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Let's see. Won 6-0, lost 4-0, won 10-0. After the last few games, it's a little difficult to figure out which Diamondbacks team is going to show up for any game. Actually, with the lineup shifts lately, it's a little difficult to decide who's going to be out there in a Diamondbacks uniform at all some days. Justin Upton sitting again today, Jason Kubel getting a rest after being a double short of the cycle last night, Lyle Overbay taking a trip to the paternity list, and A.J. Pollock being brought up from Reno again, which may or may not lead to the Reno-to-Phoenix shuttle being renamed in his honor. Yeah, there always seems to be something interesting going on in the Diamondbacks roster.
But Wade Miley on the mound, the man who has been one of our most exciting pitchers this season. Two hitting streaks looking to be extended. A chance to win a series at home. How often do we get to do that? Maybe, just maybe, we could manage to put together back-to-back wins.
Yeah. And maybe I'm a Chinese jet pilot.
Well, maybe I should check to see if I finally qualified to fly a Chengdu J-10 fighter jet. Because the Diamondbacks headed out to the field and made it clear pretty quickly that this wasn't Monday's rendition of our boys in Sedona Red.
What worked? Well, to start, I'll give you two words: Wade Miley. Miley was on fire this evening, shutting down the Rockies offense. He was perfect through four innings, keeping the Rockies off the basepaths until Jason Giambi hit a double with one out in the fifth inning. Juuuuuuicer took third on a ground out and scored on a single from Wilin Rosario, but other than that? Miley only allowed one other opposing batter to reach base in his 8 innings. 8 innings, 3 hits, no walks- he only hit a three ball count on one batter.
Wade was also pretty efficient in his pitch count, too. He had two innings where he threw fewer than 10 pitches. He was at 102 pitches through 8, and really I suspect that if he wasn't a rookie, we would have seen him go out for the ninth. However, he's but a wee bairn in baseball terms, so he was pulled for a pinch hit by Josh Bell in the bottom of the eighth. The other unfortunate thing about his getting pulled then? No hit for Miley tonight, which means his hit streak came to an end. Alas! But if that's all you have to worry about for your pitcher's performance, you can't complain.
What else was working? Well how about I give you two bases? The Diamondbacks offense obviously remembered whatever bits of voodoo kept them going last night, and they hammered Rockies pitchers to the tune of five doubles. Credit to Paul Goldschmidt for picking up two of those five, bringing in runs in the first and third innings. He also launched a solo home run in the seventh for some tacos. Aaron Hill and John McDonald also put up RBI doubles in the third inning that ended Josh Outman's day- the Diamondbacks scored early and often, taking a 5-0 lead by the time we finished three innings.
All in all, it was a pretty solid, convincing win. Great pitching, good hitting, and some great defense- if John McDonald's bare-handed play on an Eric Young grounder in the sixth doesn't make highlight reels across the country, there's no justice in the wide wide world of sports.
A pretty pleased thread, falling a bit short of the millennium mark. imstillhungry95 took the top spot, with Clefo and hotclaws with the silver and bronze. rfffr, snakecharmer, AzDbackfanInDc, dbacks79, Turambar, kishi, soco, Tucson d-back fan, luckycc, Jim McLennan, BattleMoses, duckthenchuck, Zavada's Moustache, Muu, onedotfive, blank_38, txzona, asteroid, 4 Corners Fan, JGreen31, shoewizard, Joel Preston, Bryan J. Boltik, Fangdango, G.O.B., DbacksSkins, Counsellmember, ShucksBoWalter, Ridster09, Bryn21, jjwaltrip, and Augdogs also added their comments.
And, because I decided I would in the thread, imstillhungry95 takes comment of the day:
I’m a cool person in my homeschool group! ;-)
R.I.P. Ray Bradbury August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012
Lacking context? Sure. But if you don't want nonsensical selections, you shouldn't look to a process that's based entirely on my whims.
So we send the Rockies out of town with two decisive wins. A sign of things to come? Yes! I mean, it's a sign that the Rockies won't be in town. Other than that? Eh, who knows? Just enjoy the win. Geez.