Diamondbacks 3, Dodgers 4 - Failed Comebacks Leave One Wondering

Record: 15-22. Pace: 66-96. Change on last season: 0.

The NL West road trip continues with a leg back down the coast to Los Angeles. This series gives us the opportunity to pass the Dodgers and take third place in the division, if only we could find a way to win a few. Time to put the 1-5 record behind us and start fresh.

New city, same result. Joe Saunders had a great outing, the Diamondbacks' offense failed to show up until late in the game, and mental errors led to another one-run loss against a division foe.

Details in the usual place, but I won't blame you for skipping...

The game once again started out so promising for Arizona. Chris Young doubled to lead off the game and Melvin Mora followed with a bloop double where Young could only make it to 3rd base. But Xavier Nady and Stephen Drew both struck out and Justin Upton popped out. Had Nady or Drew hit a fly ball or even a grounder to the right side, Young might've scored, but instead, both runners were stranded. Nearly the same thing happened in the third inning. Joe Saunders worked a leadoff walk from Clayton Kershaw, Young singled, and Nady then walked to load the bases with one out. But Drew stuck out again and Upton flew out again. Three hits, two walks, and zero runs scored in those two innings, and the Diamondbacks gave Kershaw and the Dodgers back all that momentum.

Joe Saudners was pitching really well under the bright lights of the Los Angeles sky. He allowed one hit to the first batter he faced and two other walks through the first five innings. Former Diamondback Rod Barajas picked on a mistake pitch and gave the Dodgers a 1-run lead with his solo home run in the 5th inning. Jamie Carroll led of the 6th inning with a single and scored on a double by Matt Kemp. Saunders intentionally walked Juan Uribe to load the bases with, but James Loney and Rod Barajas could not extend the Dodgers' lead past 2-0.

It all came apart for the Diamondbacks' defense in the 7th inning. With two outs, Jamie Carroll reached base for the third time tonight, this time with a walk. Aaron Miles hit a ground ball to Stephen Drew, which he ran to grab and throw to Kelly Johnson to get Carroll out at 2nd base. Except Kelly wasn't actually covering 2nd base, and Drew's throw went way past 1st base into right field. Upton fired home but by then Miles had scored, and Blanco's throw to 3rd to try to get Miles was late and that throw nearly went into left field. So Gibson pulls Saunders for Joe Patterson to face Andre Ethier, who induces a ground ball to Drew - who again throws it a bit wide of Nady playing 1st base, and Miles scores to make it 4-0. Patterson's job was done, and Esmerling Vasquez came in and, after the Dodgers' third infield single in the inning, finally got Juan Uribe to pop out to Mora to end the 7th inning.

The Diamondbacks finally got on the board in the 8th inning against Matt Guerrier. Chris Young singled, stole second base, and scored on a single by Nady, but Drew notched his third strikeout of the night to end the frame. Gutierrez pitched a scoreless 8th to keep Arizona in the ballgame leading into the 9th. Vincente Padilla was brought in for the save, and the Diamondbacks wasted no time against him. Upton worked a walk and Kelly Johnson singled to put two runners on. Parra's weak groundout moved the runners over to 2nd and 3rd base. This time, pinch-hitter Miguel Montero - who fell early in the count to 0-2 by swinging for the fences - smacked a hanging curve into center field to plate Upton and Johnson and reduce the Dodgers' lead to - surprise, surprise - one run. But pinch-hitter Russell Branyan and (after CY walked) Melvin Mora both struck out, giving the Diamondbacks their 5th straight one-run loss.

via www.fangraphs.com

Hero: C Young, +16.8%
Goat: M Mora, -14.1%
Villain: S Drew, -20.3% (defense not included)

Ho-hum, quelle surprise, another day, another one-run loss. Another episode where the starting pitcher deserved much better than his fate, if only the offense and/or defense had shown up. Chris Young was 3 for 4 with a walk, but Diamondbacks batters struck out 15 times. Thanks to soco, we know the modern record for one-run losses was seven in a row by the 1919 Washington Senators. Anybody want to place bets on whether or not we meet or surpass that record?

Strange how a road trip such as this can lull us into feeling that a zero-zero game is such a bad situation; it sure seems as though the team feels that way too. So it was a rather depressing and wine-filled, if fairly active, gameday thread tonight. imstillhungry95 obliterated the competition and was the only poster over 100 comments. Rockkstarr12 and hotclaws were millimeters from each other in 2nd and 3rd, with Clefo and blue bulldog just barely behind them. All told there were 833 comments by: 4 Corners Fan, Rockkstarr12, snakecharmer, blue bulldog, Jdub220, diamondintherough, Jim McLennan, IHateSouthBend, emilylovesthedbacks, Clefo, BattleMoses, Prosopis, hotclaws, pygalgia, txzona, imstillhungry95, kishi, piratedan7, Azreous, shoewizard, jaydubsped, Backin'the'Backs (Welcome!), SeanMillerSavior, justin1985, NASCARbernet, soco, dbacks25, Gravity, Gibbysdad, and SenSurround.

There were several LOL-worthy candidates for Comment of the Day, including some pretty good proposed lineups for tomorrow. My ultimate winner was one of Clefo's gems:

It's like dates I've been on

It’s long, drawn out, nothing happens and nobody scores

Bad doormat! No stock options!

by Clefo on May 13, 2011 8:23 PM PDT

 

Tomorrow's game is one of the "evening" games FOX is now airing, starting at 4pm Pacific/Arizona time. So, since Josh Collmenter's debut is going to be on national television, let's try to, oh, I don't know, win?? What do you think, who's with me??!?! YEAH!!!!!!!

..... Yeah. See ya tomorrow.