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This Day In Diamondbacks History: June 20

Overall: 4-10 - Home: 4-3 - Road: 0-7

  • 1984. Cole Gillespie born. Gillespie saw action in both 2009 and 2010, appearing in a total of 50 games, but as he's now reached 28, one wonders if he'll see any more. He appears to have been overtaken on our outfield depth chart by both A.J. Pollock and Adam Eaton: his batting average with Reno sits 78 and 111 points behind that pair respectively, and they're 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 years younger too. In fact, this birthday makes Gillespie the same age as Chris Young and, obviously, significantly older than both Justin Upton and Gerardo Parra.
  • 2007: Jose Valverde collected his 74th career save, tying Matt Mantei for first on the franchise all-time save list in a 7-4 win over the Devil Rays at Chase. Arizona scored three in the third on a Chad Tracy homer, and three in the fourth, on an Eric Byrnes bomb. Micah Owings let Tampa Bay back into the game, letting the tying run come to the plate for them in the sixth. But the bullpen faced the minimum over the last 3.1 innings, with Tony Pena, Brandon Lyon and Valverde striking out five batters, with the one baserunner, off Lyon, erased by a double-play. Byrnes had four hits and three RBI.
  • 2010: Speaking of Papa Grande, he and another former Arizona pitcher combined with Guitar Hero Joel Zumaya to hold the D-backs to four hits, as the Tigers came out on top, 3-1, in Detroit. Max Scherzer struck out eight over seven innings, walking two, before Zumaya and Valverde finished things off with two perfect innings of relief. Ian Kennedy pitched well enough, allowing three runs in his 6.2 innings, on six hits with five strikeouts. Rusty Ryal had two of the D-backs four hits, with Chris Young the only other to reach safely more than once, on a hit and a walk.
  • 2011: No game for the Diamondbacks today, or their arch-rivals the Giants, so no change in the standings. But they did make a roster move last year, outrighting 3B Sean Burroughs to the Reno Aces. He'd been called up a month before, when Melvin Mora went on the bereavement list, and was preferred to Josh Wilson when Mora came back. Burroughs started only once, going 6-for-24 with no walks and one double, for a .542 OPS, which explains why his departure was not exactly mourned by the 'Pit... Better was to come for our Naked Lunch though, later in the year.