Diamondbacks 7, Cubs 5: Cheese it, the Feds!

Record: 6-18. Pace:41-121. Change on 2013/2010/2004: -8/-5/-4.

Well, that was interesting.

Chicago celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first game played at Wrigley Field. That meant throwback uniforms, figures from throughout Cubs history, and- well, sorry to the home fans, but it didn't mean a Cubs win. It was sloppy play on both sides, but an exciting ninth-

Wait. Exciting baseball? From the Diamondbacks? Weird.

Anyway, an exciting ninth inning let the Diamondbacks- or the Kansas City Packers- wrap up the day with a win for the visitors. Can we maybe try to keep these uniforms on tomorrow? Someone ask Bud Selig.

The first went by uneventfully, though the Diamondbacks nearly pulled off something impressive. After a 1-2-3 top of the inning, Wade Miley started the bottom half with a walk to Emilio Bonifacio and a single to Junior Lake. Miley got Anthony Rizzo to line back to him, and he snapped a throw to Aaron Hill at second for the second out. Hill fired on to Goldy, attempting to turn the third triple play in Diamondbacks history, but Lake made it back to the bag in time. Almost!

The Diamondbacks started off the second inning with a walk by Miguel Montero, followed by an Aaron Hill single. A Cody Ross fielder's choice gave us runners at the corners with one out, and Chris Owings followed that with a fielder's choice of his own to bring in Montero, giving the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead. Huh.

After a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the second, things got a little quieter. The only excitement in the top of the third was a single by Gerardo Parra, taking second on a throwing error by Jeff Samardzija, with an Aaron Hill double being all that really happened in the fourth. And then we hit the bottom of the fifth, and things went downhill for Miley.

A single by Mike Olt and a wild pitch gave Chicago a runner on second. Wellington Castillo singled to left to give the Cubs runners at the corners, and things got messy. Junior Lake put down a bunt, and the throw to first from Paul Goldschmidt sailed over Aaron Hill's glove. To make things worse, Junior Lake dove in to the bag, and his helmet smacked into Hill's shin. Hill went down, Lake took second, and Chicago had runners on second and third in a tie game. A sacrifice fly from Samardzija and a ground out by Bonifacio each brought in another run, and the Cubs held a 3-1 lead after five.

The Diamondbacks scrapped back another run in the top of the sixth- a one out single from Paul Goldschmidt was followed by two out singles from Aaron Hill and Cody Ross, cutting into the Cubs lead. But Wade Miley struggled more as he hit the mound. A lead off walk to Anthony Rizzo and then Justin Ruggiano hit his first home run of the season, stretching the Cubs lead to 5-2.

The next few innings went quickly. A double by Bonifacio was the only noise in the seventh, and a double by Goldschmidt in the eighth didn't do much of anything. So we went into the ninth inning, down by three, feeling that inevitable sense of doom.

It started out with a walk to Chris Owings. What looked like a potential double play ball from Tony Campana turned into a fielding error by Starlin Castro, giving the DBacks two runners, soon to be three as Eric Chavez drew a walk. As Chavez was replaced by A.J. Pollock as a pinch runner, we had the bases loaded with nobody out. Gerardo Parra struck out swinging, and it looked for a moment like Martin Prado might have grounded into a game ending double play, but his hit up the middle snuck passed the pitcher and then deflected off second base into shallow right field, bringing in two runs and giving us runners at the corners. A Goldschmidt K left us with one out left, and Miguel Montero at the plate. Montero hit a soft liner to right field that dropped in for a single, tying it up for Arizona. Aaron Hill hit a fly ball that dropped just inside the right foul line. Justin Ruggiano slid, trying to catch it, but was injured on the play, and by the time they got the ball back in, Hill was on third base and Arizona had a 7-5 lead.

Addison Reed came in for his fifth save opportunity of the year, and wrapped it up with a 1-2-3 inning, sending the Chicago fans home with a loss.

A sloppy game on both sides, with just enough of the Cubs mistakes finally piling up to help out Arizona. Jeff Samardzija is denied another win, while Trevor Cahill earned his first W of the season, out of the bullpen.

A busy thread, just slipping past 600 comments around game's end. JoeCB1991 in first, and Umbrella24 taking second place from TolkienBard by three comments. Also commenting were AJV19, AzRattler, Backin'the'Backs, BrokeNBattleX, BulldogsNotZags, Cardscrazy247, Circa4life, Clefo, DeadmanG, Diamondhacks, Fangdango, GODSCHMIDT, GuruB, Jim McLennan, JoelPre, John Baragona, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, PR151, RobbieFVK, Robert Merrill, SenSurround, Shawnwck, Xipooo, Zavada's Moustache, asteroid, blank_38, cheese1213, dbrowell, dsadbacks2001, ex-distancerunner, grimmy01, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, kishi, makattack71, onedotfive, piratedan7, preston.salisbury, and xmet. Comment of the Day goes to Shawnwck for this... less than optimistic comment:

I hope we can ruin the party today

this team seems really good at ruining things so far this season. 
Like my hopes and dreams…

by Shawnwck on Apr 23, 2014 | 11:22 AM

One more game in Wrigley for the team tomorrow, as they fight to split the series with the Cubs. No TV for those of us in the Phoenix area, so don't forget to sneak those radios into your cubicle or whatnot...