Diamondbacks 1, Dodgers 0: The Battle of Zeros and One

Record: 70-72. Pace: 79-81. Change on last season: -12.

Home sweet home! After a 10-game California road trip, 'tis time to visit Chase Field for a week or so. In those eight games, we'll face.... wait, the Dodgers, Giants and Padres?! Again?!? WHO MADE THIS SCHEDULE??

Those who made the trek to the stadium or who were able to watch on television were treated to a good old fashioned pitcher's duel. What made it "good" was Ian Kennedy going 7 1/3 scoreless innings, some stellar defense, and Miguel Montero coming through with the winning double off of Clayton Kershaw. If you happened to have missed it, read on for the details...

Clayton Kershaw versus Ian Kennedy is the kind of match-up that in March we would have thought would be a great duel. Nearly a season later, and some inconsistency by our ginger ace along the way, the billing came to be. And boy, was it a good one.

Kennedy was the ace we know he can be, going 7 1/3 and dominating all of them. He gave up only 4 hits, but did not walk a batter. He also struck out 6 and had a fairly easy time of handling Los Angeles. The time of greatest danger for him came in 5th. Andre Ethier, who went to ASU, apparently, whipped a two out double to center. Luis Cruz then launched a ball to deep left that seemed destined to be a home run, but Jason Kubel hauled in the ball to prevent Arizona from falling into a deficit.

Kershaw was very good, but did his part to provide more evidence in the continuous project of showing how silly judging pitchers by wins can be. He went 7 innings, gave up 3 hits and 3 walks, whilst striking out 5. He only gave up one run, and overall was everything the Dodgers could want. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers did not have much going in the offense. So much for all those expensive players, eh?

Neither team managed a hit until the third inning, when John McDonald, of all people, broke up the lull with a single The lone Diamondbacks run came in the 7th with Paul Goldschmidt starting the inning off by reaching on a throwing error from Hanley Ramirez. He then went first to home on a Miguel Montero double, showing his every surprising speed for such a large guy. Miggy felt he should show off his wheels, too, but was not as successful. Chris Johnson flied out to shallow center for the second out, and Montero attempted to take home, but was thrown out. The play was close, but probably unwise.

It would unfortunate to let the game go without mentioning Don Mattingly trying on his best Tony La Russa impression. Maybe La Russa killed Mattingly and is now wearing his skin as a disguise. In the 8th he decided that 4 pitchers were exactly what was needed, as if it were a karmic balance to the well pitched and efficient game that had preceded the frame. Sure, his squad didn't give up any runs in the inning, but it's still more than a little silly season.

David Hernandez came in as an impromptu closer in the 9th, and he quickly shut the door on the Dodgers. He struck out Nick Punto, got Mark Ellis to ground out to the shortstop, and struck out Adrian Gonzalez. Just another D-backs win, which brings the team 11-8 over the Dodgers for the season.

Source: FanGraphs
Master of Pitching: I Kennedy, +44.3%
Master of Hitting: M Montero, +22.1%
Master of None: J Upton, -16.1%

A much busier gameday thread, what with it not being the opening weekend of the NFL. Tonight, ish95 and DC managed to combine for more posts than Sunday's thread had total. All present were: imstillhungry95, AzDbackfanInDc, hotclaws, snakecharmer, asteroid, kishi, piratedan7, xmet, Scottyyy, Rockkstarr12, txzona, soco, blank_38, Turambar, Muu, SongBird, GuruB, Bryn21, 4 Corners Fan, Diamondhacks, Zavada's Moustache, PatrickPetersonAZ, and DivineWolfwood.

ZM, as the official Man of the Hour, earns Comment of the Day with:

"What an unsurprising pitcher's duel!"

-Me, if I were presented with the box score in March.

Free Daron Sutton.

by Zavada's Moustache on Sep 11, 2012 8:22 PM PDT reply actions 3 recs

Same time, same place, same foes - for the last time this season - tomorrow night!

Chase Field Notes [by Jim]

• There's probably no better cure for apathy than a 1-0 game, at Chase Field infected with an unlikeable number of Dodger fans. Oh, yes... I cared. Not a large crowd tonight, and rather too many Kemp and Ethier shirts. Saw a couple of Twins fans though: was going to stop and give them directions.
• However, that cliche about LA supporters showing up late? True, even outside LA, where the "traffic" excuse doesn't apply. The blue-clad family in front of us took their seats in the third, and the Dodger fans to our left in the fourth.
• Remember when we thought Kubel would be a liability in left-field? Yeah. About that. Was sure that fly-ball was going to get out, but somehow it didn't. Was just watching the highlights: loved IPK's reaction...
  
  
  "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
• Wasn't the only bit of good defense tonight. Hill had a lovely grab of a ball back up the middle, and great work by Goldschmidt to start the double-play in the eighth - he could probably have just stepped on first, but he clearly wanted to get the lead runner. That was the difference tonight: we got an unearned run.
  
• Ziegler now has 17 GIDPs in 58.2 innings. There are pitchers with more, but they have all pitched at least one hundred more innings than little Z.
  
• Was surprised to see him in the eighth and Hernandez in the ninth, but on the radio home, heard Gibson saying that Putz's back was a bit stiff, so they skipped him.
• Kennedy was the starting pitcher in the last 1-0 win we had at Chase, beating the Pirates on Sept 19 last year. The one before that, I was also in attendance for, an extra-inning contest, won on a Chad Tracy homer in June 2008.