St. Penelope of the Cross, tied with Mark Reynolds for MVP of this game.

View full size photo uploaded July 5, 2009

Record: 33-49. Pace: 65-97. Change on last season: -8. Change on 2004: +3

For newcomers to this site, I should explain about St. Penelope. Ms. Cruz has been a patron saint of the 'Pit - and, by extension, the Diamondbacks, since a picture of her posted in a gameday thread broke up a Padres no-hitter, and caused her anointing as St. Penelope. While it started as a joke, her appearance always seems to bring us good luck - it was kinda spooky. But I hadn't invoked her name for a while, since I believe a platform of her theology is that she helps those who help themselves, and there hadn't been much of that from Arizona lately. However, Mark Reynolds' plain speaking and the comeback last night convinced me the time might be today.

Five innings into this game, the Diamondbacks were three runs down, plus had been no-hit by Ubaldo Jimenez, and so I posted her icon in the thread - after all, breaking up no-hitters is how she got her start, and her appearance has immediately ended them since. But this one had the pitcher leading off, and two quick outs followed: was she going to fail us in her our of need? Oh, ye of little faith. Walk to Romero. Walk to Drew. And the tying run was at the plate, in the shape of none other than Reynolds. Would he be the one to harness the power of St. Penelope? And how, uncorking a homer down the left-field line - our first hit of the game, after 17 futile at-bats, scored three runs and tied the game. Doubt not the power of the divine goddess...

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More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

No loss of focus here, as Felipe Lopez just slides home to beat the throw, and give Arizona a three-run lead.

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Record: 32-49. Pace: 64-98. Change on last season: -9. Change on 2004: +3

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out at home or scared of losing their starting position. The dollar buys a nickel's worth of offense; our ace is bust; Doug Davis keeps a gun under the counter; Dodgers fans are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the bullpen is unfit to breathe and our clutch hitting is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local commentator tells us that today we had fifteen strikeouts and three errors, as if that's the way it's supposed to be! We all know things are bad - worse than bad - they're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the fandom we're part of is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my 2001 World Series DVD set and my MLB.TV and my Augie Ojeda bobblehead, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to Derrick Hall, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about second-base and the fielding and the Rockies and the comments on azcentral.com. All I know is that first, you've got to get mad. You've gotta say, "I'm a Diamondbacks fan, goddammit! My support has value!" So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"

Diamondbacks win. Details after the jump

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More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

Reynolds probably wants to use the bat on some of his team-mates about now, rather than just the water-cooler.

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Record: 31-49. Pace: 63-99. Change on last season: -9. Change on 2004: +3

Coming into this game, Colorado's starter, Jorge De La Rosa, had a 4-7 record and a 5.64 ERA, mediocre even by the standards of Coors Field. However, you wouldn't know it looking at today's box-score, as he became the latest pitcher to turn into a Cy Young candidate when facing the Arizona Diamondbacks. He pitched eight innings, allowing only four hits, all singles and, since Arizona was 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, shut out the Diamondbacks. On our side, Max Scherzer delivered a quality start, but as last time, wasn't helped by his defense - three ghastly errors led to two unearned runs.

Details, if you want them, are after the jump. Though if you are not interested, and would rather do something less painful - perhaps involving knitting needles and your eyes - I quite understand, and will not be offended in the slightest. However, there were some striking post-game comments from Mark Reynolds, so you might want to poke your head in for those. S'up to you...

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More photos » by Al Behrman - AP

Romero's Land of the Dead. Alex gets tagged out at home, after trying to score on a sacrifice fly from J-Up.

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Record: 31-48. Pace: 64-98.
Change on last season: -9.
Change on 2004: -3.

You couldn't make this stuff up. Doug Davis allowed one run in seven innings, but left with the lead, thanks to Mark Reynolds' 22nd home-run of the year. In his seventeenth start, it looked like Doug would finally get the win without having to pitch shutout baseball. While it was only a one-run lead, surely the worst was over, after a nerve-wracking eighth inning where Jon Rauch, Scott Schoeneweis and Chad Qualls conspired to get into, then out of, a first-and-third, one-out jam. However, the Reds did score the tying run in the ninth off Qualls, and then got a walk-off victory in the tenth, ending Clay Zavada's scoreless streak with a two-out RBI single.

More gory details after the jump.

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More photos » by Al Behrman - AP

No, this wasn't actually the one run that was scored, thanks to the bazooka arm of Justin Upton.

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Record: 31-47. Pace: 64-98. Change on last season: -9. Change on 2004: +3

Today's TV broadcast brought up an interesting (albeit pretty circumstantial) stat: the Diamondbacks are 1-14 in games following Dan Haren starts. After Haren's masterful performance in all facets last night, I suppose that meant we had reason to be less than optimistic, particularly with young phenom Johnny Cueto on the bump for the Reds. The Diamondbacks did all they could to manifest that destiny through six innings, failing to take advantage of Cueto's wildness to get even one run across, and from that point their fate was sealed.

The early innings could best be described as a plethora of wasted opportunities. They got the leadoff man aboard each of the first three frames but could do nothing with it. Lopez walked to start the first, but three straight outs followed. Parra walked to begin the second, but was thrown out on a failed hit-and-run with one out. Montero, who swung at ball four once trying to protect the runner, ended up drawing a walk, and Tracy walked behind him -- meaning the bases would have been loaded with one out, all without swinging the bat. Benefit of hindsight, absolutely, but the fact remains. That brought the pitcher up with two outs, and also brought the end of the threat. Lopez singled in the third and was bunted over by Drew, but Upton and Reynolds struck out. In the fourth, fifth and sixth, Arizona decided to drop all pretense of success whatsoever and went down in order. Essentially, this let Cueto off the hook; his pitch count was extremely high through the first few frames, but Lopez's single was the only hit he allowed in his six innings of work.

On the other side, Jon Garland continued his Mr. Hyde routine by pitching extremely well on the road. As usual, he had to work around a handful of tight spots, but he kept the score column clear for the first five innings by being remarkably efficient. The only real trouble he faced to that point was in the third, when Chris Dickerson hit a double with one out. Danny Richer (who had six at-bats this season before today's start) tried to score from first, but was gunned down by the cannonating arm of Justin Upton. It took until the sixth for the Reds to finally get someone across -- Dickerson had a leadoff base hit up the middle, moved to second on a groundout, and scored on a little flare to left that nobody could reach in time. Parra might've had a chance to throw Dickerson out, had he cut off Upton's arm and grafted it to his body.

Garland was sitting on a very economical 71 pitches while the offense battled in the top of the seventh. Parra reached on a beautiful bunt to the left side to lead things off, and waltzed over to second on a wild pitch that caromed off the backstop. Chris Young walked, and Montero moved both runners over with a great bunt. Facing a lefty, Roberts pinch-hit for Tracy, but struck out anyway. Desperate for a run or two in that situation, Garland was removed for Tony Clark, who drew a walk to load the bases. But Lopez flew out weakly and the inning was over.

With Garland out of the game, Clay Zavada was brought in to keep it a one-run game. He struggled a bit, getting tagged for a single, walk, and single and only getting one out in the process (and he was fortunate that Jay Bruce was the lead runner, which loaded the bases instead of being first and second with a run in). Juan Gutierrez was summoned, faced with a heavy task: keep the game close, and preserve Zavada's scoreless streak to start his career. He was able to do both, punching out Dickerson and getting Jerry Hairston to pop it up to the left side, keeping it a 1-0 game. So even though Zavada had a WHIP of 4.50 in today's outing, the streak lives on -- 19 appearances and 18 innings pitched.

Staring at an imposing number in the opponent's line score (i.e., "1"), the Diamondbacks' 2-3-4 hitters went down 1-2-3 in the eighth without so much as a whimper. Gutierrez continued to work in the bottom half, erasing a leadoff single by getting Brandon Phillips to ground into a 5-4-3 double play and getting Lance Nix to foul out harmlessly to Reynolds. But Parra, Young and Montero could do nothing against Francisco Cordero in the ninth, and that was that. No runs, no win. Granted, you're not going to win many games where you can only muster two hits and you get set down in order five of the last six innings.

Master of his Domain: Jon Garland, +17.4%
God-Emperor of Suck: Ryan Roberts, -14.6%
Honorable Mention: Stephen Drew, -14.4%; Justin Upton, -13.2%; Mark Reynolds, -10.4%

Roberts gets stuck with the bulk of the blame thanks to his strikeout in a key situation. The 2-3-4 hitters, in that order, round out the rest of the rubble thanks to their 0-11 performance. Garland was forced to eat the loss despite another road gem (6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K). Gutierrez just missed Honorable Mention with a +9.3% for his 1.2 innings of solid work out of the pen. The only hitter in the positive was Clark, at a whopping +2.4%; the other 10 batters who gave it a shot were all in the red.

For the Diamondbacks, Lopez and Parra each reached twice, on a walk and a hit. On the Reds' side, Dickerson, Joey Votto and Ramon Hernandez all had two hits apiece. Weathers and Rhodes both had strong innings in relief of Cueto.

Meager GameDay Thread (210 comments), fitting for a meager performance by our team. Snakecharmer ended up just shy of 50 comments in leading the way. Those who raised their hands when the teacher called attendance included: unnamedDBacksfan, kishi, Jim McLennan, snakecharmer, edbigghead, hotclaws, Diamondhacks, TwinnerA, 4 Corners Fan, Snake Bitten, Azreous, dahlian, pygalgia and NotGuilty.

Tomorrow is the series finale, a 9:35 a.m. start for all us Arizona folk. It'll be Doug Davis against Aaron Harang, so if you're not fully awake at that point, don't worry. I'm sure Davis' slow work rate and our anemic offense can lull you back to sleep in no time. As a footnote, the 2004 team snapped an 11-game win streak at this point in that season, meaning we've "gained" a game on them in the chase for putridity. Good times.

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

"Oh wait, the ball is supposed to inside the glove, right?? Maybe that's been my problem all these years!"

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Record: 30-46. Pace: 64-98. Change on last season: -9. Change on 2004: +3

I hate for the title to be that brutal, but it's the truth. The Arizona Diamondbacks did not show up to play baseball today, they showed to play hot potato with the baseball, avoiding catching it and fielding it at all possible costs. Did you think things couldn't get any worse than the bunt-home run they allowed yesterday? Well, it did...

The game started out well enough, with the Diamondbacks managing to execute some fundamental small ball. Base hits and sacrifices scored Felipe Lopez and Justin Upton to put the Dbacks up 2-0 after the first inning. Max Scherzer was pitching well, throwing strikes, and faced the minimum through 3 innings thanks to some good defense by Miguel Montero on a caught stealing and a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play. However, Scherzer's pitch count was near 50 after only 3 innings - something he still needs to work on if he wants to start going deeper into games.

Things fell apart in the 4th and 5th innings. A single and two walks loaded the bases for the Angels, and with two out, Gary Matthews Jr. doubled down the right field line to score all three base runners. The first error of the game, on third baseman Augie Ojeda, allowed Matthews to advance to third base - where he promptly scored on a straight steal of home. In fact, Montero had the baseball in time, he just completely missed the tag on Matthews, and the score was 4-2. Arizona couldn't capitalize on a strange play in the bottom of the frame - two runners on base, including Augie Ojeda who stalled running to first and by all counts should've been out by 10 steps - and the score remained.

Now, those baserunners in the 4th were Max Scherzer's responsibility, but he did not deserve the fate that befell him in the 5th inning. The first Angel (the pitcher) was safe on a bobble by Mark Reynolds at first base. Then Justin Upton had a ball clank on his glove in right field - second error, second would-be out. Then Felipe Lopez just completely missed a ball right through the wickets for what might have been a double play ball - third error, third and forth outs. With 3 runs across and the inning not getting any better, A.J. Hinch pulled Scherzer for Leo Rosales. Three pitches later, Rosales allowed a 2-run homer to Juan Rivera. Oh but it's not over there, folks. Morales tripled (still only one out) and missed two scoring opportunities, either of which would have accounted for error #4 of the inning had Kendry Morales actually scored. The throw on the triple from Upton missed like two or three cutoff men but Morales stayed at third base. After a pop fly to Upton, he then airmailed the ball home 15 feet over Montero's head - but Morales had respected the threat and stayed at third. Finally, the 9th batter of the inning ended it for Los Angeles.

Arizona managed to make somewhat of a comeback in this game, particularly in the 6th inning - the KidKaster inning, and this kid was surprisingly good. They actually let him, you know, call the game and not just sit there answering uncomfortable questions. Having scored 1 in the 5th, Arizona then had a 5-run inning themselves - a 2-run double by Clark, and singles by Drew, Reyolds, Parra (mirred in a 1-for-18 w/ RISP slump) and Montero raised the score to 9-8. Well, now that's just a one-run game! The offense is coming to life, the Angels pitchers look a little shaky... The previous high in a comeback this season was only 4 runs - could Arizona actually rally from 9-2 to tie the game?

The short answer - no. Zavada continues to be the lone bright spot in the bullpen and pitched yet another scoreless inning (with the help of his infield behind him) to extend his streak to 15 games, but Jon Rauch gave up a solo home run in the 8th and Tony Peña continues to self implode and allowed a 2-run shot in the 9th. Arizona's offense could not mount any sort of attack against the Angels' relievers - Bulger, Speier and Fuentes pitched the 7th, 8th and 9th and only Bulger allowed a 2-out double by Lopez. Los Angeles pulled away in this one, and the Diamondbacks sputtered to a 12-8 defeat.

God-Emperor of Suck: The Defense (-10000%)
Dishonorable Mention: Max Scherzer (-36.0%)
Just Barely Mentionable: Miguel Montero (+16.7%)

Clearly, fangraphs does not chart defensive WPA. It's kind of hard to tell from the play log the combined sucktitude of the errors, but really, why would we want to put numbers to that anyway. I really felt we were about to surpass our 5-error game of 9 years ago, but no, the defensive miscues were just counted as bad fundamental baseball. Not much positive to talk about in the gameday thread (except for Muu being thrilled about Brazil's win earlier today), though there were 270 comments. Jim - you'll have to have an open fire zone when more people are actually around! I lead the way with 56, kishi not far behind at 48. The other 19 people present were unnamedDBacksfan, Giannaros, Jim McLennan, AJforAZ, pygalgia, sayheyupton, Muu, 4 Corners Fan, Zephon, katers, soco, TwinnerA, gasgarza, Diamondhacks, Fiona, jazzbo13, Wailord, emilylovesthedbacks, and jonny-yuma.

And so the Diamondbacks end interleague play with a 5-10 record, thanks two two sweeps by the Mariners and Angels, and having lost 8 of their last 9. They hit the road to face some opponents they are at least somewhat familiar with - the Cincinatti Reds and Colorado Rockies. Off-day tomorrow, folks... enjoy not losing while you can.

[Jim's notes] One thing I couldn't find mentioned anywhere is that the team actually held a team meeting before yesterday's game. That was their third in less than two weeks - curiously, each coming with Max Scherzer on the mound. The other two were followed by wins, this one...not so much. Here's the audio clippage: remember, this took place prior to the fiasco which unfolded yesterday.

Audio courtesy of KTAR 620

There's also some fuss over Justin Upton's reaction at the end of the inning reported in the Republic today: "After fans aired their displeasure with boos and mock cheers, Upton responded by fake-tossing a ball into the stands at the end of the sixth." It also reports that neither Upton, Lopez or Reynolds were available to speak to the media after the game. Normally, this kind of thing would seem trivial, but the way things have been going of late, it's certainly not any help.

Arizona players arrive at Chase Field for today's game.

View full size photo uploaded June 27, 2009

Record: 30-45. Pace: 65-97. Change on last season: -9. Change on 2004: +3

E. Aybar reached on bunt single to pitcher, E. Aybar to second on pitcher D. Davis' throwing error, E. Aybar scored on right fielder J. Upton's throwing error.

Greatest scoring summary line of all time...as long as you're not on the receiving end, that is. Go back and read it again. It helps if you hum the theme from The Benny Hill Show while doing so. Bask in the mind-numbingly awfulness of it all. An inside-the-park home-run for Aybar, on a play where he wasn't even trying to get the ball out of the infield, thanks to not one, but two errors on the same play by the Diamondbacks. Oh, how the nattering nabobs of negativity over on azcentral.com will be having a field day with this - and, frankly, I can't blame them. Each in their own way, the past two days are the kind of games that make it very, very hard to defend the Diamondbacks from their critics.

The hilarity took place to start the top of the sixth inning, with the Diamondbacks clinging to a 1-0 lead. They'd got there in the fourth on a leadoff single by Mark Reynolds, who stretched it into a double thanks to an outfielder error, then came to third on a ground-out and home on a sacrifice fly by Tony Clark. However, Willie Aybar's bunt was charged by both Doug Davis and Clark; Davis got there, but had to wait for Lopez to get over to first. Without much chance to get the runner, he threw, but behind Lopez and the ball went foul. As Aybar motored on for third, Justin Upton retrieved the ball, but the Jupzooka misfired badly - I think he rolled a 1 - overshot Reynolds at third, and Aybar came all the way home. Just your average bunt home-run... :-(

Outside of the error, Doug Davis pitched very well - but not well enough to get the win which, as noted before, requires him to deliver shutout baseball. He ended with a no-decision for seven innings of work, with just the unearned run to show for it. He allowed five hits, all of them singles, and three walks, while striking out eight Angels batters - that's the most in 22 starts since August 24th last season. However, it was perhaps better that he allowed that run to tie the game - it would have been even more demoralizing for him to leave with a 1-0 lead, only for Chad Qualls to cough up a ninth-inning homer.

Which is, of course, exactly what Qualls did, offering up a one-out meatball to the Angels' catcher, who smacked it an estimated 428 feet to center for the go-ahead, and winning, run. Remember my comment last weekend about how the Arizona bullpen has sucked, but they hadn't actually cost the Diamondbacks many losses? Seems like they heard me...and have been trying to make up for lost time. In the eight games since the start of the Seattle series last Friday, Arizona have gone 1-7, and the bullpen has picked up most of those defeats, being 0-4, with one each for Peña, Zavada, Vasquez and Qualls.

You'll probably find this hard to believe, but do you know who has been our best reliever in the past month? The answer - and you might want to sit down first - is Jon Rauch. Yep: the man for whom no abuse was adequate in the first third of the year, and who had a 9.31 ERA in April. He worked a smooth, impeccable, 1-2-3 eighth inning today, and since May 27, has been unscored upon in thirrteen of his fourteen appearances. He has an ERA of 1.17 in that time, covering 15.1 innings, holding opposing batters to a .157 average (8-for-51, with no extra-base hits). We've seen how quickly things can turn, but I know I'm not feeling quite the same sense of dread any longer, when I see him warming up.

On the other hand, the offense...wasn't. We didn't have a hit with runners in scoring position all day; not that we had all that many runners in scoring position to begin with. There was a certain sense of deja-vu in the bottom of the first, which was probably our best chance to break through - just as last night, Gerardo Parra was up with the bases loaded and only one out. Yesterday, he struck out; today, he went one better, grounding into an inning-ending double-play. Outside of the run scored by Reynolds, the only other man to get past first was Alex Romero in the fifth: he was stranded on third when Upton started at strike three. Reynolds had a hit and two walks; Miguel Montero a pair of hits; Romero a hit and a walk.

[Click to enlarge, at fangraphs.com]
Masterof his domain: Doug Davis, +31.2%
Honorable mention: Jon Rauch, +11.0%
God-emperor of suck: Chad Qualls -29.1%
Dishonorable mentions: Parra, -27.4%; Roberts, -10.2%

Not a bad turnout, though with a spike in comments after "that" play, mostly along the lines of "OMG! WTF?" - I can't wait to relive it tonight in high-definition... kishi and Sprankton led the thread; also present were hotclaws, snakecharmer, Muu, IHateSouthBend, acidtongue, Zephon, 4 Corners Fan, Wailord, gasgarza, unnamedDBacksfan and soco. Roll on tomorrow, and we'll see what bizarre way the Diamondbacks can find to lose that game.

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

Just look at that face... I had a viciously sarcastic comment all lined up for Buckner, but now, haven't got the heart to use it. He resembles Frodo, just after losing the One Ring.

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Record: 30-44. Pace: 66-96. Change on last season: -9. Change on 2004: +3.

This is not the game I wanted to see after my long, Cox-enforced absence from watching my beloved Arizona Diamondbacks. This was not the game for which we upgraded the living-room to high-definition. No: this was the game which had me contemplating an emergency call to Cox, requesting the immediate removal of cable, Internet, so we could return to our splendid isolation. All previous bad innings this year were blown out of the water, as we allowed eight runs in the second, to basically end this when it had barely got started. It was the worst frame for us since Juan Cruz got tagged for nine runs by the Padres, in the opening frame on May 17, 2006. That's a total of 520 games, and 4,657.1 innings of pitching, without such a wretched result.

Billy Buckner. Billy Buckner. Billy, Billy, Billy. What can I say? Before the game I was speculating if any pitcher had a home ERA five times that of his road one. I need to revise that now. Here is Buckner's home line:
    Buckner at Chase: 21.1 IP, 39 H, 9 BB, 8 HR, 34 ER, ERA 14.34
That's more than six times his road ERA, which remains at a very acceptable 2.33. However, overall, his season ERA is a wretched 8.63 and if he starts another game - in Phoenix especially - I expect to see a mob with torches descending on the stadium, demanding severed heads. Anyone would be an improvement. If Petit isn't ready, bring back Augenstein. Or Casey Daigle. Anyone but Buckner. [The above words, written roughly during the third inning, proved prophetic, as Buckner was optioned after the game to Reno: I think he was likely whisked directly from the dugout to the Greyhound bus station]

And it was all going so well, too, for at least the opening, oh, four outs. He retired the Angels in order , and it looked like Arizona would get out of the gate first. Felipe Lopez singled on the opening pitch, and then stole second, though this was rendered less significant by Stephen Drew walking on four pitches.  Weaver was all over the place, falling behind Justin Upton, but getting him to fly out, and then walking Mark Reynolds to load the bases with only one out. However, Gerardo Parra and Chris Young both struck out swinging, to leave the score at zero: however, almost the entire Angels line-up would get to cross home plate before the next Diamondback would even stand there.

Torii Hunter grounded out to start things off. However, the only out to be made before he'd come up to bat again was the Angels pitcher grounding to second, and even that drove in a run. Hunter avoided the shame of making both the first and last out by homering, a two-run shot that marked the last batter faced by Billy Buckner as a current member of the Arizona rotation. Those two plate appearances in the same inning bookended a spell where the Angels were 7-for-9 with a walk against BB, getting almost as many hits with runners in scoring position (five), as Arizona had in the entire Texas series (six). 

Needless to say, it's hard to for anyone, players or fans, to sustain much enthuasiasm when you come to bat in the second, and the cold, hard numbers show you a Win Probabiity that has already shrunk, with the rapidity of testicles dipped in ice-water, to a mere 3.8%. The seven and a half innings which followed were basically a mere formality, but let's pick through some of the finer moments and see if any cause for pleasure could be found - in other words, much the same as we've already done far too often this season.

Felipe Lopez had a couple of hits and a walk. Stephen Drew had a couple of walks, but also homered, a two-run shot which was his fifth of the season, and Tony Clark drove in the other run, He followed up last night's shot with another long-ball of his own. That's the first time he has gone deep on consecutive nights since September 16-17, 2005 against Colorado, when he had a pair of two-homer games. The bullpen weren't bad, though after playing twelve last night, must really have been hoping tonight's starter might last more than 1.2 innings.

They combined to allow three earned runs in the remaining 7.1. Clay Zavada pitched 1.2 shutout innings, even stranding a couple of runners inherited from Blaine Boyer in the fifth. That extended his career-opening streak of games without an earned run to fifteen, covering 14.1 innings - the games, as noted by 'charmer yesterday, are now the sixth-best streak of all time. #5 is Joe Smith of the 2007 Mets, who went seventeen games before allowing his first eaened run. Boyer, incidentally, almost matched his previous total career at-bats (three), in mopping up after Buckner - one BB following another. He added two ABs, striking out twice, though took a total of 11 pitches for him to do so.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Stephen Drew, +7.1%
God-emperor of suck: Billy Buckner, 41.5%

The second inning fell apart so quickly, that there really wasn't very much negative territory left for anyone else to fight over. That frame also turned off interest in the Gameday Thread like Cox disconnecting a long-standing customer: I think about 150 of the 200 comments were before things fell apart.. soco led the way, while I celebrated my return to the 21st century in second place. Also present: kishi, 4 Corners Fan, DBacksCynthia, hotclaws, gasgarza, Wailord, TwinnerA, NewJackCity, jazzbo13, Diamondhacks, unnamedDBacksfan, acidtongue, terps721, Sprankton, Snake Bitten and snakecharmer.

It's the kind of game that makes it hard to sustain enthusiasm, because the difference between the two teams was so painfully obvious. But again, it's worth pointing out that tonight's contest would likely have been a damn sight more even if Brandon Webb has been starting, rather than Billy Buckner. I'm thinking of revamping the D-backs Watch, and a possible candidate (along with the Scherzer/Kershaw one) would be Webb vs. the Triple-Headed Beast of Suck who have replaced him. Until I get that updated, in fourteen starts, the latter are now 2-9, with an ERA of 7.77, while after 74 games last season, Webb was 11-3 with a 3.04 ERA.

More on Webb - or, to be specific, Webb's shoulder - tomorrow, as I've been spending my idle time looking into the subject of labrums. Or should that be labra? Or labrii? Whatever...