Diamondbacks 2, Astros 9

And, I'm fairly sure, so does Jeremy Hellickson, as he gave up seven runs this afternoon, almost all of them coming by way of the long-ball. There were solo homers allowed in the first and third, but Arizona scored twice themselves, thanks to some uncharacteristic wildness by Dallas Keuchel. However, it all fell apart in the third inning for Hellickson. First, there was that solo home-run to tie things up at two. Then there was a bases-loaded walk to former (for all of 11 days) Diamondback, Chris Carter. Finally, there was a grand-slam. Hellickson went 3.1 innings, giving up seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts.

Josh Collmenter lasted longer than that, doing credible mop-up duty, working 4.2 frames and scattering seven hits as well, but only two runs - oh, look, they both came on another Astros homer out of their crappy little stadium. Meanwhile, the offense was pretty much completely handcuffed, managing only two hits, by Aaron Hill and Jarrod Saltalamacchia - the two people whose presence in the line-up was most criticized... However, the way Hellickson was clobbered, we could have run nine Paul Goldschmidts out there, and the end result would likely have been the same. Oh, well: still got a shot at the series tomorrow, and that would be perfectly acceptable.

Turambar along shortly with the beercap.