Dbacks 6, Padres 4: A rollercoaster of a game

Both teams were quiet in the first inning, with the Padres going down in order in their half, and the Dbacks not doing much, despite A.J. Pollock making it to second on a walk and a reviewed stolen base with no one out. In the second, the Padres took the lead, though, thanks to a Justin Upton solo home run, which was his fifth of the year against his old team. In response, the Dbacks then wasted another runner in scoring position, this time Wellington Castillo at second with one out in the second.

Things almost got really out of hand in the third, but Jhoulys Chacin was able to limit the damage. Singles to Tyson Ross and Travis Jankowski and a walk Wil Myers loaded the bases without a single out recorded. Yangervis Solante grounded into 6-3 double play to get the first two outs, but at the expense of a run, extending the Padres lead. That was all, though. Matt Kemp flew out to David Peralta to get the third out, and limit the damage to only one run. 2-0 Padres.

And that was all the action that Chacin allowed on the night. He didn't bring his A-game, but he brought A-Good-Enough-game. He went five innings, only allowing the two runs, on four hits, two walks, and three strikeouts. It wasn't a fantastic outing. However, he kept his team in the game, and that's all you can ask for.

Meanwhile, the offense wasn't holding up their end of the deal. Tyson Ross was shutting them down hard. Through the first five innings, he didn't allow them to score and only gave up two hits and two walks total. It wasn't until the sixth inning that the Dbacks were able to get anything off of him. A one out walk to Paul Goldschmidt started things off. That was followed by back-to-back singles by David Peralta and Castillo to score Goldy. However, that was all they managed, as the very next batter, Brandon Drury, grounded into a double play, ending the inning.

The Padres got the run back in the seventh. Austin Hedges hit a one out single. Zack Godley, who had replaced Chacin, was then pulled from the game in favor of Matt Reynolds. He let Cody Decker move the runner to second with a soft groundball to Goldschmidt and then allowed him to score thanks to Jankowski single. Chip Hale had seen enough from Reynolds and pulled him in favor of Randel Delgado, who ended the inning by getting Meyers to strike out swining. 3-1 Padres.

The Dbacks weren't going to go down without a fight though. They put together a threat of their own in the bottom of the seventh, and it all started with a lead off Chris Owings walk. He was immediately brought home by a triple off the bat of Nick Ahmed, and Aaron Hill kept the ball rolling with a walk, knocking Padres reliever Bud Norris out of the game. Kevin Quackenbush came in to face Pollock. Norris threw one pitch, and Pollock hit one three run home run. Boom. 5-3 Dbacks. They weren't done yet. Ender Inciarte singled and then stole second. Goldy walked. That knocked out Quackenbush and Marc Rzepczynski came on for the Padres, who seem to be believe that ridiculously hard to spell names are the new market inefficiency. He got Peralta to strike out, and then was removed for Nick Vincent. He induced a Castillo fly out for the second out, but then gave up an RBI single to Drury. Chris Owings then resumed normal baseball activities and struck out, ending the inning. 6-3 Dbacks.

That was it for the game. Hudson came in for the eighth and struck out Solarte and Kemp for the first two outs, but gave up a infield hit to Justin Upton. Upton moved to second on a Jed Gyorko single. Hudson walked Cory Spangenberg, loading the bases. That was enough for Hale, and he pulled Hudson to put Brad Zielger in position for the four out save. It didn't quite go as planned, though. Zeigler let all the runners advance with a wild pitch, scoring Upton and bringing the Padres within two runs. That was all, though, as Ziegler got Brett Wallace to strike out, ending the inning.

Ziegler finished it off with an... interesting ninth inning. He got the first out, and then Jankowski reached on a Nick Ahmed error. Wil Meyers grounded out, sending Jaknowski to second. A Solarte single put the tying run on first. However, Matt Kemp grounded out to end the game and preserve the Arizona victory. Tonight also marked Zeigler's 24th straight save. Not too shabby.

<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2015-09-15&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=2015-09-15&team=Diamondbacks&dh=0&season=2015">FanGraphs</a></span>

Not Boring: Pollock, 28.9%

Boring: Drury, -13.7%

Comment of the night goes to onedotfive for the comment that, honestly even in retrospect, she'll probably stand by:

Maybe the Dbacks will stage a big comeback but

I don't care any more tonight.

G'night all.

Not one shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.

by onedotfive on Sep 15, 2015 | 9:01 PM ↩reply ⋆ unrec (1) ⚙actions

One of the slowest GDT's in the time I've been active here, with it only reaching 173 comments at time of writing. Freeland1787 lead with just 35 comments, JoeCB1991 was right behind with 31, and GuruB was a distant third with 17. All present were:

Clefo, DbacksSkins, GuruB, JHendrix89, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, NumberOneIanKennedyFan31, SongBird, freeland1787, gamepass, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, onedotfive, piratedan7, shoewizard

Join us and the same two teams again tomorrow at 6:40 Arizona time for the rubber game of this series. See you then!