Diamondbacks 0, Braves 3: How I Lost Your Offense

Record: 42-37. Pace: 86-76. Change on 2012: +3.

Now, kids, back in the summer of 2013, the Diamondbacks offense was on a pretty good roll. Your Uncle Paul Goldschmidt had been swinging a hot bat and things had been falling just right for the team. In fact, they hadn't been shut out of a game all season long, all the way back until September of 2012, back when Mitt Romney was still a household name. Things may not have been going perfectly for the Diamondbacks, but they were still in first place, even if we hadn't done too well in our trip to Washington. Still, we were on our way to play the first place Braves, and we were definitely going to see some familiar faces.

One of those faces was Randall Delgado. Now, kids, do you remember when the Diamondbacks made a big trade last season with Atlanta? Well, the big name that we got was Martin Prado, but there were a few other people that made the trip. Randall Delgado was one of them, having pitched for the Braves across the past two seasons. He took the mound for the Diamondbacks in the bottom of the first, and ran into trouble almost immediately, giving up a one out ground rule double to Jason Heyward. And another familiar face came to the plate- Justin Upton singled to center, bringing in a run against his old team and taking second on the play. The Braves threatened to add on after a walk, but Delgado got the outs and kept Atlanta's lead to 1-0.

There was a problem for the Diamondbacks, though- and that problem went by the name of Julio Teheran. You might remember when we faced Teheran earlier this season. He pitched pretty well back in May, and only took the loss because Patrick Corbin was pitching better. Tonight, though, Teheran was even better. The Diamondbacks couldn't string together any hits against him- they managed one base runner apiece in each of the first five innings, but no one ever got any further than second base. Even free bases didn't help, as a two out walk for Cody Ross in the second led to him getting caught stealing after he came off the bag to end the inning. Plus, lots of strike outs. Teheran struck out ten in six innings, ending the game with three swinging strike outs in the sixth inning to end his night.

Things could have gone bad in the fourth inning for the Diamondbacks, kids. A one out single for Dan Uggla gave the Braves a baserunner, and then Gerardo Parra completely lost a high pop up by B.J. Upton. That turned into a double that put runners at second and third with one out. An intentional walk loaded the bases, and it looked like a great chance for Atlanta to pad their lead, but then Teheran came to be and grounded into a- wait for it!- double play! A sharp grounder to Goldschmidt went home and then back to first for the less common 3-2-3 GIDP, and it was still a 1-0 game.

And then Delgado gave up a home run to lead off the bottom of the fifth.

Well, the game kind of seemed to go down in a blur from there, kids. Didi Gregorius had a great defensive grab to end the fifth inning, but the offense just wouldn't show up. Teheran struck out the side in the sixth, and we might have hoped for "anyone but Teheran" when he was pulled in the seventh, but the Diamondbacks couldn't get a hit after the fifth inning.

Atlanta kept threatening, though. They put runners at the corners before Tony Sipp worked out of trouble in the seventh, and then scratched together a run with a squeeze play in the eighth for Zeke Spruill's major league debut.

After that, it was pretty much all over, kids. The Diamondbacks only threat against Craig Kimbrel came with a one-out walk for Paul Goldschmidt, but a ground ball from Miguel Montero turned into a game ending double play. And that, kids, is the story of how we lost our offense.

Not a particularly busy GDT, with TolkienBard leading in comments, and JoeCB1991 and Clefo taking second and third. Also stopping by were AJV19, Baseballdad, Circa4life, Diamondhacks, Fangdango, Gildo, GuruB, Jake6233, Jim McLennan, John Baragona, PR151, Rockkstarr12, Zavada's Moustache, asteroid, blank_38, hotclaws, kishi, mebravesfan, onedotfive, preston.salisbury, snakecharmer, and xmet.

Not the most exciting of games, unfortunately, and a bit disappointing to see the team's streak of not being shut out come to an end. But tomorrow is another game, so we'll try to start a new streak then.