Goooood morning, everybody! (Well, it was morning when I started writing this...) It is finally that time again, finally time when I can start working on the Dbacks Daily! Except it will probably be a Dbacks Weekly, at least for a while. Yes, there are down sides to having a job. :) I figured this was as good of a week as any to start us off, and what a week it's been!
It started off with Colorado getting back some dignity and beating Arizona 13-5 on a day that saw two improbable thing happen: the defense betrayed us, and the folks at FSNAZ finally found a way to get Grace and Sutton to stop talking. Nonetheless, I'm sure the team's spirits were lifted by a visit from recovering pitcher Doug Davis. The mini-skid continued into San Francisco, where the defense once again abandoned anybody who pitched for the Dbacks - all 5 runs (3 from Randy Johnson, 2 from Chad Qualls) were unearned (Dbacks ended up losing 5-4). The Big Unit settled down after a shaky 2nd inning to end the night with 7 Ks, and at the end of the day, we're really all just thankful that Mark Reynolds is alright after taking a tumble down 8 or so feet to a cement floor.
Then, a good thing happened - I went to the next two games in San Francisco, and the Dbacks won both. ;) It was perfect weather and a good time was had by me and.. well.. nobody dressed in orange and black, that's for sure. The defensive miscues that plagued the Dbacks on Monday night traveled over the home side on Tuesday, helping the boys in red to an 8-2 win and giving Micah Owings his third win. (Brandon Lyon allowed two hits and a walk to put me on edge, but closed out the game with no damage.) Brandon Webb pitched a gem on Wednesday against Barry Zito, with Webb going to 4-0 and Zito falling to 0-4, the best and worst starts of their careers, respectively. Webb gave himself all the offensive support he would need in the second inning - Zito had almost escaped a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam until Webb's lob into center field plated two! Webb was "kind enough", I guess, to have long 7th and 8th innings and "allowed" Lyon to go out for the 9th for the save, which he earned easily and lowered his ERA (as of today, it's 5.14).
The off day on Thursday was very, very kind to the Diamondbacks as they watched the Rockies and Padres battle for 22 innings, a 6 hour 16 minute marathon of a game! (I bet they watched at least part of it.) Not only did the bullpen get almost completely wiped, but the Rockies won for demoralizing effect. Unfortunate or not, the Dbacks chose to beat up on Greg Maddux mostly in the first inning Friday, sending 11 men to the plate and scoring 6 runs! But Maddux took one for the team, staying out there for 7 innings and throwing 113 pitches to give the bullpen some much-needed rest. Conor Jackson also took one for the team when, in the 6th, he advanced to third instead of stopping at second, a move which would have given him the cycle. He then scored on a sacrifice fly by Mark Reynolds, Dan Haren pitched 7 innings of 3-hit ball, and the Diamondbacks went on to win 9-0.
Yesterday's game looked like it might actually end up a close contest. In fact, the Diamondbacks trailed the Padres heading into the 7th inning, and the only hit before the 6th was a double by pitcher Edgar Gonzalez in the 2nd to bring home Chris Snyder, who had walked. But the Dback bats came to life in the 8th as they sent 10 men to the plate and scored 6 runs (5 of those unearned on Khalil Greene's error). Conor Jackson ended up making the first and last outs of that inning, and Brandon Lyon came in for an easy 1-2-3 9th for the save. Juan Cruz was the pitcher of record, earning the win in the 10-3 contest.
Lil' Tidbits:
So what a week that was... blowout loss, close loss, medium win, close win, blowout win, blowout win. Enough ups and downs for one week for ya? And just think, the season's only 10% over! There's so much more to come. :)