Diamondbacks 7, Giants 6: Mamas, don't let your children pre-write their recaps

Record: 5-5. Pace: 81-81. Change over last year: +2.

Ah, the danger in writing the quick version of the recap in the top of the 9th. This what I had:

With the reigning World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner starting you'd be forgiven for believing it would be a long night for the Diamondbacks. Paul Goldschmidt and Archie Bradley had something to say about that.

Mark Trumbo got the D-backs going in the second by hitting a solo home run to deep left, but it was Goldy who put Arizona in the lead with a three run blast to the same area in the 5th. The spot wasn't too far from where Paul hit his first career MLB home run. How do I know this? As someone who attended that game in 2011, I'm legally obligated to bring it up at every relevant opportunity.

The offense spotted Bradley 4 runs, and that's all he'd need. After a bumpy, 20 pitch first inning, Archie settled down and largely cruised to a 6 2/3 inning effort that only gave up 4 hits and 2 earned runs. The second of the two runs came in the 7th, and came partially courtesy of a Brandon Crawford home run served up by Oliver Perez.

Also of note is the performance by Nick Ahmed. He got 2 hits, true, but his valuable defense was on full display. He's just a joy to watch play on that side of the ball, and it almost makes you completely forget his light bat.

Technically still all true and still serviceable, but the 9th and 10th inning meltdowns by Addison Reed and virtually everyone on the defense completely changed the narrative of the game. Instead of it being about 2 young players leading the team to victory, and imagining about the wonderful future, we got a closer self-destructing on the mound, a manager over thinking it, and a bunch of people booting the ball around so much you think they were trying out for Arizona United Soccer Club.

Of course, the D-backs still won. Eventually. But they could have won in the regulation, and in the 10th. Hell, if Bradley isn't lifted in the 7th with 2 outs, it's possible Reed has his meltdown and we still win in 9 innings. Archie certainly didn't look like he was trying much, and it's hard to say he would have instantly given up a home run the way Perez did.

The second guessing of Chip Hale continues into the 9th when he does a double switch to get Reed out, but then replaces Ahmed, last night's best defender, with Chad Pennington. And what almost immediately happens? Chad gets a tough ball hit at him that he can't make a play on that lets in the tying run. It's hard to say completely that Ahmed would have made the play, but I'm choosing to believe he would just because it makes me feel better.

In the 10th AJ Pollock launched a home run to give the D-backs yet another lead, but of course it was held. Instead Chafin seemingly couldn't find the strike zone and the Giants loaded the bases and tied the game. It was only when Evan Marshall that outs starting coming in, and he didn't allow anymore runners across the plate in the 10th.

There was redemption in the 12th for two of the players that made some bad defensive plays in the 9th. Ender singled to lead things off, was followed by a Goldschmidt intentional walk, and then both were brought around by an Aaron Hill double. Inciarte had missed a catch in the outfield in the 9th he normally would have grabbed, and Hill had some shakiness in the 10th as well with a throwing error to advance a runner.

Of course, it would be too easy for the Giants to just go quietly into the night, and they took back a run with Matt Duffy getting and RBI double that scored Brandon Belt. Randall Delgado, effectively the last pitcher available at this point, locked it down, though, and a win was finally had after 4 hours and 20 minutes.

Source: FanGraphs

Great: Aaron Hill (40.8%)

Also Good: AJ Pollock (33.6%), Paul Goldschmidt (28.2%), Archie Bradley (20%)

Dumpster Fire: Addison Reed (-47.6%)

Also Not Good: Andrew Chafin (-31.7%), Oliver Perez (-17.6%), Yasmany Tomas (-16.2%)

So there you have it, a bit of a wild game where neither team seemingly wanted to win from about the 9th through the 12th. Extra innings means busy Gameday Threads, with last night's wracking up over 1600 comments. DbacksSkins was the top banana with 279 comments, and he was joined by: 5thStarter, Angry_Saguaro, AzRattler, BIGredmc, Britback, Bryn21, BulldogsNotZags, Chelsea75, DeadmanG, Diamondhacks, Incomplete Translation, ItownBallers22, James Attwood, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, PHXHero, PhxSunsFan4Life, Robert Merrill, SenSurround, SongBird, Toll Booth Willie, Xerostomia, Xipooo, Zavada's Moustache, asteroid, azbaseballfan, bbtng, catbat, cheese1213, coldblueAZ, dbrowell, ford.williams.10, freeland1787, hotclaws, luckycc, mbarnard11, mm213, onedotfive, piratedan7, porty99, preston.salisbury, rd33, serg_guillen, shoewizard, since_98, singaporedbacksfan, and me.

Comment of the night goes to freeland1787 for unsuccessfully predicting Aaron hills at-bat in the 12th:

Aaron Hill to strike out

In 3, 2, 1…

Never Count Out Touchdown Tom
Paul Goldschmidt: America's First Baseman

by freeland1787 on Apr 17, 2015 | 2:18 AM reply rec (8) flag actions

And we're all glad he was wrong!

Last night was the only beginning of the festivities of a 4 game set in San Francisco. Game time tonight is again at 7:15pm Arizona time, so at least the players have an extra hour to rest.