Diamondbacks 3, Nationals 8: Hellickson knocked out early, Nats score late

Record: 52-55.

8-3???

That smells like a Hellickson start. Let me just check Ye Olde Boxscore real quic-oh wait, he didn't really do that bad. I mean, not bad in comparison to my expectations. Sure, he only went 4 2/3 innings, and sure, he gave up 4 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks, but it's not like he gave up all 8 runs.

Let's see, what actually happened here? It seems like things were going okay up to a point. The Nationals grabbed a quick lead off a 2nd inning Ian Desmond home run. They added a second run in the 4th with Desmond being in the middle of things again by scoring after getting a lead-off double.

The Diamondbacks didn't take long to respond, though, with Jarrod Saltala...Saltilam...Salty hitting a lead off solo shot to cut the lead in half. Speaking of things that didn't last long, though, Hellickson was knocked out of the game almost immediately in the bottom of the fifth with Washington getting another two runs to extend their lead to 4-1.

Arizona inched closer again in the top of the 7th by scoring 2 runs to get the deficit back to 1. A Salty walk, Tomas single, and Castillo single set the table for Ender Inciarte, who slapped a two run double to make the game seem respectable.

If the game had magically ended at this point it would have seemed like a closer game, but unfortunately things continued. Ziegler came in the 8th and immediately had his world rocked. He game up back to back singles and then a three run homer. That's the way it goes sometimes, I guess.

Surprisingly strong showing in the GDT for a day game, with over 700 comments. James Attwood can be attributed to 150 of them, and he was joined by: BenSharp, Dbackguy, DeadmanG, GuruB, James Attwood, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Majabe, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, Oldenschoole, PhxSunsFan4Life, Re Tired, Steven Burt, Turambar, Xipooo, catbat, danzews7, freeland1787, gamepass, hotclaws, noblevillain, onedotfive, preston.salisbury, ryeandi, sepehr3, shoewizard, and thunderpumpkin87.

Diamondbacks come home for Zombles Night against the Reds. First pitch is at 6:40 Arizona time, so tune in if you're not eating some brains.