Record: 14-9. Change on last season: +4
Oh, Anna, Anna - why have you forsaken us? Traitorous floozy. :-) Though maybe we should sign her to a minor-league deal, after she delivered what Gaslamp Ball called, a "12-6 curve for literally, a first pitch strike. And from the rubber no less." You want the cure for the recent slump in attendance? Her + Jenny Finch = full house. Fact. But I'm over AK now - we shall not mention her name again.
But that's the problem with a winning streak; after a while, you forget a) what it's like to lose, and b) that you're still likely going to taste defeat at least sixty times this season. Doesn't make it any more pleasant when the wheels come off, though as Otacon pointed out in the comments, if we'd stolen this one, it'd have set a new high in criminal behaviour. Thanks also to IndyDBack and (the newly clean-shaven!) frienetic for their thoughts.
The Padres out-hit us twenty to eight, while their bullpen combined to retire the last sixteen D'backs hitters. Given this, it says quite a lot about our bullpen that they kept the Padres off the board for eight straight innings. Bruney, Lopez, Koplove, Cormier and Choate scattered six hits and two walks, but we were hurt by Webb only going six innings - he allowed 12 hits, two walks and four runs and was clearly not at his best, even walking the opposing pitcher.
Slight credit to the offense for coming back to tie it in the ninth against Trevor Hoffman, who is perhaps not the sure thing he was a few years ago - that's two blown saves in five opportunities. Green walked with one out, advanced to second on a groundout, and then came home on a pinch-hit double by Tony Clark. Otherwise, though... 8-for-50 overall: two hits for Glaus, Gonzo and Counsell, but Snyder went 0-for-6 with 3 K's, and Tracy 1-for-6.
Much weirdness in this one - we even used Russ Ortiz as a pinch-hitter in the 15th. Then there's this little line, from the top of the fourth, with one out:
Tracy caught stealing home
What the...? Ah, missed suicide-squeeze attempt by Quinton McCracken. Bad Q. A zero for this series awaits, with your name on it
Was surprised Cormier didn't go longer than two innings - he'd only thrown 18 game pitches in the previous week, and had the day off yesterday so should have been fresh. He did extend his streak to 8.2 scoreless innings. Instead, Randy Choate threw three innings and 40 pitches, a real marathon for our former LOOGY [the most in over a year, since he threw 41 vs. Milwaukee on Apr. 22]
As is, we are left with nothing but a charred and crispy bullpen to show for the end of our win streak. We've won so many lately we probably didn't deserve, that when one goes the other way, it's hard to complain. Wait till we start outhitting the other team, and still losing. Then we can crank the whining up to eleven. This time, we'll just take our licks, go home and prepare for battle today. It was a very pleasant couple of days, leading the NL West. Let's hope that's not the last we see of it for two more years.
Meanwhile, I believe Random Fandom is trying to upstage me in the cheap shot promotions department. Hah! Just 'cos you're ranked #3 in Google for "arizona diamondbacks blog", and AZ Snakepit...er, isn't. ;-)
More shortly, but not much more, since Go Daddy beckons.