SnakeBytes, 4/9: 0-4pening Day Edition

Recaps

[AZ Central] Arizona Diamondbacks lose again to San Francisco Giants - "I felt like today if I fell behind I'd leave something middle, and if I got ahead, I'd try to make too perfect of a pitch to try to strike somebody out," Cahill said. "I just have to realize what kind of pitcher I am... I just work hard and go out and compete as best I can. I don't have any regrets. I'm going to go out there and compete and work hard. You can't do anything else."

[AP] D-backs struggles continue in San Francisco - "It's tough. It seemed like things were beginning to turn around and it gets away," Cahill said. "It's frustrating. It seemed like when I got ahead I couldn't put them away and everybody else I was pitching from behind. As a pitching staff we need to go deeper into the game. We need to do a better job."

[dbacks.com] Cahill roughed up in Giants' home opener - "He just struggled with being able to locate his pitches," Kirk Gibson said. "You have to talk to him and ask him how he feels about it... He missed his spots. Leadoff walk and then he missed his spot on Belt. It was supposed to be down and away and it was down and in, and he's hit enough home runs to where we know that's not really where we want to go... We're going to have some discussion. You've got to have better than that. It wears on everybody."

[KABC7] Batkid throws out first pitch at San Francisco Giants' home opener - Awww.... Batkid stole hearts in San Francisco once more, with thousands cheering on Miles Scott Monday night when the 5-year-old threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Giants home opener.

Team news

[ArizonaSports] Team plans on getting Josh Collmenter ready - It appears the most likely person to get a crack at the rotation would, in fact, be Collmenter [who] will need a bit of time before he would be stretched out enough to take the ball every fifth day. "Let's hope that Arroyo's start goes deep into the game and that doesn't happen," Towers said. "But he's a very valuable resource and we're in a situation right now where the times he does get into ballgames are meaningless innings, and he's one of our better pitchers. We feel that, hopefully in the next week or so, we'll be able to stretch him out enough and his next inning he'll be able to go at least five innings for us."

[dbacks.com] D-backs being careful with Reed's workload - "You just see how he's feeling, where you're at in the season, how hard his last outing was, or his last three outings were," Kirk Gibson said of determining Reed's workload. "We used him two days in a row and we thought probably because it was so early in the season that we'd only go two days. You have to be proactive in trying to avoid that, sometimes even early on. Now, I mean, they feel strong, but I think the consensus is that it does take something out of you when you do extend them right now. That goes for all the players."

[ArizonaSports] Towers comments on lackluster starting pitching - "We've only had three or four games where our starters have gotten into the sixth inning," Towers said. "Your bullpen is out there each and every day and there's walks, there's home runs, there are starters that aren't locating the ball where it should be. We rack our brain after every ball game about what types of things can we do here to kind of change this up. We realize it's April, we don't want to panic and don't want the players to think we're panicking, but to me, if things don't get better, change needs to happen."

And, elsewhere...

[SI.com] Los Angeles Dodgers introduce terrifying mascot, say he's 'not a mascot' - If you missed this the other day... Don't think you got away so easily. "Dodgers executive VP of marketing Lon Rosen told the Los Angeles Times that the creature lurking in Dodger Stadium’s plazas and upper-deck kids’ areas since this past weekend is "not a mascot" but a "a unique performance character," which sounds like one of the awkward euphemisms disapproving scribes have broken out to describe Yasiel Puig."

[ESPN] Ryan Braun of Milwaukee Brewers responds to boos with 3 home runs, 7 RBIs - "I love it," Braun said after the game. "It's great. Seriously, as a competitor, I really do enjoy it. This is a challenging game for all of us, and it's a long season and playing in an environment like this is motivating. I wouldn't say I want it to be like this, if it's my choice. But I don't have much of a say in how the fans are going to react. I might as well make the best of it and use it to my advantage as motivation."

[Fox Sports] Seven innings? Does baseball even need to be reinvented? - "My personal opinion is that the game should be reinvented, starting with the basics -- nine players trying to stop one player from getting around the bases -- but reconsidering everything else. You can’t change just one thing, though, because all the things are too closely interrelated. And the decision makers won’t even consider reinventing the game unless it seems to be in real danger. Which it’s not!"