Diamondbacks 5, Dodgers 7: Extra Inning Blues

Record: 47-44. Pace: 84-78. NL West Lead: +1.5

So...

Yasiel Puig is mortal. We'll just lead with that. He went 1 for 7 and clanked a ball off his glove in the right field in the sixth inning. And if that's all you want to learn from this game, take his line on the day, his questionable baserunning moves last night, and the fact he only hit four singles all series long. Gift wrap that and mail it to every manager in the majors, go for it. It's about the only joy to be taken from this game.

Okay, that's not entirely true. We also saw some great defense on display today. Cody Ross started the game off with a great grab in left field, snagging a ball just over the line to keep Mark Ellis from leading the game off with a home run. But that wasn't even the best play we'd see to rob Ellis- in the third inning, A.J. Pollock supplied that, running full out and diving to catch a ball that would have been an easy double. It was a brilliant play.

And we had offense. It's easy to forget that we had offense early on. Aaron Hill gave us a solo home run in the first, Pollock followed his great grab in the third by following it up with a triple in the bottom of the inning and scored on a sacrifice fly from Hill. We had Paul Goldschmidt coming to bat with two on in the fifth and doubling to add to his league leading RBI total, and then scoring on a two out single for Prado. Yeah, the offense showed up early in the game.

But that's basically the only good news.

Tyler Skaggs wasn't able to give us the start we hoped for. Other than striking out Puig twice, Skaggs was in trouble in the early innings, either nearly giving up a home run in the first or facing runners at the corners with one out in the second. He finally ran into problems he couldn't entirely avoid in the fourth inning, loading the bases with nobody out. He got lucky to keep that to one run, thanks to Hanley Ramirez not wanting to challenge Gerardo Parra's cannon of an arm. The fifth brought more trouble, this time in the form of back-to-back singles to start off the inning. A double to Hanley Ramirez brought both runs in, and then Skaggs walked the next two batters to load the bases. That was the end of Skaggs's night, as Will Harris came in for an inning ending double play.

Hyun-Jin Ryu's night had already ended after the fifth inning, too, so it was a question of the bullpens. And there... The Dodgers beat us. Brad Ziegler gave us a scoreless inning in the sixth, but as the TV crew talked about how Adrian Gonzalez didn't hit home runs much anymore, he predictably hit a home run off of David Hernandez in the seventh. .J.J. Putz gave us a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth, but then we got the Heath Bell experience. Bell gave us two outs, including a swinging K of Puig. But Adrian Gonzalez kept fouling off everything that Bell put in the strike zone and drew a walk. A single by Hanley Ramirez moved pinch runner Jerry Hairston to second, and then A.J. Ellis singled to bring him in to tie the game. Great.

And the Dodgers beat us because the offense kind of shut down. Pretty much completely. After Prado's RBI single in the fifth, the next time the Diamondbacks got a hit was the twelfth inning, when A.J. Pollock singled. And the only runner who got past first base after the fifth inning was Miguel Montero, in the fourteenth, when he took second on defensive indifference.

I have to say. I can't blame Josh Collmenter for this loss. I know he took the L, but he's a reliever, he gave us four scoreless innings, and he was at 70 pitches when they ran him out there for a fifth inning. He gave the Diamondbacks plenty of chances to win, and eventually they rode him too hard. It's going to happen with these long games, which we seem to have too many of lately.

So, after Collmenter gave up back to back home runs to Hanley Ramirez and A.J. Ellis to start off the fourteenth inning, I wasn't mad at him. I was just disappointed that the team couldn't take advantage of what he had already given them. Tony Sipp kept the game at two runs, but with no offensive output, there just wasn't anything the team could do.

So even with the loss, Collmenter was second in our WPA. That's what happens when you keep the team in the game for so long.

Plus, by going to extra innings? Ryu's impact on the game wasn't that great. It really Ryu-ined my chance to use all these puns for his name. I will really Ryu the day I missed that opportunity.

Pretty busy thread, passing the thousand mark in our despair. Clefo led the charge, with imstillhungry95 as the only other commenter in triple digits. Also stopping by: 4 Corners Fan, AzDbackfanInDc, AzRattler, BattleMoses, BulldogsNotZags, Circa4life, Diamondhacks, GuruB, Husk, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Majabe, Marc Fournier, MsSeamHead, Rockkstarr12, SeannyX, Skii, The so-called Beautiful, TolkienBard, Toll Booth Willie, UAwildcats, Zavada's Moustache, asteroid, azshadowwalker, blank_38, cheese1213, coldblueAZ, durangododger, hotclaws, kishi, onedotfive, piratedan7, porty99, preston.salisbury, snakecharmer, soco, and txzona. Comment of the Night goes to imstillhungry95, for the Litany Against Heath Bell:

Heath Bell is the mind-killer.
Heath Bell is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face Heath Bell.
And when he has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where Heath Bell has gone there will be nothing.
Only wins will remain.

I don't always eat cheap fast food, but when I do, I prefer free TACOS from Taco Bell. Stay hungry, my friends.

by imstillhungry95 on Jul 10, 2013 | 9:48 PM

So the Dodgers leave town. We have a 1.5 game lead still, and the Brewers coming into to town for four games before the All Star Break. Here's to better results.