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Diamondbacks 0, Giants 1: Stranded in a Desert Climate

Although Randall Delgado pitched admirably for the Diamondbacks (and Paul Goldschmidt collected another hit off of Tim Lincecum), Arizona couldn't get hits when they needed them, stranding too many runners as they dropped the series opener.

Norm Hall

The Giants hit the ground running, with an Angel Pagan double leading things off in the top half of the first. Although Delgado pulled things together, the Giants still managed to scrape a run across in the inning, as a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly by Marco Scutaro and Brandon Belt, respectively, gave the Giants an early 1-0 lead.

After that, though?

Delgado was great. Now, these are the hapless Giants we're talking about, but still, with a young arm like Delgado, you like to see performances like tonight's. Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval added a pair of singles in the fourth, but past that, no other Giants collected a hit against the righty (there were two walks issued, though, one of which was to Lincecum). He only struck out three, but it's a small blemish on an otherwise great outing. You could probably argue that it was superior to Lincecum's in many ways -- he allowed five baserunners to Timmy's eight, in an additional frame to boot -- but in the end, it was for naught.

Check it: in the first, a one-out Adam Eaton double was squandered. In the second, Miguel Montero (GOT A HIT?!) was stranded on first after a one-out single. In the third, Eaton was left on first after a one-out single. After drawing a one-out walk in the fourth, Aaron Hill was caught stealing with two outs to end the inning. In the fifth, a runner was stranded on first after a leadoff AJ Pollock single. In the sixth, _with the bases loaded and one out_, Miguel Montero put on an incredibly frustrating performance, striking out, and AJ Pollock was absolutely robbed by Pablo Sandoval. It wasn't that Timmy was _dominant_, it's just that all of the hits we collected and walks we drew were isolated, which results in getting shutout by a has-been pitcher.

But, hey, once Lincecum was out of the game, then we could pounce, right?

In the bottom half of the eighth, Martin Prado strode to the plate in a one-on, one-out situation. Goldy had drawn a one-out walk, so the Prado and his hot bat represented the go-ahead run. He lined a pitch right back at the pitcher's ankles... right to second base, where the ball was promptly picked up and flipped over to first to end the inning just like that. I imagine every 1-0 game has its fair share of grueling moments, but surely this one ranks up there in "oh, Diamondbacks..." moments. No one could hit with runners on base. Blargh.

Miguel Montero (GOT ANOTHER HIT?!) singled in right-center gap in the ninth, but Pagan was quick to cut it off. Campana then ran for Montero, and Eric Chavez pinch-hit for Pollock. Chavez popped out, and didi Gregorius flew out to end the game (mercifully).


Source: FanGraphs

The Good: Randall Delgado, +27.5%
The Everything Else: The entire offense sans Paul Goldschmidt, -81.8%

RobbieFVK, asteroid, and soco took the podium for comments tonight, with the three all registering comment tallies in the forties. Also present in the 445-comment GDT tonight were BulldogsNotZags, Clefo, Dbacks4eva10101, Diamondhacks, FatBoysEatMeat, GuruB, Jim McLennan, JoelPre, Marc Fournier, PR151, Rockkstarr12, TolkienBard, Zavada's Moustache, azshadowwalker, blank_38, cheese1213, coldblueAZ, cole8865, ex-distancerunner, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, kishi, melliemacker, shoewizard, and xmet.

Comment of the Night goes to RobbieFVK, who placed the blame on tonight's game squarely on the shoulders of our president:

THANKS OBAMA

u kno dat make me throw up

Let's hope tomorrow goes a bit better, yeah?