SnakeBytes, 8/12: The day the season died?

Post-game thoughts

• "I would imagine."
  -- Kirk Gibson, asked if Cody Ross's season is over.
• "I had plenty of time to get on the mound and prepare myself, so I don’t think that had anything to do with it… I’m going to look at some video and look at some mechanical things I think I was doing where I was falling into old habits."
  -- Zeke Spruill
• "We had a terrible first inning today. We battled back, (but) the bullpen was unable to shut them down. We had our own opportunities to come back in the game and didn't get the job done there... We had a rough series -- the bullpen, a rough series."
  -- Gibson
• "I killed us in the first right there. I just missed it. I was in position, right there, and it's a play I make every time and today I didn't. Obviously it hurt us, it hurt the bullpen, we had to have the bullpen in early. Obviously Zeke had to come out early through no fault of his own. It's not how you want to start it and as a player you don't want to make the error."
  -- Paul Goldschmidt
• "He's a little older, as you know, and I try to play him as much as I can while being smart about it. But he's got multiple things going on and you can't play short, it's going to be a little while."
  -- Gibson on Eric Chavez

Diamondbacks News

If there was a bright spot to be found yesterday, it was the major-league debut of Matt Davidson, who arrived at the park only 40 minutes before first-pitch, and was then thrust into the game during the first inning, as Martin Prado had to go to the outfield. He said, "Honestly, it was probably the best thing because I didn't have any time to think about anything. I mean of course I was nervous, but I would've been a lot more nervous waiting all day to start, so getting thrown in there was nice...  It's a dream, I still haven't taken it all in. It's just amazing, I'm so excited to be here. It's definitely a little bit different with the third deck, it's a beautiful ballpark here."

• How to get an autograph from Paul Goldschmidt: go to middle school with him, and then bring your yearbook to Chase Field.
  
  
• Bobbling for Gold - Diary of a Diehard was there, for the madness which was Paul Goldschmidt bobblehead night.
• Also that night, it seemed that J.J. Putz was on the receiving end of a prank, with Motley Crue suddenly blaring out over the sound-system at Chase Field, just as JJ was about to deliver a pitch. However, this was apparently just a screw-up in the sound-booth. Apparently...
  
  

Around baseball

• Remember when Your Daily Strasburg was a thing? Me neither. Still, Stephen Strasburg threw his first complete-game shutout yesterday, a four-hitter against the Phillies. Meanwhile Brett Gardner's homer bailed out the Yankees after Mariano Rivera blew his third straight save opportunity, for the first time in his career. Might be time to think about hanging the spikes up, Mo...
• On this date in 1936, the largest crowd ever to watch a baseball game - 90,000 people - do so in Berlin, Germany, at a demonstration contest that was part of the 1936 Olympics. The original plan, to have a Japan vs. USA match-up, had to be scrapped after the Japanese withdrew, and the game was played between two teams of US amateurs, mostly college players.
  
• Enjoying baseball in the time of (anti-) social media - "It's getting to the point where watching a game looks less like recreation and more like running an NSA operation."
• It seems such a simple question: "Are you a fan?" - Rob Neyer agonized over the question of whether or not he is still a Royals guy. "I do still think of myself as a fan, because seeing Royals on a jersey still stirs something deep inside me. I want them to win, even though I haven't seen them play nine innings since ... actually, I can't remember. Not this season, for sure; there's always a more interesting game to see."