Pitching and homers carry Dbacks over Angels

Easily the best pitcher in the Diamondbacks starting rotation, Chase Anderson had been victimized by bad luck up to this point. Through 12 starts, he only had 3 decisions and was 2-1 despite a 2.82 ERA. For context, Patrick Corbin in 2013 was 9-0 through his first 12 starts, albeit with an ERA of 1.98 and better peripherals supporting those gaudy win totals.

Things started out well for Chase in just his 2nd start at home since the start of May, with a no-hitter through his first 3 innings. Nick Ahmed made a surprising error in the 3rd but that was quickly erased after a terrible bunt from Hector Santiago allowed the D-backs to turn the double play and end the inning.

In the 4th, Anderson got Aybar to fly out to left field for the first out before allowing his first hit to Kole Calhoun. After a Mike Trout strikeout, Albert Pujols dumped a single to right to put runners on the corners with two outs. But as usual, Chase threw a changeup which David Freese lined to Goldy at 1st. The scorecard will show just a regular ground ball to 1st, but Goldy made a great play on it to glove it and step on 1st to end the threat.

For the Diamondbacks, they would do all their damage in the first 4 innings. Goldy started things off with a towering drive to right-center field for 19th home run of the year. Tomas and Hill would reach base with 2 outs, but Chris Owings struck out to leave them stranded out there. In the 2nd, a lone Nick Ahmed walk was all the offense could muster with Hector Santiago striking out Castillo and Pollock to leave Ahmed at 2nd.

The 3rd was another opportunity as David Peralta singled to lead things off and after Goldschmidt flew out to center for the first out, Yasmany Tomas lined a sharp ball into the gap for his first triple of his young career and scored Peralta in the process. But it was more of the same for the offense as Aaron Hill lined out to third and Chris Owings struck out.

The 4th for the Dbacks unfolded like the 1st, with Wellington Castillo hitting a homer to left but not much of note happened this inning other than a Chase Anderson single.

Things started unraveling for Anderson in the 5th and 6th innings, with the Angels threatening but Chase doing a job at limiting the damage. Two back to back singles had runners on the corners in the 5th, but a double play erased the threat and only allowed one run to score. The 6th started similarly, with a single and double by Calhoun and Trout respectively giving the Angels threats. But a ground ball from Pujols scored one and Anderson got a short flyball to centerfield and a line out to end the opportunity and his day.

Despite not really utilizing his curveball all that much, Chase Anderson skirted out of trouble to give the D-backs another quality start. He finished with 6 innings, 7 hits, 2 earned runs, and a 2:1 K:BB ratio.

The bullpen was spot on tonight, with David Hernandez, Oliver Perez, Daniel Hudson and Brad Ziegler all combining for 3 scoreless innings to give the Diamondbacks a 3-2 win. It definitely wasn't easy, as Hernandez showed rust giving up 2 hits, but Perez got a huge out against a lefty and Hudson struck out Trout to end the 7th. He went out again for the 8th and was perfect outside of a 2-out triple that was quickly erased with a strikeout. It's always good to see him pitching out there, especially when the results match his stuff. Ziegler came on and gave up a leadoff single but wiped it with a double play ball and the Diamondbacks walked away victorious 3-2 against the Angels.

Source: FanGraphs

Raising Cane's: Daniel Hudson (+23.9%)

Popeye's: Brad Ziegler (+16.2%), Yasmany Tomas (16.0%), Oliver Perez/Chase Anderson (+14.8%)

McDonalds: David Hernandez (17.1%)

Roll Call Info
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Solid showing for this one, which saw 688 comments and 31 peeps join in on the fun. Comment(s) of the night goes to all these non-believers :)

No TV tomorrow for the matinee game so come on back and follow along with the gamethread.