Snake Bytes, 8/4: D-backs Dropping Dingers

Recaps

[Arizona Sports] Godley dominates again in D-backs win - Zack Godley is starting to make a name for himself on this Diamondbacks team, if he hasn’t already. The D-backs rookie right-handed pitcher threw six shut-out innings and led the team to a 6-4 win over the Washington Nationals on Monday night. Godley is now 3-0 and became just the seventh pitcher in team history to win their first three starts with the team. The rookie struck out six batters, while only walking two and giving up three hits. He was efficient throughout the night, which included retiring the first nine batters of the game.

[AZ Central] Godley's pitching, 4 homers carry Diamondbacks past Nationals - He didn’t have pinpoint command on Monday night, but he mixed his two-seam fastball and darting cutter effectively to keep Nationals’ hitters off balance. Chip Hale said. "You could see they wanted to swing at some pitches and either got half swings or just hit ground balls for us that maybe would have been balls. He has that movement with the cut and the sinker that is hard to square up." Said Godley: "I felt really good. I was locating pitches pretty well and guys were swinging early and that plays really well into what I’m trying to do. Just trying to get groundballs or get them to put the ball in play."

[dbacks.com] Zack Godley wins 3rd straight for Diamondbacks - Castillo has been swinging well during this road trip. After going 1-for-4, he is 9-for-23 on the trip with five home runs. Since coming to the D-backs from the Mariners, he's hitting .291 with 10 home runs. "I don't try to do it," Castillo said of hitting the homer. "But the pitcher made a mistake, I tried not to miss. You aren't going to get many mistakes at this level, but I feel really good at the plate."

[AP] Zack Godley runs record to 3-0 behind Diamondbacks 4 home runs - [Washington] has lost 12 of its last 17. That slide has come while facing a string of tough starters, losing to likes of Los Angeles' Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, Pittsburgh's Francisco Liriano and Gerrit Cole, and the Mets' Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard Godley (3-0) has none of that pedigree, but the Nationals still only had three at-bats with runners in scoring position against the25-year old. "He had it working in and out, cutter, sinker, curveball, mixing it up," Zimmerman said. "Obviously we haven't faced him before. We got some guys on, he just made pitches when he needed to."

Team News

[AZ Central] Godley could stick in rotation after all - Hale also said the team is weighing the idea of shifting to a six-man rotation as a way to lighten the workload for its young rotation. "That would help that, just get guys extra days," Hale said. "With (Patrick) Corbin coming back from Tommy John and all our young guys starting to pile up the innings. But it's tough to do that with still keeping seven bullpen guys. We would probably have to lose a position player. That's a very tough decision to make."

[Dbacks.com] Diamondbacks' Zack Godley wins all 3 starts - He's now at 107.1 this year after throwing 55.1 in relief last year. The D-backs want to be careful with his arm and have discussed sending him back to the Minors and using him out of the bullpen when Chase Anderson comes off the disabled list. Hale said, "We have to do what's best for him and the organization. It might be best for him to be here and with limited innings."  Godley said, "Just to come up here and to be able to have the outings I've had and just to be able to have the defense play behind me the way they have is just awesome. I think I've thrown well and I just hope that I've done enough to impress the guys."

[AZ Central] Corbin looking, feeling like old self - In terms of results and quality of stuff, the signs have been almost all encouraging for Corbin. His strikeout rate is up from 2013. He’s getting more ground balls. He’s walking fewer batters. His average fastball is even up a half tick. The only blemish has been the five home runs he’s allowed in 28 innings. "I think early in the first couple of games, just a couple pitches that I left up there and gave up some homers on," Corbin said. "I feel pretty good. I feel like the stuff is there, but it’s a matter of being consistent with everything. Having that much time off is the biggest challenge."

[dbacks.com] Chip Hale tones down criticism - One day after criticizing his team's energy level, D-backs manager Chip Hale said his comments were made in the heat of the moment, though, he did remind the players during the team's usual hitter's meeting before batting practice Monday. "I think I just lost my temper," he said. "Not probably fair to you guys or even to the [players]. But certain things bother you. Getting picked off, not having competitive at-bats at times bothered me. Just got fed up with it."

[Sporting News] This Day in History: Player bats for two different teams in one day - Okay, actually it was now yesterday. :) Still, Alex Herrnberger batted for two different teams in two different cities on August 3, 2010. "It was one of the cool things that happened to me in my short playing career," said Herrnberger, a former Diamondbacks’ minor leaguer.

And, elsewhere

[Korea Times] Baseball fans help grieving American - Paul Vogel, despite never having been to Korea, is a huge Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) fan and supporter of the KT Wiz, the league's newest team. Living in Arizona, he stays up late many nights to watch his team in action. One morning in early June, he heard a knock on his door and it was UPS delivering a package from Korea. "It felt kind of like Christmas to be honest," Vogel said. "I got a fairly large box from somewhere on the other side of the planet, it was pretty cool."

[Detroit News] Mud Hens' Hessman becomes all-time minor-league HR king - Anyone who has been as patient, as devoted, and as accomplished as Mike Hessman probably deserved Monday's night's milestone. Hessman blasted a seventh-inning grand slam homer, a rocket that traveled far beyond the high wall and walkway at Fifth Third Field, to give him 433 home runs, the most by any minor-league player in history. This was Hessman's 2,095th minor-league game in his 19th season, with close to 8,500 PAs. He has 250 major-league PAs.

[New York Times] Enter Sound Man: An Insider’s Look at Baseball’s Walk-Up Music - For players, the process for choosing a song can be more complicated than it appears. First, they have to find a 15-second clip that is clean, which is not always easy. The crowd, Granderson noted, contains thousands of people of all ages. Faust said, "At first, when we were playing recorded music, we had to be very mindful — and we weren’t at the beginning — of lyrics."

Finally. I hope Baxter is taking notes from this Korean mascot...