Diamondbacks 1, Rangers 7: It was the best of pitching; it was the worst of pitching...

In the first inning, though, it didn't look to promising for Chase Anderson and the Diamondbacks. Leonys Martin wasted no time in getting a lead off double to start the game. Elvis Andrus moved him to third on a ground out, but that proved unnecessary as Prince Fielder hit a ground rule double to bring Martin home. 1-0 Rangers.

The Dbacks were quiet in the first, but tied it up in the second. It wasn't the top of the order, however, that pulled it off. Yasmany Tomas started it off with a one out single. Tuffy Gosewich moved him to third on a single of his own. To bring Tomas home, Nick Ahmed grounded out to third for the RBI. That was it for the inning, however, and the game continued tied for some time.

As I mentioned, both pitchers were fantastic tonight. For Chase, probably the worst situation he was in all night wasn't even his fault. Elvis Andrus hit a ground ball to Tomas, and... Well, let's have Shoewizard explain..

That was just awful

Seriously, EVERYTHING about that, the footwork, the leaning back away from the ball as he made the Ole pass, the inability to get down low cuz his stomach got in the way.

I mean….seriously ? That was NOT at all what a major league infielder should look like, even a poor one.

Good depth often has to come from within, in the form of younger talent. Depth is hard to build overnight, but it’s easy to deplete.: Jeff Sullican

by shoewizard on Apr 21, 2015 | 7:23 PM reply rec flag actions

Tl;dr, he really botched the play and instead of it being an out, Andrus went to second. Anderson got out of it though, by getting Fielder to ground out and end the inning.

After that, both pitchers really shut it down. Starting with the last out in the third, Martinez sat down nine straight Dbacks, and starting with the first out in the fourth, Anderson sat down twelve straight Rangers and actually left the game with that streak intact.

The Dbacks started to put together a couple baserunners off Martinez in the sixth. With two outs, Mark Trumbo got a single. An error on Odor, the Rangers second basemen, let David Peralta reach and Trumbo go to second. Then Tomas loaded it up with a single. Tomas was taken out of the game in favor of Cliff Pennington, who also stayed in the game at third. Nothing came of it, though, as Tuffy grounded out to end the inning. They threatened again the the seventh, but this time it was Keone Kela who got out of the jamb for the Rangers.

In the eighth, it all fall apart. Daniel Hudson came in for Anderson, and he didn't really pitch well. He got the first runner out, but then gave up a single to Jake Smolinski, a walk to Martin, an RBI single to Andrus, and then things got ugly. With Fielder, Martin tried to steal third, and Tuffy threw a less than great throw to Pennington. Pennington then did some weird footwork, ended up on his stomach, and the ball went rolling into the outfield. Martin scored, and Andrus went to third. Adding insult to injury, Fielder then homered, making the score 5-1, and putting the game far out of reach.

The Rangers added two more in the ninth off Evan Marshall and Oliver Perez to give you the final score of Dbacks 1, Rangers 7.

Source: FanGraphs

One Extreme: Chase Anderson, 33.5%

The Other Extreme: Daniel Hudson, 45.8%

Pretty busy thread tonight, with 776 comments at time of writing. Skins lead the way with 147, and Xipooo in second with 117. All present were:

BIGredmc, BushLeagueFan, Chelsea75, Clefo, DbacksSkins, DeadmanG, Diamondhacks, GODSCHMIDT, GuruB, James Attwood, JoeCB1991, Majabe, Robert Merrill, SongBird, TheGoldenSombrero, Xipooo, Zavada's Moustache, asteroid, bbtng, cheese1213, coldblueAZ, freeland1787, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, onedotfive, preston.salisbury, shoewizard, since_98

Comment of the night goes to Shoewizard, for his realistic, yet positive, post that put everything into perspective for the Dbacks tonight.

On nights like tonight still need to focus on the positive
Anderson looked great. His FB was darting all over the place. Very impressed with his outing. This team is so different from last year in that even when you get a bad result like tonight, there is still something very encouraging to take away from it. It may take a while, but there is a sense we will eventually be rewarded for sticking with this team.

Good depth often has to come from within, in the form of younger talent. Depth is hard to build overnight, but it's easy to deplete.: Jeff Sullican

by shoewizard on Apr 21, 2015 | 9:13 PM reply unrec (11) actions

Dbacks go for the split of the two game series tomorrow. Yovani Gallardo vs. Archie Bradley. Another 6:40 start time. Should be interesting to see how Bradley does against another Opening Day starter!