SnakeBytes, 5/6: Cinco de Mayday for our pitching

Recaps

[Dbacks.com] Hill catches fire, but shaky pitching haunts D-backs - "We didn't execute pitches from the first pitch of the game," Gibson said. Bolsinger needed 88 pitches to get through five innings in his fourth start of the season. The right-hander gave up four runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out three. Gibson was not complimentary of Bolsinger's performance. "Tonight was his worst start I would say," Gibson said. Bolsinger said he was frustrated that he was struggling with his best pitch, his curveball. "It's something that I'm just hanging up," he said.

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks' Mike Bolsinger battered by Brewers - With the count 0-1, Bolsinger threw a curveball, and it, too, fluttered over the plate, almost perfectly in the center of the strike zone. It landed in the left field seats. That it came on a curveball, his best pitch, is what Bolsinger finds most maddening. He's struggled to command it consistently since coming to majors after relying on it throughout his minor-league career. "It kind of blows my mind a little bit," he said. "It is my best pitch and it's something I'm just hanging up there. It's almost like when I get into those counts, I'm trying to do too much."

[AP] Diamondbacks overpowered by Brewers - "We didn't execute pitches from the first pitch of the game," Gibson said. "We walked seven on the night, and we needed to make pitches and we couldn't make them. We couldn't keep the ball down." That included starting pitcher Mike Bolsinger (1-2), who took the loss after giving up four runs and seven hits in five innings. It was the fourth time in his five major league starts that he has been hit hard. "I knew he was a first-pitch guy," Bolsinger said of Gomez. "But I didn't know he would swing like that at the first pitch of the game."

[Arizona Sports] D-backs' young pitching skewered by Brewers on road: By The Numbers - Hill's 4-for-4 night at the plate helped raise his batting average by 22 points, from .252 to .274. The Diamondbacks second baseman is hitting .409 with 12 RBI and six extra-base hits over his last 12 games. Miguel Montero has reached base safely in all but one of his last 15 games, going 1-for-4 with a walk on Monday. The Diamondbacks catcher now has a team-best .381 on-base percentage among players with at least 25 plate appearances.

Team news

[AZ Central] Putz headed to DL with right forearm tightness - Gibson said Putz had been dealing with the issue in recent outings and hadn't been improving. In his most recent outing, on Saturday against the San Diego Padres, Putz gave up two runs on two hits in 2/3 of an inning. "His last outing in San Diego, it was bothering him more than it had been," Gibson said. "It kind of trended the wrong way. We waited today to see how he was. He came in and it wasn't very good, so we're going to DL him."

[FOX Sports] How do Arroyo, Collmenter, Bolsinger get by? Call them the craftsmen - "Pitching is big-time feel, especially for me. I'm not going out there rocking and firing 95," said Collmenter, who has a severe overhand delivery. "I want to make sure I am on the corners and especially locating down. With my deception, my angle, if I can pitch down, a lot of times I get those high pop-ups. A lot of guys say they try to hit the ball level, but they end up underneath it. So if I can throw down in the zone from that angle, it helps me out quite a bit. I'm comfortable in what I can do. The toughest pitch to hit, no matter what, is a well-located fastball. It doesn't matter the speed."

[dbacks.com] Pollock remains sidelined, could return in corner spot - "He's getting closer every day," Gibson said before Monday night's game. The D-backs' manager said Pollock might make his return as a corner outfielder for awhile to put less stress on his injured groin. "If there's an option other than center field that might help," he said. Pollock first felt tightness in his groin last Tuesday against Colorado.

[Inside the 'Zona] More than a Year Later, the Justin Upton Trade Looks Worse - The fact that Delgado hasn’t really worked out as a starter is, in large part, why the trade looks much worse in hindsight. But if Julio Teheran was actually an option for Towers instead of Randall Delgado, that’s some serious egg on the face of Towers — not just because he guessed wrong, but because of why he did so. Given that Towers bailed on Trevor Bauer and Tyler Skaggs when they needed fixing, is failing to insist on Julio Teheran another example of Towers thinking that his organization couldn’t "fix" pitchers?

And, elsewhere...

Various craziness yesterday. Tied for the major-league lead in wins is Giants' reliever Jean Machi, who picked up his fifth last night, as SF came back from 8-2 down to beat the Pirates (who may have surpassed us as the most disappointing team in the majors this year). Machi bunted in the winning run, and then stole a base. Jeff Samardzija pitched nine innings against the White Sox, giving up 3 hits with no earned runs, and also scored a run - but the Cubs still lost. And Laz Diaz continues to make a good case for robotic umpires everywhere, basically provoking the Yankees' Shawn Kelley into getting ejected.

[Bangor Daily News] NCAA’s only female baseball pitcher overcomes harassment, pursues dream - Last summer, Sailors pitched for the San Francisco Seals of the Far West League, a collegiate wooden-bat league. She had a 1-1 record in four outings. Sailors, whose ultimate goal is to play in the Japanese women’s professional league, admits it has been difficult dealing with prejudice and sexism. "I want to make a difference and that’s why I chose to stay in baseball," she said. "The battle is fought on the field with your glove and your bat. It’s how you play the game."

Baseball road trip: How to visit all 30 MLB stadiums in 30 days - "There are 30 Major League Baseball teams and there are 30 days in a month. Baseball is our national pastime. Driving is our other national pastime. According to my friend Ben Blatt, the logic was simple: Completing a 30-day journey that would take us to all 30 ballparks, entirely by car, was basically our duty as young Americans."