Diamondbacks 5, Tigers 4: Montero Raises Some Hill

Record: 44-57 On Pace: 71-91 Change on '13: -8

The start of this game was less than promising, but, as you can tell from the headline, it turned out okay. In the first inning, Chase Anderson looked a little spotty. He gave up a lead off single to Austin Jackson, and then two batters later, gave up an RBI single to Miguel Cabrera, giving the Tigers an early one-run lead.

The Diamondbacks, and more specifically, Aaron Hill, were not going to take that lightly. After David Peralta struck out to start the Arizona half of the first inning, Hill hit a solo home run to tie the game. That was just the first of three comebacks the Diamondbacks would need tonight.

Anderson would hit another, much rougher patch, in the top of the third inning. He got Tigers starter Rick Porcello to ground out to start the inning, but then gave up back-to-back singles to Austin Jackson and Ian Kinsler before getting another out in the form of a Miguel Cabrera ground out. An intentional walk to Victor Martinez loaded the bases for J. D. Martinez (no relation to the former). While J. D. Martinez was pitching, Anderson unleashed a wild pitch, which allowed Jackson to score. Martinez flew out to Geraldo Parra to end the inning, but not before the Tigers took a 2-1 lead.

Again, however, Hill would not stand for that, this time getting an assist from David Peralta. Peralta got a one-out triple, and was then brought home by an Aaron Hill sac fly, giving Hill two RBI's on the night. Two all.

That duo wasn't done yet, however. Peralta lead the sixth inning off with another triple, his second of the game, and again was brought home by Hill, this time with a ground out to shortstop.

Anderson ended up going six strong innings, scattering five hits, and only giving up two earned runs. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to get the win, since, despite leaving with a lead, the Tigers would take the lead one more time.  Oliver Perez and Evan Marshall combined for a scoreless seventh, and Brad Ziegler was brought in for the eighth.

And then things got ugly. Ian Kinsler and Miguel Cabrera lead off the inning with back-to-back singles, something of a theme tonight. Victor Martinez grounded into one of the more confusing fielder's choices in recent memory, where all you need to know is that after a lot of throwing the ball around, Kinsler was thrown out at home, Cabrera ended up at second, and Martinez was at first. One out. J. D. Martinez then hit a screaming liner right back at Ziegler that hit him square in the chest for a single. Ziegler stayed in the game, seemingly okay, but maybe that wasn't the best idea, as the next batter hit a two-run single to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead.

What could easily have been a killing blow ended up being just a bump in the road. In the eighth, Ender Inciarte, who came in during a double switch in the top of inning, David Peralta, and Paul Goldschmidt all walked to load the bases with two outs. Miguel Montero then came up and hit a go-ahead two run single to give the Diamondbacks the lead, and our final score.

Some other notes about tonight's game. With the win, we actually moved up to third place in the division, by percentage points. Also, Peralta's two triple game (or would it be a double triple? Hmmm...) was the first for a Diamondbacks since Miguel Montero did it in 2010. Yes, that Miguel Montero.

<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2014-07-22&team=Diamondbacks&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2014-07-22&team=Diamondbacks&dh=0&season=2014">FanGraphs</a></span>

Rockstar from Mars: David Peralta, 31.1%

Abducted by aliens from Mars: Brad Ziegler, -60.1%

Pretty active Gameday thread tonight, with 636 comments, though I'm pretty sure most of that was discussing the merits of the different series and incarnations of Star Trek. Dbacksskins lead the way with almost double anyone else. I came in second and Paulnh came in third. All present were:

AJV19, AzRattler, Circa4life, Daredevilish, DbacksSkins, GuruB, Hazzard21, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, Paulnh, Rockkstarr12, SongBird, asteroid, cheese1213, freeland1787, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, onedotfive, piratedan7, porty99, preston.salisbury, rfffr

Despite the number of comments, there wasn't anything I really felt was worth of the title CoTD. Make better choices tomorrow, people.

12:10 start time tomorrow, and no television broadcast, but we'll be here, and there will be a radio broadcast, so there is that.