AZ 4, Reds 5 - Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

Record: 29-20. Change on last season: +1

Well, that sucked. Woke up around 11:30am, turned the TV on, and was extremely pleased to see Arizona holding a 4-1 lead in the sixth inning, Enrique Gonzales having surpassed all expectations. He'd not only provided the hoped-for quality start, but our offense had scored three runs in the first, and were holding a 4-1 lead over Bronson Arroyo.

Exit Gonzalez, after the sixth, his job done, and we turn things over to the bullpen. Ah, yes: the bullpen. The bullpen which had lost only four games in 48. The bullpen: source of strength when all our starters fell in disarray. The bullpen, with a 3.46 ERA, the second best in the National League. The bullpen, which was about to implode, in a startling, unexpected and quite painful manner.

It started off fine. Jorge Julio, having passed his audition with a seven-run lead, came in for the seventh inning, and allowed a hit, but no runs, and Reds manager Jerry Narron was tossed for arguing balls and strikes with the home-plate umpire. Shawn Green got thrown out at home plate in our half of the eighth inning, but it didn't matter, right? For we still had a three-run lead.

Not for long. Brandon Lyon relieved Julio, but was greeted with a bunt single, a homer and a double. The tying run now stood at second-base, with no outs; a bunt later, it was at third with one out. I blamed Mrs. SnakePit, who had abandoned the game for the shower; I forced her to watch the rest of the inning, and it did the trick, as Brandon Lyon kept the lead in the Diamondbacks hands, striking out Aurilia, and getting Dunn to fly out. We went down 1-2-3 in the ninth, but then disaster struck.

Mrs. SnakePit went to make breakfast.

"Put the TV on in the living-room," I said as she left, but did she listen? Nooooo... And the inevitable happened without our good-luck charm. Though Valverde fanned the first Reds hitter, a squib off the end of the bat by Kearns got him aboard, and pinch-hitter Valentin took the first pitch he saw, a split-finger fastball offering from Papa Grande, and clobbered it into the bleachers, turning a sweep into a disturbing defeat.

It looks to me like it may be time for a rearrangement of the A- and B-bullpens. Here are the figures for the month of May

Player    ERA   IP  H R ER HR BB SO  
======== ==== ==== == = == == == ==
Vizcaino 3.65 12.1 11 5  5  3  5 17 
Lyon     6.00 12.0 15 9  8  2  2  6 
Medders  0.77 11.2 11 1  1  0  4  9 
Valverde 6.35 11.1 14 8  8  2  7 11 
Grimsley 2.61 10.1 10 3  3  1  3  6 
Daigle   3.52  7.2  9 3  3  1  6  3 
Aquino   1.42  6.1  5 1  1  1  3  2 
Julio    0.00  2.0  1 0  0  0  0  3 

May not be long before Lyon is replaced by Medders as the setup man, and if Julio maintains his performance, he might become the seventh inning go-to guy, taking the spot of Vizcaino. However, this doesn't address the issue of the continued woefulness of Valverde. He allowed more runs while getting one out today, than our entire starting rotation did in twenty-one innings this series. Melvin said all the right things afterward, but here's Valverde's line over the past ten days:
Valverde: 3.1 IP, 10 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 7 ER

Not good, to say the least. I'm wondering if there's an injury issue here that's limiting Valverde's effectiveness, by stopping him from throwing breaking balls effectively. Given his history of arm injury, this might well explain why we opted to trade Hernandez for a former closer like Jorge Julio, in case we need someone to replace Valverde. Something certainly worth keeping an eye on for the next couple of weeks.

This overshadows the rest of the game: two hits each for Gonzalez, Jackson and Shawn Green, with Gonzo having 2 RBIs. Even Tracy managed to cut back on the strikeouts, only fanning once. But above all these was Enrique Gonzalez: in six innings, he allowed only three hits and a walk, with the only run a leadoff homer to the very first hitter he faced in his major-league career. Otherwise, this was a fine performance, and one which will pose an interesting decision with the Huge Manatee looming [Ortiz gave up eight hits and a walk over six innings pitching for Tucson on Friday]

[Morning Tuesday update]

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Today: Going Down in Flames

Thanks to VIII, William K, azshadowwalker and Spencer for taking care of things as I first snuggled in warm comfort, then cursed, and hurled pillows at the TV set. Not quite the way we wanted to end what was, overall, a pretty good series, with some great pitching from our rotation, and solid play from...well, 23 men on the roster, shall we say.

Heroes and Villains
Series 17: vs. Reds, on road

Webb: 9 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 5 K, 0 ER
Cruz: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 0 ER
S.Green: 5-for-12, HR, 3 RBI
----------------------------
Lyon: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 K, 2 ER
Tracy: 1-for-13, 7 K
Valverde: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K, 2 ER

It's kinda cool to realise that Gonzalez's six innings of one-run ball was the worst performance by a starter this series. You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to become a hero, Enrique: Cruz and Webb both did, and the results were an impeccable fifteen innings, with no earned runs. Excellent. Green gets the nod as the best hitter of the series, and is up to third in the National League, hitting .335 on the season.

Down at the other end, Lyon was fine on Saturday, but his performance on Sunday removed all of Valverde's wiggle-room. Tracy's issues have been well-documented during the series, and Valverde...well, the ninth inning of the game was like coming to the end of a fine meal, with exquisite cuisine and first-class wines - and getting an after-dinner mint with a worm in it. It kinda ruins the whole series, and is not the kind of note on which we really wanted to leave Cincinnati.

But as Bing Crosby once sang, let's accentuate the positive (21 innings, one earned run for our starters), eliminate the negative (Valverde and Lyon blowing a three-run lead), latch on to the affirmative (four RBIs for Hudson, as many as in the first 45 games combined), and don't mess with Mister In-Between (no, I'm not sure what Bing meant there either, at least from a baseball perspective). We win two of three on the road against a team that's above .500, and are still 1.5 games clear at the top of the division.

Now, we head into the Big Apple, for what promised to be a mother of a series against the Mets, climaxing on Wednesday in the Pedro vs. Brandon battle. This will be perhaps the toughest test yet of our credentials as a team, and it'll be interssting to see how we respond.

Finally, after ex-D'back Brad Halsey gave up Bonds homer 714, another ex-D'back gave up #715. And it was our old friend, provider of several dramatic homers in his time with us, Byung-Hung Kim. Nice story on mlb.com about Kim's reaction to it: