DBacks 6, Giants 2: Benches Clear, DBacks Roll

Record: 68-70 Pace: 80-82 Change on 2011: -10

So, yesterday's game was pretty exciting, non?

A game like that- sure, a blown lead, but a late fight back, some big pitching performances from the lower side of the bullpen, and an extra inning win. Some teams, that equals momentum. Some teams, that equals nothing important and they come stumbling out of the gate the next day. More often than not, the 2012 Diamondbacks have been in the second category this season.

Tonight, however, we got a pretty good outing. Adam Eaton showing off some speed on the bases and in the field, Trevor Cahill taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning, and Pablo Sandoval apparently feeling like John McDonald had ruffled his fur a bit in the eighth inning, leading to some tense moments on the field. But overall, it was the Diamondbacks dominating the game on all fronts and taking a series win from the Giants.

The Diamondbacks came out guns blazing, with Adam Eaton showing off his chops as a leadoff hitter with a single to center. Look, small sample size, of course, but Eaton looks to have some potential at the top of the lineup. A hit and run with Aaron Hill at the plate avoided the double play and put Eaton on second with one out. After a walk to Justin Upton and a ground out from Paul Goldschmidt, Miguel Montero lined a single center field, and Eaton went full speed to score without a throw. Chris Johnson tried to bring in Upton to add to the lead, but struck out, keeping the Diamondbacks lead at 1-0.

In the bottom of the first? Cahill does what we were told he was good at. Ground out, ground out, ground out. Next inning, a few more strikes outs, same result, 1-2-3. And the third, he struck out the side. Madison Bumgarner was doing fairly well against the Diamondbacks, getting through the second and third with only one hit. He ran into trouble in the fourth, though, when Chris Johnson hit a one out triple. Gerardo Parra struck out swinging, but a single from John McDonald brought Johnson in and stretched the Diamondbacks lead to two.

Cahill kept up his bid for a perfect game through the fourth and fifth innings, keeping the Giants offense off the bases until he gave up a walk to Brandon Crawford in the sixth inning. In the meantime, the Diamondbacks added on in the seventh inning. Adam Eaton started it off again, this time with a one-out single. Aaron Hill launched a double to deep left field to score Eaton, and took third on Brandon Crawford's error. Bumgarner was replaced by Jean Machi, and Machi got struck out Justin Upton looking for the second out. However, his luck vanished after that. Machi gave up a single to Goldschmidt to score Hill, a single to Montero, and then a double to Chris Johnson that scored both runners. As we wondered how Montero scored from first on a double, Machi was replaced by Jose Mijares, who got Parra to fly out to center on the first pitch. 6-0 DBacks.

And Cahill still sought after the no-hitter! Whoops, no, scratch that. Marcus Scutaro led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, and the wheels started to fall off the Cahill bus rather quickly. Pablo Sandoval grounded out, but a Buster Posey single and a walk to Hunter Pence meant that the Giants had the bases loaded with one out. Despite Cahill only being at 83 pitches, Kirk Gibson came out to pull his starter and bring in.... Mike Zagurski? Really? I mean, he got out of trouble yesterday, but not quite so lucky today. Zagurski gave up a single to Brandon Belt to score two runs for San Francisco, though he did get a double play ground ball from Ryan Theriot to end the inning. 6-2 after seven.

After that, the Diamondbacks threatened to add on, but didn't. The Giants offense got a couple runners on, but didn't do anything with them. The only real moment of interest came in the top of the eighth, with runners on first and second. Adam Eaton grounded into a fielder's choice, and as they threw to third, Pablo Sandoval decided to go to the tag instead of stepping on the bag for the force. John McDonald seemed to stumble a little, Pablo seemed to take offense, and turned to go after McDonald as he rolled past third. Matt Williams held back McDonald, the umpire held back Sandoval, and the benches cleared in a tense, strange moment.

But no punches were thrown, and the Giants offense was similarly punchless- a single in the bottom of the ninth was wasted as Matt Lindstrom struck out the next three batters, and the Diamondbacks took a win and the series.

Not a terribly busy thread tonight, just passing 400 around the final pitch. imstillhungry95 took first in comments, with more than the next three posters combined. Also stopping in were AzDbackfanInDc, Rockkstarr12, Jim McLennan, hotclaws, GuruB, kishi, blank_38, Dan Strittmatter, BattleMoses, asteroid, txzona, Circa4life, Bryn21, The so-called Beautiful, Dallas D'Back Fan, PR151, Scottyyy, soco, PatrickPetersonAZ, CaptainCanuck, Clefo, Diamondhacks, porty99, shoewizard, and TylerO. Some dispute over the standards for a Comment of the Day, so despite the multiple green comments, I think the only fair answer is to just give you this excerpt of the Smoot-Hawley Tarrif Act- just kidding, we'll go with this comment on McDonald's offense:

With a hit hit here and a hit hit there

Here a hit there a hit everywhere a hit hit

Official cheerleader of Bazooka Joe Saunders...missing JoJo very much!
I love ALL my Baseball Boys!

by Rockkstarr12 on Sep 5, 2012 8:13 PM MST

So a series win! Three games with tacos, and we head south along the coast to San Diego to face the Padres on Friday. It'd be nice to see the team keep this momentum... But we'll see what they can do.