Diamondbacks 10, Cubs 4: Taco Tuesday

The game didn't start off with too much hope for Arizona. Junior Lake started the game off with a grounder to Didi Gregorius, a ball that slid under Didi's glove and let Lake reach on an error. A wild pitch from Patrick Corbin put Lake on second base with no one out, and with the way the Diamondbacks offense had worked the past few games, an early run seemed like a real danger. Corbin cracked down, though, getting two quick swinging strike out and a ground ball to end the threat.

As Travis Wood took the mound for the Cubs, the Diamondbacks offense welcomed him with a whole lot of nothing. Pretty much literally, though the first three innings, as Travis "Career ERA+ of 104" Wood went perfect through the first three innings. Meanwhile, the Cubs get chipping away, waiting for something to take. A one out single in the second was stranded. But a leadoff single from Travis "Career OBP of .190" Wood started the third, took second on a one-out walk and was brought in by an RBI single from Anthony Rizzo. Cody Ransom was called out looking to end the third inning, leading to some arguing over balls and strikes, and Cubs manager Dale Sveum getting ejected. But the Cubs still held a 1-0 lead as we went into the fourth inning.

But! The fourth inning! The Diamondbacks offense awakens! After a 1-2-3 inning for Corbin, Adam Eaton leads off the inning with a single! And then he gets picked off easily trying to steal second base. A little less encouraging. But Paul Goldschmidt reminded the team that offense was still an option with a two out single of his own. Sure, he was stranded there as Cody Ross struck out, but, hey, it was nice to remember we could still get hits.

The Cubs certainly did their best to add on to their lead in the top of the fifth inning. Jay Lake singled, and then Corbin struggled with his command a little, issuing back to back walks to load the bases for Chicago with two outs. But a line out from Cody Ransom stranded all three runners for Chicago, and Corbin kept the score close. That seemed particularly important in the bottom of the inning. WIth one out, Martin Prado hammered a pitch to the left field bleachers, tying the game at 1-1.

Corbin held the line in the sixth inning, sending the Cubs down 1-2-3. And then, finally- finally- the Diamondbacks offense came into play. A lead off single from Eaton started it, and he was followed up by a double from A.J. Pollock. WIth the hit and run on, Eaton came all the way around to score and give Arizona a lead. Paul Goldschmidt drew a walk, and a double play from Cody Ross put Pollock on third with two outs, and gave Chicago hope of avoiding any further damage. Those hopes were crushed by a triple from Eric Chavez, of all people, and then, after a walk for Prado, Chavez came in to score on a single from Wil Nieves. A ground out from Gregorius ended the inning, but Arizona had a 4-1 lead at the end of six innings.

That was the end of Corbin's day, leaving after six innings with a shot at the win. Heath Bell came in for the seventh inning, and had a small kerfuffle with a fielding error that put Junior Lake on second base with one out. But Bell settled in, working two outs including a swinging strike out of Rizzo to end the inning.

Then in the bottom of the inning, something surprising happened- the Diamondbacks offense showed up again. Jason Kubel pinch hit for Heath Bell and started off with a double. Eaton drew a walk, and then showed some heads-up baserunning on a fly out from Pollock, with both runners advancing on the play. Goldschmidt was intentionally walked to load the bases, and a Cody Ross fly out to left field once again gave Chicago hopes of escaping without damage. As I considered how to answer an email from my (Cubs fan) best friend asking how the game was going, Eric Chavez did the damage again, singling to bring in Kubel and Eaton to give us tacos. A single from Prado brought in Goldschmidt to put the lead to 7-1, and I decided just to tell her the game was going well.

The eighth inning brought us David Hernandez, and a little reminder of our bullpen's struggles. A leadoff walk to Alfonso Soriano was followed by Cody Ransom's third K of the evening and a fly out by Dioner Navarro. But Nate Schierholtz pinch hit for Cole Gillespie and drove a pitch deep to right center for the home run, cutting the Diamondbacks lead to 7-3.

But, surprisingly, the Diamondbacks offense wasn't finished yet. A lead off walk from Gregorius and Adam Eaton's third single of the night put runners on first and second with one out. A.J. Pollock delivered a two RBI triple and was then brought in to score by Goldy's RBI double to put the lead to 10-3. Tony Sipp came in for the ninth and gave up a solo home run to Junior Lake, but that was the only noise in the ninth as Arizona notched a W, 10-4.

A pretty brisk gameday thread, with Zavada's Mustache taking the lead in comments and Rockkstarr12 in second, with Fangdango pulling up in third place. We also heard from 4 Corners Fan, AF DBacks Fanatic, AzRattler, Baseballdad, Clefo, Diamondhacks, EzioExManAZ, GuruB, Husk, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Majabe, The so-called Beautiful, TolkienBard, asteroid, azshadowwalker, cheese1213, coldblueAZ, cole8865, edbigghead, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, luckycc, onedotfive, porty99, preston.salisbury, since_98, soco, txzona, and xmet.

Comment of the day goes to Zavada's Mustache, who replied to Tom Candiotti's thought that some of the DBacks baserunning decisions "have not really been good", replied:

Some of the Death Star’s exhaust vents were not very really well located.

by Zavada's Moustache on Jul 23, 2013 | 8:00 PM

Hey, give me a choice and I'm going to go with a good Star Wars reference 75% of the time.

So we take the second game of the series and shake off any concerns that Patrick Corbin would have problems coming out of his appearance in the All Star Game. A complete collapse by the bullpen let the Dodgers rally back to began at the Blue Jays, so the best we can do is keep pace. Ian Kennedy takes the mound tomorrow night against Jeff Samardzija looking to guarantee at least a tie from the four game series.

And now, we can talk about what everyone's wondering about- what's up with Adam Eaton's mustache?