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.

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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: 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.

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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: 19-7. Pace: 118-44. Change on last season: +4

Rarely have the ferocious powers of the baseball gods, when angered, been so swiftly demonstrated. #29 in Baseball's Unwritten Rules clearly states, "Never mention a no-hitter while it's in progress." Unfortunately, Turambar was not aware of this and at 7:39 PM precisely, after Dan Haren had mowed down the first four innings-worth of Houston batters, posted, "Well, time to keep the no-hitter rolling." The horror-struck reaction of those present had to be seen to be believed, and it was probably inevitable that, when the Astros fifth opened, it went:

• L. Berkman walked
• C. Lee doubled to deep left center, L. Berkman to third
• H. Pence grounded out to second, L. Berkman scored, C. Lee to third
• M. Loretta singled to right center, C. Lee scored
• J.R. Towles hit by pitch, M. Loretta to second
• C. Sampson reached on bunt single to third, M. Loretta to third, J.R. Towles to second

From retiring the first twelve hitters, on only 35 pitches, Haren suddenly found himself unable to get anyone out - not even the opposing pitcher, whose bunt attempt left everyone safe. As discussed in the Gameday Thread, a mob of angry D-backs fans waving torches was being gathered, ready to march on Turambar's home - from a 4-0 lead and a perfect game, we were now looking at the tying run on second-base, with only one man out. Fortunately, Haren saved our blaspheming friend, by getting Matsui to pop-up, then fanning Bourn to end the threat, and send the mob back to their homes, albeit still muttering under its breath...

Still, all's well that ends well: "all" in this case, being another win for Arizona, Haren bouncing back magnificently from his previous loss, to pitch into the eighth and vacuum up his fourth win of the season. All told, he threw 7.2 innings, retiring the opposition in order for six of them, and gave up three earned runs on five hits and a walk, fanning five. He even helped his own cause by driving in the go-ahead run in the third, with an RBI double, continuing a great season so far by our hurlers at the plate, who are now batting a collective .273 [15-for-55] this year. Only 1B, LF and RF have a higher average for AZ than our pitchers. To quote Kishi's immortal line, "I knew it was a good idea to let them get bitten by a radioactive Micah Owings in the off-season."

We added all the additional scoring we'd need in the fourth; Reynolds doubled home two runs, then came home himself on a single by Snyder. Jackson completed our scoring, droving in his 21st run of the year with a single in the fifth, and though the Astros made it a two-run game in the eighth, Qualls struck out Berkman to end that inning with a runner on second [14.2 innings without an earned run for the Equallizer, second-most in the majors behind Oakland's Andrew Brown, on 15] and Lyon came in to notch his eighth save with a perfect ninth. That reduced his 2008 ERA to 2.77, and gives him a line over the past ten outings of:
    Lyon: 10 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 7 K, 0 R, 0 ER, 0.00 ERA, .118 OBA
Those early-season struggles seem well behind him now.

Not a great deal of offense, but enough. Jackson had two hits and a walk, while Reynolds and Drew each reached safely twice, on a double and a free-pass. Can't help feeling we should have scored more, most notably in the eighth, where we loaded the bases with no-one out, thanks to a trio of walks. However, Drew struck out and Snyder hit in to an inning-ending double-play. Still, in the overall scheme of things, it turned out not to matter, and hopefully we will make better use of that opportunity, the next time it arises.

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Master of his domain: Dan Haren [pitching], +20.3%
Honorary mention: Mark Reynolds, +12.7%
God-emperor of suck: Chris Snyder, -6.1%

A brisk Gameday Thread, enlivened by some honored guests from Astros turf: thanks to lnewcomer and Stros Bro for their friendly contributions and tolerance of visiting fans on Crawfish Boxes - a very refreshing change from certain experiences of the past week. Thanks also to the other contributors: soco, snakecharmer, dstorm, dahlian, kishi, SongBird, foulpole, DbacksSkins, LucaMaz3, Stile4aly, Azreous, 4 Corners Fan, mrssoco, hotclaws, britdback and njjohn. Oh, alright - and Turambar as well, who will not be allowed to forget his transgression for quite some time, I suspect!

On a day with minimal NL activity [the Giants beat the Rockies in the only other West action], good to get a jump on the opposition and put a foot forward towards, hopefully, another series win. No sign of Scherzer in the bullpen, but it seems likely that they are waiting to see what happens in Micah Owings' bullpen session tomorrow - any issues there will lead to Scherzer being used as a replacement. Though with EdGon and Randy starting the remaining games in the series, we may well be looking for some long relief tomorrow or Wednesday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Psst! Adrian! Want any hitting tips?"

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

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

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

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

Game notes

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

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

  
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Master of his domain: Conor Jackson. +18.0%
Honorary Mention: Dan Haren, +11.5%
God-emperor of suck: Orlando Hudson, -3.1%

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

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

Record: 9-2. Pace: 133-29. Change on last season: +2

It won't last forever, of course. How could it? It's not even the longest winning run in Diamondbacks history: we had two eight-game streaks just last year and one in 2002; have reached nine games three times, and the 2003 roster won 12 in a row. But is this perhaps the best the team have ever played? It certainly could be. We've scored 61 runs in eight games; among all the streaks of that length or more, the only one with a higher run-rate was May 4-13, 2000 where we scored 69 in nine victories. However, there we conceded 32, compared to only 21 in this sequence, so our run differential is already three runs better at +40, in one fewer game. Anyway, for what it's worth, here is the info on the other longest streaks.

12 games
June 18-30, 2003: @HOU, CIN, HOU, @DET, @COL. Total 73-42. This wasn't easy. Half the wins were by one run, and another trio by two. It finally ended as the calendar turned to July, going down 7-4 in Coors.

9 games
May 4-13, 2000: @MIL, SDP, LAD, @SDP. Total: 69-32. This had a couple of slugfests vs. LA, 15-7 and 11-7. Daal was the unlucky loser as we went for ten; AZ lost 3-1 to the Padres, two unearned runs scoring on an error by Lenny Harris.

May 25-June 3, 2001: @SDP, @SFG, SDP. Total: 37-17. As the total shows, this one was driven by pitching, with a team ERA of just 1.45. It included the legendary 18-inning, 1-0 win in SF, where Miguel Batista got the W with four innings of relief.

August 10-19, 2001: @ATL, PIT, CHC. Total: 56-18. The pitching would have been better still, save the final game being a 13-6 win. This streak overlapped with a run of ten straight where we allowed 3 runs or less. Johnson + Schilling at their finest.

8 games
August 9-17, 2002: FLA, @CIN, @CHC. Total: 48-13. More dominant hurling, with the opposition restricted to two or less each game, a batting average of .191 and an overall ERA of 1.38. We lost the ninth game by one run, then won another four.

May 24-June 1, 2007: HOU, @PHI, @NYM. Total: 60-25. The team hit .327 during these eight games, and most were won by four or more runs. It included our biggest win of the season; a 13-3 pounding of Houston, with Mark Reynolds going 5-for-5.

July 21-28, 2007: @CHC, FLA, ATL. Total: 45-22. Four were by a single run, but the wheels fell off on July 29, Atlanta drubbing us 14-0. We only batted .279, but held the opposition to .201; the streak took us from 4.5 back to tied for the NL West lead.

While we're on the subject of streaks, another couple were extended by today's victory. Since August 4, 2006, when we lost 8-7 to Houston, the Diamondbacks are 51-0 when scoring seven runs or more. That's impressive; usually, a team has a couple of games a year where they "waste offense", when both teams score a lot of runs (like the 2000 Dodgers games mentioned above), but it hasn't happened to Arizona in a long time. And Hudson's K-less streak has now hit 57 plate appearances. To put that into perspective, the last man to have a season with more than 50 PA's and no K's, was Willie Jones in 1947, who had 69. Though, like I said, it won't last forever!

Today's game was...well, I begin to run out of superlatives. Another well-pitched, well-hit, well-defended victory. I feel some sympathy for the Rockies, who have found themselves facing an unstoppable force, and must now have some idea what it was like for us last year in the NLCS. Except, of course, without the lucky bounces and dubious umpiring decision they received then. ;-) The Diamondbacks adapted well to their second view of Morales, who shut them out for six innings last time. Today, the shutout lasted for exactly four batters, before Conor Jackson grounded out to bring Eric Byrnes home from third.

They added two more on doubles by Snyder and Young in the second, and when Colorado pulled one back in the third, promptly restored the lead with a Drew sacrifice fly. The game was then ended as a meaningful contest in the fifth, when Justin Upton swatted his fifth homer of the season, a three-run shot which went an estimated 429 feet. Said Upton afterwards, "I'm just playing ball. I'm just feeling comfortable at the plate and that's always a plus. Right now, I'm just seeing the ball and hitting it."

That would be a line of .415/.447/.805. I guess this counts as seeing the ball! Yet another three-hit game today, his fourth such of this young season, and one wonders how many he'll end up with by October. Eric Byrnes led the Diamondbacks last year, posting 13 such [well, twelve plus a four-hit game!], and one senses Upton will be challenging that. Probably by the All-Star break! Byrnes himself had two hits and a walk, while CoJack reached safely three times too, on a hit and a pair of walks. Reynolds and Snyder each had a hit and a walk; the latter finding his first extra-base hit of the year.

On the mound, Dan Haren took the win, with six innings of generally-effective baseball. He had his moments, putting the first two Rockies hitters aboard in both the second and fourth inning, but escaped without damage either time, going to his splitter to get back-to-back K's of Atkins and Ianetta in the second and in the fourth, after a double-play wasn't quite turned, the Rockies' next hitter obligingly repeated the medicine. His overall line was five hits, two walks and one run in six innings, with seven K's; he improved his record to 2-0, and he would be 3-0 - plus the Diamondbacks at 10-1! - except for the three-run homer to Encarnacion.

Behind him, Medders pitched a scoreless seventh, and Jailen Peguero, coming up for a few days between Doug Davis going onto the DL, and Randy Johnson being taken off it, a perfect eighth. The Petit Unit had a wobbly ninth, allowing two runs on three hits, but since he had a nine-run lead at that point, I don't think he exactly had even the most nervous of fans reaching for the Tums. That did mean the Rockies had exactly the same number of hits as Arizona - nine - but two-thirds of ours went for extra-bases, compared to only a solitary double for Colorado. Very nice to see Troyboy go ohfer with 3 K's: makes him 2-for-22 with no walks and six strikeouts this season against us.

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Master of his domain: Dan Haren, +18.4%
Honorary mention: Chris Snyder, +13.9%
God-emperor of suck: Mark Reynolds, -2.7%

Slightly quieter in the Gameday Thread today; imagine a lot of people have other things to do on a Saturday afternoon, though it's all relative. When I say "slightly quieter," I mean we fell short of four hundred - which last year would have had champagne corks popping! :-) Present were: foulpole, kishi, unnamedDBacksfan, jsk6788, hotclaws, azshadowwalker, seton hall snake pit, Stile4aly, Azreous, Muu, TwinnerA, njjohn and Wimb. An excellent victory, rolling us to 8-0 versus the division this season, and at time of writing it looks like the Padres are going down [they are 5-1 behind], so looking good for a 3.5 game lead. Yes, I think all Diamondbacks fans will sleep rather well tonight...

An amusing postscript. Fox - who chose Yankees-Red Sox as the Game of the Week over D'backs-Rockies in 48 states - ended up blowing it big time. Thanks to a lengthy rain delay, the game ran long, and with two out in the top of the 9th, Fox abruptly dropped coverage to broadcast the start of a NASCAR race...which was taking place [Oh, the irony] back here in Phoenix! Anyone wanting to see the end of the game had to scramble for the remote and switch over to FX. And justice was duly served...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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