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Woo! Not only are we going to Salt River Fields, Bud Selig, we're going to Phoenix Muni and Camelback Ranch and the Peoria Sports Complex and Goodyear and Tempe Diable, and we're going to Surprise and Scottdale and Maryvale ... And we're going to San Diego and Colorado and Colorado and Los Angeles, and then we're going to the American League, to take back the World Series! Yeah!
The Diamondbacks remain undefeated in 2012, having cruised to an easy 9-6 victory over the Giants at Scottsdale Stadium this afternoon, and coming away with a 1-1 tie after ten innings as the "visitors" at Salt River Fields, in front of a park record crowd of 12,528. Of particular note, it was the debut of Trevor Bauer in a D-backs uniform, and it's probably fair to say that he lived up to expectations.
Yeah, Bauer simply retired all six batters he faced this afternoon, two by strikeout. And these weren't roster filler with numbers like Arizona summer temperatures. The six he sent down in order were Dexter Fowler, Marco Scutaro, Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, Michael Cuddter and Tyler Colvin. Now, it's only two innings, and hitters are generally seen as behind the pitchers at this point of spring, because the latter have been working for a week or so longer. But, still... Couldn't have gone much better, could it? 21 pitches, 14 strikes including first-pitch strikes to every batter faced.
Seth Pollack of SB Nation Arizona was in attendance, and was in awe of Bauer, from the "incredible" long-toss pregame workout - he said, "I've never seen a baseball travel that far, that wasn't off a bat." Seth reckons people will eventually get to the park early to see, like they used to for Richie Sexson batting practice, and it's certainly something I want to try and see for myself this spring. Bauer apparently threw just about everything bar the reverse slider today, and got four ground-balls in addition to the two K's. I think the Pentadaily Bauer is going to be as much a part of the 'Pit s the Daily Goldschmidt was last year.
There were other people playing for the D-backs today, however. Let's start at Salt River Fields, where Bauer and the rest of the Arizona pitching staff held the Rockies to four hits, striking our a total of 11 Colorado batters. Particularly sharp was Mike Zagurski, who struck out two of the three batters he faced. The only one who really struggled appreciably was Patrick Corbin, who walked three and issued a balk in his 1.2 innings of work. Chris Jakubauskas came in and allowed an RBI hit before escaping the fourth frame. Mike DeMark also fanned two, getting in some unexpected work in the tenth inning to preserve the tie.
The offense could get the clutch hit they needed, being held hitless in seven attempts with runners in scoring position. Arizona's lone score came in the fourth when a Gerardo Parra ground-out drove in Paul Goldschmidt from third. The "visitors" could have won it in the 9th, but catcher Craig Tatum could only pop out to short, with runners on the corners. Obviously, this early in spring, most of the regulars were gone by the end of the fifth, but 3B Matt Davidson had a hit and a walk, and Goldschmidt showed good discipline and drew two free passes. S'odd to think, this time last year, he was the one coming in for the ninth inning... Now he's our starting 1B.
Perhaps more entertainingly, the other half of the Diamondbacks' roster rolled to a fairly easy 9-6 victory over the Giants in Scottsdale, the offense pumping out a total of 15 hits, and walking more times than they struck out (5:3). It was a particularly good day for the starting outfielders, as LF Marc Krauss, CF Chris Young and RF Justin Upton combined to go 7-for-11 with four runs driven in, and a pair of walks - J-Up has yet to be retired this spring, after a 3-for-3 with a walk performance. Krauss's two-run single in the fifth helped break the game open, while Young and Ryan Roberts each homered, and Konrad Schmidt picked up a pair of hits
Josh Collmenter got the start, and after an easy first inning, struggled in the second, allowing the Giants to score three runs. Wade Miley took the win in relief, matching Bauer's performance exactly, with two perfect innings, containing a pair of strikeouts. Zach Kroenke allowed a run on three hits, as he pitched the fifth and sixth innings, and the rest of the bullpen proved good enough to stop San Francisco from coming closer than three runs the remainder of the way.
Tomorrow, it's back to just the one game, again being broadcast on KTAR. After the success of today's GDT, we'll be running another one then, so be back here at 1pm for that. Today's saw 382 comments, though between them, imstillhungry95 and NACARbernet were responsible for almost two-thirds of them! hotclaws was third, and also taking part were: dbacks25, Jim McLennan, mrssoco, luckycc, Bryan J. Boltik, CaptainCanuck, dbacksfann, txzona, Wactivist, blue bulldog, G.O.B., blank_38, hotclaws, Zavada's Moustache, GuruB, Shawnwck and rfffr.