Both pitchers were on top of their game tonight, with Jeremy Hellickson looking like an ace out on the mound to start the game, and Latos looking like his next contract depended on this start. Hellickson started the pitcher's duel off with a clean first inning, only allowing Martin Prado to reach on a one out single. After that, he then sat down the next thirteen batters, going until the second out in the fifth inning before allowing his next baserunner. During that time, he had three strike out, and the word used the most by MLB Gameday to describe the contact he was allowing was soft: soft grounders, soft fly balls, soft line outs. No one was making solid contact at all. He looked dominate.
Mat Latos wasn't looking much worse at all. He didn't have a long perfect streak like Hellickson did, allowing singles to Paul Goldschmidt and A. J. Pollock in the first and third innings, respectively. The only time The Diamondbacks got anything going against him was in the fourth, and he still shut them down. Goldy, unsurprisingly, lead the inning off with a walk. David Peralta struck out, but Yasmany Tomas singled, moving Goldschmidt to second. Jake Lamb grounded out, however, in the process, he moved Goldschmidt and Tomas up a base each, putting runners on the corners. There were two outs, though, and Latos got the third one easily, getting Wellington Castillo to ground out to third, stranding the runners.
As I mentioned earlier, Hellickson's streak of retired batters ended in the fifth inning, and it was also the beginning of the end for his shutout. After getting a strikeout and a pop up to start the inning, Hellickson gave up a two out double to J. T. Realmuto, who then stole third during Adeiny Hechavarria's at bat. After Realmuto stole third, Hechavarria brought him home with a single to give the Marlins first blood. Hellickson got out of it without any more damage, however. 1-0 Marlins.
The Diamondbacks weren't able to respond for the rest of the night, despite getting A. J. Pollock to third in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a single, a wild pitch, and a stolen base. They continued to be shut down for the rest of the night. Hellickson ended up going seven innings, but did give up a home run to lead off the seventh to make him responsible for two earned runs on the night. In the end, it wasn't enough. Latos also went seven, holding the Diamondbacks scoreless all night. The Dbacks bullpen gave up a run in the eighth, making the final score 3-0.
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2015-07-21&team=Diamondbacks&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2015-07-21&team=Diamondbacks&dh=0&season=2015">FanGraphs</a></span>
Deserved Better: Jeremy Hellickson, 9.2%
Couldn't make it happen: Jake Lamb, Chris Owings, Wellington Castillio, -10.5% -> -10.9%)
A slow GDT, perhaps to be expected considering the matchup. Only 325 comments, spread between 22 posters, but mostly centered on freeland1787, who had 106 all to himself. All present were:
Clefo, DbacksSkins, DeadmanG, Diamondhacks, GuruB, JoeCB1991, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, NumberOneIanKennedyFan31, SongBird, Xipooo, cardshuffle, freeland1787, gamepass, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, noblevillain, nolanriley13, onedotfive, rd33, shoewizard, soco
Join us again tomorrow for what promises to be another duel between starting pitchers. Jose Fernandez goes against Robbie Ray, 6:40 start time. See you there!