Snake Bytes, 8/27: Size doesn't matter

Recaps

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks drop 3rd straight to Cardinals - After lasting just two innings in his most recent outing, LHP Patrick Corbin bounced back nicely with six strong innings. Corbin looked much better on Wednesday, with his fastball hitting 93 mph several times and touching 94 mph twice. He struck out Carpenter all three times he faced him. "That’s been on my mind," Corbin said of his previous outing, "so anytime you can get back out there, you try to pitch deep into a ballgame again. Hopefully now I can just recover and look forward to my next one."

[Arizona Sports] D-backs fall to the Cardinals for third straight loss - 0: Number of wins the Diamondbacks have mustered in six tries against the Cardinals this season. They’ll get one last crack at St. Louis on Thursday. "He [Lackey] obviously got us out… but we hit the ball extremely hard tonight. Our outs were loud. I felt like we swung the bats well. We swung the bats well enough to win tonight, we just couldn’t find any holes and their outfielders were tracking down a lot of balls near the fence." – D-backs manager Chip Hale

[dbacks.com] Lackey leads Cardinals to win vs. Diamondbacks - Chip Hale said, "Our outs were loud. I felt like we swung the bats well. We swung the bats well enough to win tonight, we just couldn't find any holes." Jarrod Saltalamacchia said of Corbin's outing. "His slider was working early in the counts for strikes, and he was able to put them away with it. He was able to make some pitches with his fastball and get some ground balls. Just unfortunate we couldn't put some runs up for him."

[AP] Lackey stymies D-backs as Cardinals take another - St. Louis quickly took advantage after Corbin left, scoring twice off David Hernandez (1-4) in the seventh. Wong had an RBI double and Matt Carpenter a run-scoring single in the inning, enough to send the Diamondbacks to their third straight loss since a four-game winning streak. "They (the Cardinals) are playing well, but they're making plays," Hale said. "They're making the plays they're supposed to make. They're playing like a good major league team, which they are."

Team news

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks' young rotation experiencing growing pains - Ray said. "We haven’t been in this kind of situation before, pitching a full season. This year is definitely a learning process." The Diamondbacks expect the experience to be beneficial to all their starters in the long run, and the club could have another crowded rotation battle on its hands next spring. Prospects Zack Godley and Aaron Blair could be competing for jobs, and current relievers Daniel Hudson and Randall Delgado could be in the mix, as well. "It’s going to be interesting," Hale said.

[dbacks.com] Randall Delgado in D-backs' 2016 rotation mix - "In Spring Training [next year] Dave and Tony they'd like to see him as a starter, so he's going to be thought of in that way," Hale said. "But we always know the flexibility he gives us in the bullpen is important. He has all the pitches. We know he can go deep into the game throwing all those pitches. His arm's been healthy, his velocity stays good, but we just have to see if he can keep it together on the mental side of it."

[FOX Sports] Corbin flashes form in bounce-back start - "He pitched a great game. He kept us in the game," Saltalamacchia said. "One of those outings where you wish you could have got him some run support and let him cruise." "He's has had real good ones, like tonight," manager Chip Hale said, "where there was good break on the breaking ball. He got a lot of swings and misses in the dirt. The fastball had life... That was a good sign. Every outing is going to be different for him with the feel for his elbow. Tonight, he definitely was feeling it and had a successful outing."

[OregonLive] Dansby Swanson and his 'gift': How Major League Baseball's top draft pick is out to change the world - As I spoke with him in the dugout of Ron Tonkin Field, I poked around his family life. I prodded him about his emotions. And I asked him about his challenges in life. The guy gave me nothing. Nothing, that is, that will sell newspapers. Nothing that will have the click machines turning. Nothing that will have people talking around the water cooler. And yet, I can't recall a better 30 minutes I've had with a professional athlete. I was engaged. Enamored. And ultimately uplifted.

[AZ Central] Paul Goldschmidt mashes career-long HR in Diamondbacks loss - Goldschmidt was his typically modest self when asked about it after the game. "I hit it good," he said. "I had a feeling it was going to get out of there. Fortunately, it did. Got one run. We would have liked to have got some more." His teammates, at least, were impressed. "I haven’t seen a ball hit there at all," catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. "That ball was cleanly hit and it just kept going and going. I don’t think we’re ever amazed by anything he does, but a ball hit that well – the ball kind of died a lot tonight, so for him to put a ball that far out is pretty impressive."

[dbacks.com] Paul Goldschmidt hits long home run vs. Cards - "I was just looking for something I could hit, just kind of reaction," said Goldschmidt, who was facing Lackey for the first time in his career. "He mixes it up. I mean there's not any real pattern. They mix it up, [catcher] Yadi [Molina] does a good job back there, so just looking for something over the plate and it was kind of up and in and fortunately I was able to get the barrel there." "I haven't," [Mark] Reynolds said when asked if he'd seen a ball hit as far as Goldschmidt's. "I was talking to him at first base and I said, 'Dude, I hit a lot of balls here pretty far, and that's probably the farthest I've ever seen.'"

And, elsewhere....

[Awful Announcing] Curt Schilling will not be on Sunday Night Baseball this week - ESPN quickly removed Schilling from his scheduled Little League World Series assignments this week. Now we know that hiatus will extend to his MLB work. ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz tells Awful Announcing that Schilling will not be on the Sunday Night Baseball telecast this week. ESPN has not publicly stated this absence as a suspension or given a time period on when Schilling may be back.

[Federal Baseball] Speculation about Matt Williams' future continues... - Washington Nationals' skipper Matt Williams' name has come up repeatedly in rumors recently with reports of discontent in the Nats' clubhouse. Will a strong late-season run quiet that talk, or do the Nationals have to make it back to the postseason?

[VICE Sports] The Irreverent Relics of the Baseball Reliquary - It's hard to say where the Baseball Reliquary began. Maybe it started with a drop of Juan Marichal's sweat or Bill Veeck's autobiography. It might also have been a pubic hair purportedly belonging to St. Nick. Pinpointing its beginnings is as difficult as defining the Reliquary itself. It's been called "the fans' Hall of Fame," "the antithesis of Cooperstown," and "the motherlode vein leading to the heart and soul of baseball." But that doesn't really capture the Reliquary's unique nature.