Dbacks 3, Phillies 4: Humpty Dumpty

This game was easily winnable. A contender would have won it. The Diamondbacks are not contenders, and this showed tonight. Three main factors played into this loss, but there were a few good things too. Let's start with the bad, and then we'll alternate between good and bad as we break this one down.

Zack Grienke

Yeah. This one hurts. As Jim mentioned, I was lucky enough to be at this game. I got to see the very confusing dance between Grienke, Hale, and the umpires take place at the start of the third inning in person. To say that myself and about 19,000 other people were very, very confused as he called out Hale, chatted with him and the umpires, jogged to the clubhouse, came back, and then left again.

Any time your $200 million ace only goes two innings, you're going to struggle to win the game. Especially when after the game, the manager starts throwing around things like DL trips and possible missing the next start it hurts even more. So right off the bat the team was in a tight spot and looking for six innings from the bullpen. However...

Randell Delgado and (most) of the bullpen

Did a really good job tonight. Delgado ended up going three innings of three hit, one run ball. Andrew Chafin, Tyler Clippard, and Daniel Hudson each went a scoreless inning each. Really, it was exactly what you would have asked for if you knew that Grienke was going to leave after the second. Sure, Hudson gave up a couple hard hit balls, but they were caught. And, yeah, Delgado gave up a solo home that broke a one-all tie. But by the time those four were done, we were still firmly in the game, no thanks to...

The offense

No matter how good your pitching is, you cannot expect to win when you have as many wasted opportunities as they did tonight. In the second, they loaded the bases with one out. The only RBI in the inning came from a sacrifice fly off the bat of Zack Grienke. In the fourth, Jake Lamb hit a lead off triple. It didn't matter though, as Yasmany Tomas hit a shallow fly ball to right for the first out, and Wellington Castillo struck out, allowing them to IBB Peter O'Brian. That brought up Delgado who grounded out to end the inning.

The tried again in the fifth. Nick Ahmed was hit by a pitch and went to third on a Segura single, again giving them runners on the corners with no outs. This time, though, it was the 2,3, and 4 hitters, also known as Bourn, Goldschmidt, and Lamb do up. This should go better, right? Wrong. Bourn and Goldschmidt struck out, and Lamb grounded out to end the threat. The offense looked pretty grim, except for a couple bright spots in...

Yasmany Tomas and Jake Lamb

Wait, two hitters who were part of failing to get runners home from third with no outs are also the bright spots? Yes. In the sixth inning, Tomas had an 0-2 count. He worked his way back to 3-2 and then hit the eighth pitch for one of the longest home runs I have ever seen in person, bouncing it off the concourse over by LoLo's, to tie the game. Lamb hit one of his own in the sixth to give the Dbacks a 3-2 lead. It wasn't meant to be, though, because of...

Brad Zeigler

Yes, our vaunted groundball specialist/closer hybrid did not have a good night. He gave up a lead off double, followed by an RBI single, to tie the game. He then loaded the bases, no thanks to a couple ground balls that just snuck by Segura, and walked Ryan Howard of all people to bring home what was ultimately the winning run. 4-3 Phillies.

Source: FanGraphs

Daenerys Targaryen: Jake Lamb, 31.3%

Dragons: Yasmany Tomas, 17.8% Daniel Hudson, 12.2

Cercei Lannister: Brad Zeigler, -63.2%

The Freys: Michael Bourn, -24.4% Paul Goldschmidt -21.4% Peter O'Brian -15.2%

Wow. That is quite the mix there, ranging from god-like performances, to someone made a deal with the devil and lost their pitching abilities. Made for an exciting game, in a way, but not a good one from our point of view.

522 comments for 22 people. No comments had more than two recs, so no CotN. DC lead the way with 150 comments and MichaelMcD1993 had 102. All present were:

AzDbackfanInDc, Chelsea75, Gilbertsportsfan, GuruB, I suppose I'm a Pessimist, Indedave, Jackwriter, James Attwood, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Makakilo, MichaelMcD831993, Oldenschoole, Re Tired, SongBird, Xerostomia, aldma, asteroid, coldblueAZ, dbacks_in_vegas, noblevillain, onedotfive

Day game tomorrow, so make sure you tune in in time. And be sure to let me know what you think of the new format. Much like what the Dbacks should be doing, I'm trying out new things and seeing what sticks. Let me know!