Diamondbacks 4, Giants 5: Season Opens on Two Sided Trumbo Triples

Ahh Baseball Season. The grass. The crack of the bat. Hot dogs. Beer. Other sentence fragments. Yes Baseball season is a time of rebirth, because spring and stuff. The Diamondbacks started their 2015 campaign tonight, and if tonight is any indication... Man, Jim is gonna have to pony up for more Ice Cream before I say something I regret about Mark Trumbo. The Diamondbacks could not get much off of Best Thing Ever(TM) Madison Bumgarner (because a guy with a career ERA of about 3 is totally unhittable, everyone.)

Some firsts of the season. Ender Inciarte was the first baserunner of the Diamondbacks season via getting hit by a pitch from Bumgarner in the first. Tuffy Gosewisch had the first hit, a single in the second.

The Giants, however, scored the first run of the game in the top of the third when Angel Pagan drove in Joe Panik on a single to make it 1-0. It could have been worse if not for Nori Aoki TOOTBLANing through a go sign from the new Giants Third Base Coach. In the other dugout, Chip Hale beamed proudly.

Mark Trumbo got he first RBI for the Diamondbacks in the next half-inning on a long triple just under the yellow line in the center field overhang that scored a run to tie it up. No other runs scored that inning, which is not ideal.

Josh Collmenter struggled a bit his first (only?) opening day start. It all came to a head in the fifth. Pagan had an RBI double to make it 2-1. and Buster Posey added another on a sacrifice fly. Collmenter could not get out of the inning, and was replaced by Andrew Chafin and his mustache. Then the play of the game that had me write the F-word down exactly six times on my notes sheet (and no copy and paste bull here, actual furious typing) Brandon Crawford hit what looked to be a single, maybe a double if he was lucky, but Mark Trumbo, in the act of cutting the ball off, decided not to do so and let it slip under his glove, clearing the bases to make it 5-1 Giants.

Collmenter's line was 4.2 IP, 10 Hits, 5 Earned Runs, 1 Walk, and 4 Strikeouts. Not ideal, but still only the first game of the season.

Chafin and Daniel Hudson held down the fort the next few innings, while the Diamondbacks could not muster anything off of Bumgarner. Then, in the 8th, something magical happened, Bumgarner was taken out of the game and the Giants bullpen came in. Ender Inciarte singled off of Javier Lopez. Paul Goldschmidt got a walk off of Jean Machi, and Aaron Hill got a single to load up the bases. Jake Lamb came in to pinch hit for Chris Owings, and he hit a monster bases-clearing double to make it 5-4. Unfortuneately, the good guys were not able to get any more due to Tuffy Gosewisch striking out, and David Peralta not being the beneficiary of what may have been a hit by pitch from Jeremy Affeldt, which was challenged and upheld as a foul ball.

Oliver Perez faced two batters in the eighth, striking out one and walking another, and Brad Ziegler came in for this first regular season appearance since knee surgery. He quickly induced a 6-4-3 double play, so he's fine.

The top of the order came up in the ninth against Giants closer Santiago Casilla. A.J. Pollock popped out, Ender Inciarte grounded out, and Paul Goldschmidt was able to get to a 3-2 count, but struck out on a breaking ball on the outside.

Awesome!: Jake Lamb (+22.0%)
Not Awesome!: Josh Collmenter (-16.2%)

Starting pitching stuttered a bit, the offense tried to pick them but couldn't. That may be a recurring theme this year.

Opening day obviously means populated GDT, plus we got an impromptu Snakepit Circa 2009 reunion going. Missing Azereous, though, and that guy who kept talking about how all the Diamondbacks ever needed to do was score three runs a game. Ahh, memories.

COTN goes to the artist formerly known as kishi

Trumbo triples

Okay, whoever had that for the first DBacks RBI of the season, stop using your time machine for petty gambling purposes.

"Suck it, Bobby Flay!"

by Devin Jessup on Apr 6, 2015 | 7:59 PM reply unrec (6)