Diamondbacks 4, Reds 12: No Will-power for Arizona

Hey, I was going to go with "Triumph of the Will" as the headline, before a better sense of decorum prevailed. For today's game at Salt River Fields was over-shadowed to a large degree, by the guest presence of Will Farrell, who as documented elsewhere, was whizzing round Cactus League games today appearing for ten different teams. In our case, this meant LF in the seventh innings, and the Reds wasted no time in peppering him with the ball, leading to multiple extra-base hits and runs that an actual major-league outfielder would probably not have allowed. Hence the comment above about J.C. Ramirez, the poor soul unfortunate enough to be on the mound.

However, truth be told, our pitching was at a level today where we could have sent Ferrell to the mound, and it probably wouldn't have hurt us too much. Allen Webster was smacked around like Ferrell was by Peter Dinklage in Elf, giving up three runs on five hits in the first inning alone. He lasted 2.2 innings in total, and was charged with four runs on seven hits and a walk. Andrew Chafin pitched the fourth and fifth, and allowed one run on two hits, with four strikeouts, but Will Locante gave up five hits and four ruins in the sixth. After Ramirez, Dan Runzler and Enrique Burgos performed mop-up duty for the Diamondbacks, each with a scoreless frame.

Arizona were held scoreless for the first four innings, and were already five runs down when David Peralta got us on the board, singling home Nick Ahmed. The Reds would score seven more times before another Diamondback crossed home. A degree of respectability was restored to the scoreline by a three-run seventh, on RBI hits by Jamie Romak, Brandon Drury and Walter Ibarra. Ahmed went 2-for-2, and was the only Diamondback hitter to reach base safely more than once. He also stole a base.

The Diamondbacks will be hoping for better tomorrow, when they head out past SnakePit Towers to Goodyear, and take on the Cleveland Indians. Jeremy Hellickson takes the mound for Arizona, in a game which will hopefully be stunt-player free.