Snake Bytes, 4/19: The ennui is overpowering

Recaps

[FOX Sports] D-backs' bats again fall victim to Giants rookie Chris Heston - The Arizona Diamondbacks knew what Giants rookie pitcher Chris Heston brought to the table following his first outing of the season. But by the end of a 4-1 loss in San Francisco on Saturday, they were still trying to apply that knowledge. "He's a good pitcher," said first baseman Paul Goldschmidt on the FOX Sports Arizona postgame show. "He worked ahead in the count a lot, that may be the biggest thing. He mixed up his slider and his fastball really well so you couldn't lock in on one pitch."

[dbacks.com] De La Rosa improves, but takes loss vs. Giants - "He just left too many pitches up," D-backs manager Chip Hale said. "Once he started pitching down, he had some success. He battled. He gave up four runs -- tonight it wasn't good enough, but he's getting better each time out. It's improvement." "Just tried to make good pitches and tried to get them thinking a different way so they couldn't just look for one pitch," De La Rosa said. "I tried to mix it up."

[Arizona Sports] D-backs fail to clinch series at Giants, lose 4-1 - There weren't an overwhelming number of bright spots for the D-backs Saturday night in the Bay Area, but one positive to be pulled from the 4-1 loss was the continued steady hitting from right fielder Mark Trumbo. Going 2-for-4, Trumbo extended his current hitting streak to seven games. D-backs third baseman Jake Lamb also continued a hitting streak of his own, going 1-for-4 to extend his streak to six games. Lamb has been a revelation for the D-backs to this point, batting .414 through 10 games this season.

[AZ Central[ Giants shut down Diamondbacks behind rookie pitcher - A called Strike 3 to Chris Owings was one of several on the night that the Diamondbacks disputed. Pinch-hitter A.J. Pollock was unhappy with home-plate umpire Lance Barrett's third-strike call in the eighth inning, and LF David Peralta said something to Barrett after he was rung up in the ninth. "You know, today it was really bad," Peralta said. "The strike zone was all over the place. The guy was calling strikes really bad on everything. For me, on my last at-bat, he called that and it was way down. What can I say? It wasn't just me; it was like that with everybody on our team."

Team news

[AZ Central] Hudson pleased with how arm is responding so far - In a start near the end of March, he threw 32/3 innings, running his pitch count up around 75. And he felt, well, normal. "I think that's honestly helped me out to bounce back better mentally, and it's helped my arm, too," he said "Having gone through what I've gone through the last 2 1/2 years, I knew most of it was going to be mental."

[dbacks.com] D-backs 'show respect' by watching Giants get rings - The Giants received their 2014 World Series rings prior to Saturday night's game, and D-backs manager Chip Hale requested that his players be in the dugout to watch. "I think it's cool for them," Hale said. "We'll be out there to watch and show our respect. It's not easy to do. It's something that everybody when you start the season is aiming for. Hats off to them for last year. We're all trying to get there. We'll go out and watch it and show our respect."

[AZ Central] Owings hopes to build off recent success - After starting the season with just three hits in his first 29 at-bats, Owings was in need of some confidence. He went hitless in his first four games, which caused him to start pressing and probably made matters worse, he said. "If that happened in June or July it probably wouldn't have been as big of a deal, but you know how the season starts, everybody's ready to go and you try to prove you're ready to go. Especially me, coming off an injury, I want to kind of get off to a good start."

And, elsewhere...

[ESPN] Yordano Ventura Royals ejected after hitting A's Brett Lawrie - Yordano Ventura was ejected from Kansas City's 5-0 loss to Oakland after hitting A's third baseman Brett Lawrie with what appeared to be a retaliatory pitch. Cue their crucifixion in the national press in 3..2..1... [Crickets]

[]NY Daily News] The Didi Gregorius effect: GM Brian Cashman feeling early pain for Yankees' offseason deals - Maybe 11 days on the road, far away from the media glare of New York and the growing "De-rek Je-ter!" fan derision at Yankee Stadium, will cure Didi Gregorius of the yips and help cleanse his brain before he returns home to a three-game series against ... gulp ... the Mets!

[SI] Jackie Robinson's debut: Dodgers, and baseball, win on long-awaited day - Brooklynite Jay Jaffe relives that day as though he had been in the Ebbets Field press box on April 15, 1947. A neat idea: maybe something we can do this off-season, revisit memorable Diamondbacks games from before the SnakePit came into being...