Diamondbacks 5, Rangers 9: Terror in Tarrant County

Record: 30-23. Pace: 92-70. Change over last year: +6.

Today’s game reminded me a bit of my high school career. I won’t get into all the boring specifics, but I can certainly empathize with futzing around for the beginning part, and then desperately trying to catch up. But, hey, I turned out okay, so therefore the Diamondbacks are making the playoffs this year. It’s a completely fool-proof predication.

The ultimate score of 9-5 makes it seem like it was closer than it actually was, as the above analogy illustrates. Brandon McCarthy had his rain-soaked start yesterday moved today, and promptly had his world rocked.

It’s hard to sugarcoat a line like this: 2 2/3 innings pitched, with 9 hits and 6 runs given up. On a positive note, however, he did not walk anyone. Without the television feed, it’s difficult to say what exactly was wrong through the radio broadcast. Part of it certainly could be that the Rangers are no slouches on offense, and part of it is likely that their ballpark is a fun place to hit.

Josh Collmenter also went just a shade over 2 innings, and gave up 3 runs. I won’t get into all the gory details, as it’ll depress me, but the positive takeaway is that Will Harris, Tony Sipp, and Matt Reynolds all combined into some kind of horrific, yet effective, Voltron of relief pitchers that didn’t give up any runs.

After largely sleeping for 5 innings, the Diamondbacks offense started going. Again, I don’t see the point in hashing out every detail as I’m sure you’ve already skipped to the comments, but let’s talk about some of the good and bad from our lineup today:

Bad: Eric Chavez injuring himself on his first at-bat, seemingly tweaking his right oblique. He voluntarily took himself out of the at-bat, and Cliff Pennington replaced him. I haven’t heard anymore about how long, if at all, Chavez might be out, but Pennington being in did lead to:

Good: Pennington went for 2-5, which is 2 more than I’d normally pencil him in for. He also scored a run.

Bad: Miguel Montero did manage a hit out of his 4 at-bats, but the other three were strikeouts. He’s still under .200 for batting average. We’ll have to hope he gets it going in the Windy City.

Good: Paul Goldschmidt is still a Goldschmidt Amongst Men, going 4-5 and scoring a run.

Good: Didi Gregorious went 2 for 5 and continues to be a little sparkplug.

Good: AJ Pollock went 2-4, so big ups to him.

So that concludes our 3 game series with the Rangers, with a possible 4th game to be played later.

Clever reference for something really good: Paul Goldschmidt (3%)

Another reference continuing the theme of the above, but for something really not good: Brandon McCarthy (-28.6%)

Everyone else: Everyone (0%)

No TV, game started at 11am Arizona time, did anyone expect a large Gameday Thread? Well, besides Cubs fans who insist on Attendance Pennants. More than 200 comments were managed, but I imagine the poor start dampened things a bit. Rockstarr12 topped the list with 35 comments, and was joined by: AzDbackfanInDc, BrokeNBattleX, Circa4life, Clefo, Dallas D'Back Fan, Diamondhacks, Gildo, GuruB, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, JoelPre, Lozenge, Paper Clip, SenSurround, TRTFSHR, TolkienBard, Turambar, Xipooo, Zavada's Moustache, azcougs, azshadowwalker, coldblueAZ, cole8865, grimmy01, hotclaws, onedotfive, piratedan7, and snakecharmer.

Tomorrow the D-backs take on the Cubbies in Chicago, first pitch is at 11:20am Arizona time. Wade Miley faces off against Matt Garza, so be here or somewhere else or something. My understanding is that there won't be TV tomorrow, either, which is strange as you'd think it would be on WGN. Doesn't matter to me, as I'll be listening on the radio at work.