Record: 15-17. Pace: 76-86. Change on last season: +1.
Daniel Hudson and the Diamondbacks headed into today's game looking to even up their series against San Diego, with Huddy looking to capture his third win in a row. It'd be hard for the game to be as heartbreaking as last night's (a walk-off walk on the road doesn't help the heart), so it'd be hard for tonight's game to leave a feeling any more sour. Fortunately, today's game did anything but, as Dan Hudson absolutely shut down the Padres, the offense forgot they were playing in Petco, and the Diamondbacks took the game with ease. Read on for details of the game, one that went much better than most of my recapped games do.
The game looked like it'd start off well as soon as the ball hit Chris Young's bat to get the game going - unfortunately, a great play from Chase Headley (one he clearly couldn't make last night!) robbed Young of a leadoff single. Ryan Roberts picked up the slack, though, getting the first of his three hits on the night on a single to center. Justin Upton grounded out to short (although a running Ryan Roberts kept the inning alive, ensuring there would be no double play). It appeared that the inning would end when Drew dribbled a ball to second, but a terrible throw from Eric Patterson scored Roberts from second; Drew was awarded an infield single, but I'm not entirely sure he would've been safe. Regardless, the Diamondbacks gave Hudson some breathing room in the first inning, an inning where's he's had most of his struggles this season.
Luckily, the one run was plenty for King Huddy, as he breezed through most of the night. The Pads went down 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the first, and although San Diego wasn't struggling all that mightily getting on base, doing absolutely anything with them is another story entirely. A one-out Brad Hawpe double in the second? Strikeout/flyout to end the inning. First and second, one down in the third? A double play took nice care of that. Hudson seemed to improve as the night went on, too; the Padres reached base with less frequency, as Hudson only gave up one hit from the fourth inning on. Huddy was pulled in the eighth in favor of Aaron Heilman (back from his injury), ending his night with seven innings, no runs, no walks and six strikeouts. It's great to see him return to the awesomeness that he showed last season, even if it's unlikely he'll stay at that pace throughout the season.
The Diamondbacks, on the other hand, didn't seem to have too much trouble scoring. In the third, a walk, single (from RyRo, of course), and stolen base in the third set up Stephen Drew (who'd later be taken out of the game for precautionary reasons: "right groin tightness" is the official word) for an RBI single; Miguel Montero was walked to load the bases, allowing Melvin Mora to single home Roberts. Juan Miranda was the next batter up, grounding out to second while scoring Drew from third. The inning didn't end until an intentional walk brought up Hudson (who proceeded to ground out to the pitcher), but it was pretty clear the Diamondbacks didn't have too much regard for Petco's "pitchers' park" tendency. Justin Upton tacked on two more with a home run (one that barely made it over the fence in center) in the fourth, putting Arizona up 6-0. The game went all boring-mode on us after that, as the Padres terrible offense continued to be terrible and Diamondbacks seemed content with six runs. Joe Paterson came in to pitch a flawless ninth, continuing his streak and giving the Diamondbacks the 6-0 win. An awesome performance from a starter, an offense that wouldn't let up, and a bullpen that posted zeroes? Let's start keeping up with an MO more like this, yeah?
Technically the Best: Stephen Drew, +19.3%
Secretly the Best: Dan Hudson (the pitcher), +16.8%
Technically the Worst: Dan Hudson (the hitter), -3.3%
Tonight's GDT fairly light-trafficked, with just 455 comments at time of writing; Rockkstarr12 led the charge with 73, with piratedan7 and justin1985 taking second and third, respectively, with 58 and 48 comments. All involved today: Clefo, kishi, Jim McLennan, Zavada's Moustache, xmet, asteroid, shoewizard, snakecharmer, BattleMoses, blank_38, Cardscrazy247, hotclaws, Muu, NASCARbernet, and 4 Corners Fan.
The Comment of the Night had just two recs, making it the only comment to show up in green. The topic of Lord of the Rings came up, leading to the following...
The rubber match tomorrow features Joe Saunders (FFFFFFF-) and Aaron Harang with a 1:05 MST start. Look at the bright side, Harang's been pretty terrible in his last two starts. See you guys in the GDT!