These Diamondbacks sure have a way of bouncing back, don't they? They'll have their skids, sure, but it always seems that after the toughest loss, they bounce right back with a good win. That's a good sign for a team full of young guys and only 4 players with post-season experience. (Bonus points if you name them and the post-season without looking it up.)
The media turns in our favor today, praising Micah Owings for his performance. The AP recap talks of little else, but mentions the Sanchez left with an oblique strain after his first-inning struggles (which it details, and considering that's about all the game action there was, the details aren't long). The Republic recap discusses the resilience of not only the team but Micah himself. MLB.com and the Tribune are more of the same, because really, there wasn't much else to write about.
Notes today: Stephen Drew's day off, the Silver Slugger award, and Snyder's stellar half. There's also a small sidebar in the Republic about Owings, who apparently gets a slap across the face from Snyder before or after a game.
There's also an article in the Republic about the boo-birds that showed up Monday night. Dan Bickley, whom I'm beginning to dislike, calls the fans "callous and wrong" and unsophisticated for booing Melvin and Peña. His reasons for this judgement seem to lie in the fact that the team's in first place and has no business to be, and fans don't show up. How about the fact that Peña was bad that night?? How about the fact that that it was a questionable move by Melvin to leave him in or even put him in? The fans paid a lot of money to get in and watch their team, they have a right to cheer or boo whom they wish. It wasn't a good time for Peña to act like August Peña and not September Peña. Has he been money almost all year? Yes. Was he bad on Monday? Yes. Are the boos going to hurt Peña's feelngs? Probably not. Was it the most sophisticated thing to do? No, but that's baseball. (Hello, Yankee Stadium? Wrigley Field?) I think the boos show, in a way, that they care about Peña, they want him to be good, they care enough to dislike his performance strongly enough to boo and not just be indifferent. The fans showed up, and they know enough about the team to know they don't always play that poorly, that it's important to win down the stretch in a pennant race (against the Giants who had just been swept). The Diamondbacks fans shouldn't base their opinions of the team or the season based on that one game. One loss and some boo-birds doesn't mean the end of the road. Besides, giving up a hard-fought lead with 5 ER in 0.2 innings is going to get anybody booed.
Doug Davis gets a chance to rebound from his tough two starts tonight when he faces Zito (who isn't so tough in the National League). Davis vs Zito, 6:40pm.