Diamondbacks 5, Rockies 7: A-pathetic Performance

When Jim wrote "I know a lot of the writers are finding it more of a chore than pleasure to write about the team at this point in the season, and only regularly-administered beatings are keeping the schedule of posts up to date", I can say with a respectable level of certainty that he, in fact, correct. It certainly isn't like 2011, where I was able to write about a playoff game. I mean, sure, it was a loss, but it was a game where you were on the edge of your seat throughout. Royals fans, Indians fans, Yankees fans, Orioles, Rays, Pirates, Cardinals, Reds, Athletics, Rangers... see, they get to enjoy those games now, games that carry the same amount of significance regardless of what color jerseys the opposition is donning. Well, we're in a very similar position, only that all of are games carry equal significance because none of them matter. But I complain too much digress. We had a game against the Rockies tonight, so if you'll excuse my 2013 rant, I can fill you in on the details.

Although the first two Rockies were retired in order, a disturbing trend emerged early in the first and continued on throughout the rest of Brandon McCarthy's outing tonight: two-out hits. Troy Tulowitzki singled, Michael Cuddyer doubled, and Wilin Rosario singled to make it a two-nil game before the Diamondbacks even had the opportunity to bat. In the second, Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon were retired before three more Rockies singles. In the sixth, the Rockies recorded two more singles with two outs (though, the latter ended the inning when Parra caught Blackmon rounding second a bit too much for his liking). All in all, the Rockies had ten hits with two men out. Maybe that wouldn't seem all that crazy if McCarthy hadn't given up just one non-two-out-hit all night.

Brandon was attacking the zone all night, though, throwing 72 of his 89 pitches for strikes. Unsurprisingly, he didn't walk a batter in his six innings while striking out two. He pitched to contact throughout the night, and for pitchers that bank on the balls ending up in fielders' gloves, sometimes you just have nights like these. Only giving up two runs, however, is nice, so I'm not sure it's fair to say "nights like these" (but deal with it).

The offense, however, also has "nights like these". Although you can't really tell from the score, it was not a great night of offense for the Diamondbacks. They stranded 11 runners, and if not for a ninth-inning blast from Miguel Montero (who reached base or homered all five times he came to the plate), it would have been 13. Past that two-out three-run blast, the Diamondbacks scored only on a sacrifice fly and on a wild pitch. Blech.

The real damage came from the bullpen, which accounted for the other five Colorado runs. And by bullpen, I mean Will Harris, who accounted for four of the five in a third of an inning. Harris came in, surrendered a double, then an RBI single, then another single, and then threw a wild pitch to make it second and third. Michael Cuddyer grounded into a fielder's choice, and while the runner at home was called out on the tag, it was a very generous call for the Diamondbacks. Harris then gave up a double to Rosario, which ended his night with 0.1 IP, 4 H, and 4 ER. If you consider that the runner that was "out" at home really wasn't, it's more of a 5 ER, 5 H, 0.0 IP line. Ouch!

And because I couldn't find out where else to squeeze it in, Brandon McCarthy recorded his first Major League hit, so here's to you, Brandon. Sorry it didn't come with a W. We slide back down to .500 with the loss at 73-73.

We're going to need a really nice performance down the stretch to win the division, guys. Snicker.

Source: FanGraphs

Not Will Harris: Miguel Montero, +14.3%
Will Harris: Will Harris, -39.7%

'Twas a barren GDT tonight, with only 20 commenters producing a total just shy of 260 comments. Jim and hotclaws were the only posters with more than 30; also present, in the under-30 club, were 4 Corners Fan, AzRattler, Clefo, Dbacks4eva10101, Diamondhacks, GuruB, JoeCB1991, TolkienBard, Zavada's Moustache, azshadowwalker, cheese1213, deerhaven, ford.williams.10, imstillhungry95, melliemacker, onedotfive, soco, and txzona.

Comment of the Night, of course, goes to Clefo, who responded to a commenter that took issue with all of the stats being thrown around, like the Dbacks leading the league in love:

I'll stick with the traditional love stats

Number of people bedded, Flowers given. None of this “Tongues Above Replacement” or “Marriages per 9 innings” bullcrap

weltanschauung

by Clefo on Sep 13, 2013 | 9:35 PM up reply rec (4) flag actions

Go get 'em, tiger. Wade Miley takes on Roy Oswalt's corpse tomorrow with a 5:10 first pitch.