Diamondbacks 5, Phillies 9

It was clear, right from the opening inning, that this was not going to be like Corbin's last start. It took him 26 pitches as the Phillies sent eight to the plate and scored four times, more than cancelling out our earlier 1-0 advantage, Tony Campana scoring on a groundout after a triple. Patrick seemed to settle down, but a two-run homer in the fourth foreshadowed a meltdown in the sixth. Corbin ended up working only 5.1 innings, his second shortest outing of the year, and was charged with nine runs, eight earned, on seven hits and three walks, with four strikeouts. Chas Roe worked two scoreless innings.

The Phillies meanwhile, got a perfectly serviceable start from Roy Halladay, who allowed two runs over six innings. The only other damage against him was a Tuffy Gosewisch sacrifice fly, though Matt Davidson saw his first MLB home-run taken away from him with a leaping catch at the center-field wall (above). The plan to attack a depleted Phillies bullpen foundered, largely on the fact that we were trailing by seven runs by the time they entered the game. A.J. Pollock cranked a three-run homer in the eighth, to pull us within grand-slam distance, but that was it, as we went down tamely in the ninth.

Arizona comes home after a 4-6 roadtrip, and will start a three-game set against the Padres tomorrow. There's a special offer for the game, with $18 lower-level tickets for the series, so call or visit the Chase Field box-office to take advantage of that. azshadowwalker is scheduled to be along later with the guest recap. I think...