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Record: 21-26. Pace: 72-90. Change on last year: -2.
Well, we did it, guys. I had to recap a game, and we won it. It wasn't the standard, slow-paced, three-run affair that one might expect from a Major League Baseball game. It wasn't the sparkling Zack Greinke start that many may have looked for; however, it wasn't a continuation of awesomeness from Wade Miley. Both starters entered the game 5-1, and the pitcher's duel was a duel in the sense that the two "dueled" to see who could suck less and stop hemorrhaging runs quicker. Wade Miley won the affair, and the Diamondbacks won the game, marking just the second home Saturday game that we've actually taken, the first being the second game of the season; we beat San Francisco 5-4. Hit the jump to see how this one played out - and, for once, I'm excited to hit the jump to type out the rest.
It started off exactly as I had so negatively and pessimistically predicted: poorly. Cory Hart immediately doubled batting leadoff, and three batters later Jonathan Lucroy batted him home to put Milwaukee out front with a one-run lead early on. Yet, even more quickly than Milwaukee had struck, the Diamondbacks struck back. Greinke did not look like the Greinke that had that magical run a few seasons back (though, few pitchers will) - the first four Diamondbacks got on base with singles, scoring two and giving Arizona - gasp - a lead. Then, Zack Greinke remembered the name on the back of his jersey, and struck out the next three batters swinging to end the inning. But, hey, a lead's a lead. Surely we can hold one of them things, yeah?
It worked well until the third, where the Brewers doubled twice and tripled to give themselves a 5-2 lead. And it almost happened as quickly as that sentence. Wade Miley wasn't the same Wade Miley that so many of us have grown to love over the past few weeks, and the score evidenced that. Fortunately, the offense that we grew to love over the first two innings decided to stick around, and by inning's end, we had ourselves a 7-5 lead. Yeah, the teams swapped leads for the first three innings. I guess it's better than the last three innings, as that would pretty much bring about heart attacks in nearly every SnakePitter. Greinke was pulled before recording the second out in the third, and check out his line: 2.1 IP, 10H, 7R (all earned), 3BB, 3K and a three-run home run from Johnny Mac, a laser into the left field bleachers in the third. I think it's safe to say we learned our lesson, though, right? We can't expect this game to calm down; we'll go through the next six innings exchanging leads, changing pitchers, and biting our nails until the final out!
Yeah, no. Looking at my notepad here, there was actually very, very little that happened that I feel deserves noting; Justin Upton was plunked in the third, and it'll be fun seeing how we retaliate (the pitch that hit Justin was pretty much directed at him from the second it left the pitcher's hand). Or, er, how erratic our staff's command can be. In the fourth, Goldschmidt doubled and the Brewers seemed pretty mad that Goldy wasn't called out (it was pretty close, but I had the stream muted so I couldn't hear the commentators' calls), so that gave me a pretty big smile. A Brewer also tried to make the Top Ten in the fifth, except his dive for a Parra ball just left him look sorta silly. And... that's it. I'm looking for something worth noting, but I'm coming up short. Nothing happened, save for a run in the seventh, for the rest of the game, really, and JJ Putz came in to shut the door in the ninth and did so successfully. It was a nice 1-2-3 inning, too. Good to see no one overreacted by saying the closer situation was up in the air. It was a bit of a wild game early on, but Wade Miley recovered from it while Greinke did not. It was weird, contorted way, it was a pitcher's duel for survival, and that's what Miley won. Next, though, I'd prefer if you won the one where you just pitch really well and own the other team. If possible. Thanks, Wade.
Doubleplusgood: John MacDonald, +22.8%
Plusgood: Jason Kubel, +11.1%
Doubleplusungood: Wade Miley, -18.9%
I apologize if this recap hasn't been up to par. I can't help but feel that's it's lacking quite a bit of substance, but I've been feeling sickish for a bit and I'm under the influence of cough medicine that's doing its darnedest to drag me to bed. Anyway, the GDT was far more boisterous than last week's, which is only logical considering that we won. Who wants to leave a GDT where the Diamondbacks are, like, winning? Crazy stuff, and certainly an event that stands as cause for celebration. Luckycc led the party with 165 comments, with perennial chart-topper imstillhungry95 sitting in second with a hair over 100. Also present tonight were: asteroid, Jim McLennan, piratedan7, txzona, AzDbackfanInDc, edbigghead, dbacks79, shoewizard, blank_38, hotclaws, marionette, snakecharmer, Zavada's Moustache, BattleMoses, Counsellmember, rfffr, Fangdango, Ridster09, 4 Corners Fan, egboyz, CaptainCanuck, Augdogs, Circa4life, SenSurround, and Bryan J. Boltik.
Comment of the Night goes to the one that could stand without context, as a few were tied with three recs. I'm pretty sure this is one we can all rally around, too:
There is nothing I love more
Than watching Nyjer Morgan lose.
2012: The year of Wagner Mateo
by Bryan J. Boltik on May 26, 2012 10:13 PM PDT 3 recs
So, that's a win. We'll try to make it two in a row tomorrow, as Daniel Hudson makes his return to face Randy Wolf and his ERA north of six. Ok, so Huddy's is six as well, but if we win by 0.02 runs, I'll be the one laughing about semantics. See you guys there.