Diamondbacks 2, Pirates 3: Reed and Gibson Blow Miley's Great Game

Record: 35-50 On Pace: 67-95 Change on '13: -9

If only for a time, Wade Miley was perfect tonight. The first 14 batters he faced sat down in order, without a single one reaching first base, either on a walk or a hit. Over that stretch of hitters, he got four strike outs, and even outside the K's, he was making it look effortless.

The perfecto did come to an end, however, really before it was even a thing. With two outs in the fifth, Jordy Mercer hit a little dribbler up the line for a base hit. Miley fielded it, and threw it away, allowing Mercer to reach second. He recovered nicely, though, striking out the next batter, Alvarez, for his third strike out that inning.

Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks were never in danger of getting no hit, but for a time, it wasn't looking great for them. Sure, they got a lot of people on base over the first four innings, all of which were with one out or less. They just couldn't bring them around to score. Over the course of the first four innings, they got five hits, left six runners on base, and failed to get a hit with either runners in scoring position or more than one out, leaving the game tied at zero, despite Miley being perfect.

In the top of the fifth, however, the Dbacks broke out on top. Paul Goldschmidt got the team's first two out hit on the night, and was immediately brought home to score on a Miguel Montero double. Montero was then brought home himself by an Aaron Hill single to make the score 2-0 in favor of the Diamondbacks.

It wasn't really all that much, but it looked like it was going to be enough. Miley was still great over the next three innings, recording four more strike outs, and the only one hit to lead off the eighth inning. It was the ninth inning where it all went to pot. The Diamondbacks threatened in the top of the inning, partially because Miley was allowed to hit for himself and failed to get a bunt down.That didn't help the situation, but it was hardly what sunk the team tonight. After hitting for himself in the top of the inning, Miley came out to pitch the bottom half. He promptly gave up back-to-back singles.

At this point, he was rightly pulled from the game. The questionable choice was when Gibson called Addison Reed into the game. Reed did manage to get an out, but after that, he gave up an two-RBI double to Starling Marte to tie the game. Then they intentionally walked Andrew McCutcheon to get to Ike Davis. Ike Davis then hit a single to score Starling Marte and give the Pirates a 3-2 walk off win.

Source: FanGraphs

Really, Really, Really Good Tonight: Wade Miley, 22.5%

Proven Closer (tm): Addison Reed, -71.1%

So before the game, Jim threatened to change the name of the blog to AZ Soccer Pit if the Dbacks GDT didn't get more comments than today's USA vs. Belgium game. Let's see how we did, shall we?

USA vs. Belgium Match Day Thread: 424 comments

Dbacks Gameday Thread: 1,037 comments.

Yeah, I think we're staying a baseball blog...

As far as individual comment counts go, it was a big night there, too. Four posters broke triple digits, with James Attwood taking first with 164, Dbacksskins was second with 157, I rounded out the podium with 117, and Freeland1787 gets an honorable mention with 102 comments. All present were:

AJV19, Angry_Saguaro, AzDbackfanInDc, AzRattler, Backin'the'Backs, Circa4life, Clefo, DbacksSkins, EzioExManAZ, GuruB, James Attwood, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, LUKEthe1st, Makakilo, PR151, Paulnh, SenSurround, SongBird, blank_38, ford.williams.10, freeland1787, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, onedotfive, preston.salisbury, xmet

I know in the GDT, I said a different comment was going to be awarded Comment of the Night, but upon further review, I think that would be just a bit too mean spirited for my tastes, and I actually Jim's comment about Gibson putting in Reed/Leaving in Miley deserves the spotlight more

Thank you, Gibby

That’s why you need to be packing your bags, along with Towers.

by Jim McLennan on Jul 1, 2014 | 6:41 PM reply rec (6) flag actions

Same time, place, and teams tomorrow. We'll be here. Will you?