnes went deep in the third, and the only other hit that we got off him, was Jackson's RBI single in the first, that drove in Hudson. He'd reached on an error, and went to second on a wild pitch, so it was good to see the D-backs making the most of the chances offered by the opposing pitcher. Jackson and the promoted Snyder, hitting in the 5-spot, reached twice, each getting a hit and a walk. However, our young trio of Young, Reynolds and Upton struggled, going a combined 1-for-12 with 7 K's.

The defense also deserves credit for an almost-flawless performance, the only mistake probably being Young misplay of a ball that skidded past him on the wet outfield grass, all the way to the wall for a triple that drove in the Reds' first run, and set the table for the second, making it a 3-2 game. Apart from that, the defense was solid, with Reynolds making an early highlight-reel play, a bare-handed grab and throw on an infield squibber, and Orlando Hudson's play at second was, frankly, brilliant. He vacuumed down a pop-up in shallow right-center that would have left Young dead in the water, and also made a brilliant diving stop and throw on a ground-ball by Griffey. His best play was not rewarded by an out, but his effort on a ball up the middle off Harang's bat, which he stopped and threw to first from shallow left-field, was astonishing.

The start of the game was delayed almost an hour by rain - having taken the day off work, I would have been royally peeved had the game then been postponed, and I heaved a sigh as we reached the last out of the fifth, and the game finally became official. It was a solid way to start the season, putting to rest any concerns about Webb and Lyon caused by their spring form, and proved a good way to mark the 10th anniversary of the franchise's first-ever game. With a somewhat happier ending than that game, it has to be said!

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Master of his domain: Brandon Webb, +17.9%
[Honorary mention, Jeff Salazar: +13.9%]
God-Emperor of suck: Mark Reynolds, -7.3%

This was the first full test of the Gameday Threads on v2.0, and the result was a stunning 672 comments, setting a new record for a regular season-game. The new platform largely kicks ass, though it experienced slowdown and some timeouts towards the end - though, by most accounts, we escaped the worst of the effects, which were seen on sites like Bleed Cubbie Blue. We will be launching new overspill Gameday Threads if we hit 500 comments, to try and alleviate this problem: it also, curiously, seems to work better if you preview and then post, rather than just hitting post.

Thanks to all those who took part today, whether they took the day off, were commenting from work or just popping in. Participating today were seton hall snake pit, unnamedDBacksfan, TwinnerA, Wactivist, hotclaws, dstorm, kishi, 4 Corners Fan, Azreous, foulpole, LucaMaz3, Craig from Az [welcome!], visiting fan Fat Vegas Alan, Wimb, Mr. Philosophical, mikeb, snakecharmer, leemellon, Stile4aly, Huxtable Reunion [welcome!], bcloirao, DiamondbacksWIn, ncdbackfan, soco, Muu and azshadowwalker. I'd like to thank unnamedDBacksfan, in particular, for introducing me to the hell which is the band Ozone and their song, Dragostea Din Tei. YouTube is your friend. Just don't expect to close your eyes, for catchy Rumanian Europop will keep you going all night.

Always fun to spend the entire day watching and following baseball: going back to work tomorrow is gonna suck! My personal highlight was seeing the Cubs score three runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game, then lose it in the tenth - the winning run was scored by Craig Counsell, so even when they leave us, our players are still Cub killers. The Mets behind Santana rolled over the Marlins, and the Braves scored five in the bottom of the ninth to tie it, but still lost to Pittsburgh in 12 innings.

In the NL West, the Giants are what we thought they were - sucky - and the Rockies were very lucky to escape with a weather-beating, their game being called off before becoming official, with Colorado in a 5-1 hole. Their incredible luck from the end of the 2007 season, is clearly carrying forward to 2008... Penny and the Dodgers shut out the Giants on five hits, and Peavy and the Padres are three-hitting the Astros. Not really any surprises there. Peavy, however, had two RBIs, and has had a better night at the plate than Scott Hairston, 0-for-4 with 2 K's.

A very satisfactory day, all told. Kinda weird having an off-day already, but at least we can enjoy it from a winning perspective, which makes any day better!