SnakeBytes 7/19: Jolly Rogered Edition

Fire Kirk Gibson! After all, the D-backs scored more runs against the Pirates in one inning with AJ Hinch at the helm, than they managed over an entire series against the same team under Gibson. </meaninglesscomparison> Still, Cap'n Kirk - with help from the bullpen - led the team to the first sweep in franchise history inflicted on them by the Pirates, and we have now gone 3-12 over the past fifteen. Oh look: we're 0-5 in one-run games during that time... With four series left, Arizona still need four wins to avoid a hundred losses. That's now a lot harder than it looked when we arrived in Pittsburgh...

Minor factoid of the day. Heilman's blow-up means we are in line to have no relievers (classed as made 80% of their appearances in relief) with an ERA of less than 4.30 and over 20+ innings of work. We'd be the first National League team like that since the 1973 Astros. Here's the recaps. After the jump, the other stuff, including some disturbing injury news from elsewhere in the league.

Recaps

• [Yahoo!] Pirates rally to beat Diamondbacks 4-3 - "We’ve had a tough road trip where we’ve wasted several efforts," manager Kirk Gibson said. "Especially two of them here."
• [AZ Central] Diamondbacks swept by Pirates - After one hop, Jose Tabata's grounder to third looked like it would end the eighth inning, a "tailor-made" double-play ball, in the words of interim manager Kirk Gibson. But on the next hop, it suddenly was headed toward the head of Reynolds "That surprise you?" Reynolds asked rhetorically. "That we had a bad break?"
• [dbacks.com] Bullpen squanders Hudson's solid outing - "I make a couple good pitches here and there and get a bad hop, and Reynolds does a great job even getting a glove on, let alone getting an out," Heilman said. "Two outs, and it wasn't a pitch where I wanted it. It was down, but it was still over the plate and Walker beat me to the spot."

Team News and Notes

• [dbacks.com] Shoulder still hampering Upton - "We're not going to play him at this point," manager Kirk Gibson said. "We're going to make sure that he's strong and right before we throw him back out there and have him get back to where he is or worse."
• [AZCentral] Gibson: Enright will not be shut down - "We’ve got to find a way to get him through it," Gibson said. "He’ll be better because of it.. The only way we would have shut him down is if his shoulder were fatigued or something like that."
• [dbacks.com] Webb eyes game action before season ends - "No doubt, that's my goal," Webb explained. "If I'm not trying to do that, I'm not even going to throw. That's the goal even if it's the last game of the season, whatever I can get would be good, at least go out there and be competitive for a little bit. I know we're getting close."
• [dbacks.com] Gibson hopes to finish job he's started - "We've done some things better. I think the biggest thing -- at least I felt [it was] when I came into this -- was we got down and we got stymied and we got shut down. I think now we do a much better job of stopping big innings and maybe keep grinding more when we're down, but we've got a long way to go."

I was going to let Vasquez Heilman finish this post for me, but after he put in two articles about stock car racing, and the next link started with NASC, I decided to pull him and just do the whole article myself. Ian Kennedy Dan Hudson understands.

Around baseball

• [Chicago Breaking Sports] Cubs' Colvin hospitalized, impaled by bat - "Tyler Colvin is in stable condition at a local hospital after being impaled in his upper left chest by a piece of broken bat during Sunday's game... He's being treated for pnuemothorax, a puncture of the chest cavity, which allowed air into the chest wall and the potential of a collapsed lung."
• [stltoday.com] Catcher LaRue says career is over - "Jason LaRue isn't sure whether he was kicked three times, four times or five. Truth to tell, it probably doesn't matter. Regardless of the count he will never play again." It happened when Reds pitch Johnny Cueto kicked him in the head last month during a brawl.
• [ESPN Los Angeles] Manager Joe Torre says Los Angeles Dodgers haven't quit - Los Angeles Dodgers, having gone 5-15, beg to differ. However it looks like a couple of players will be given the chance to manage games in the last series, against us at the start of October.
• [StarTribune.com] Q&A with Katy Feeney, MLB's scheduling guru - "We've had people say well, why don't you play a warm-weather schedule, play in domes and warm weather the first part of the season. But the year we tried that, it rained in the West and when we came home to the East it was snowing. ... If someone can tell me which week in April there's going to be snow, I'd be happy to work around that."
• [NESN.com] Rangers 'Claws and Antlers' Playoff-Push Craze Among Top New Baseball Traditions - "The Texas Rangers' "claws and antlers" fad is taking MLB by storm. Rangers fans are getting excited about this team, regardless of its money woes, and are building steam heading into October. Could this be the 2010 version of the Angels' Rally Monkey?" Oh, let your sarcasm flow, people.