Diamondbacks 3, Tigers 7: Ray wild, offense stagnant, Chase Field teleported to Michigan

I have, thank God, never been to a Cubs game at Chase Field, but I have been to a Cubs spring training game before. The atmosphere was very similar tonight, with the clear majority of fans rooting for the opposing team, and doing so very, very loudly. My poor, allergy afflicted throat could do very little to drown out the thunderous roar whenever Miguel Cabrera came to the plate, much less when he put the ball in play, so it made for an interesting night.

Robbie Ray wasted hardly any time setting the tone for the night. He walked the first batter he faced, Andrew Romine, which was the first of five on the night for him. He did get back to back strikeouts of Jose Inglesias and Miguel Cabrera, and it looked like he might get around the walk. However, he instead uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Romine to get to second, and setting him up to score on Nicholas Castellanos’ single to give the Tigers their first run. 1-0 Detroit

The Tigers extended their lead in the next inning, thanks to a lead off solo home run from James McCann. 2-0 Detroit

For the most part, the offense had been dozing up to that point, the only real action being two walks in the first from Paul Goldschmidt and Jake Lamb, but they woke up a little in the third. A. J. Pollock got it started with a double. Peralta moved him to third. Goldschmidt singled him home, and then Lamb sacrificed him over to third. Tomas had a great at bat. He singled on a sharply hit ball which brought Goldy home, even after the Tigers reviewed it, and he went to second on the throw home, keeping the scoring threat alive. That extra base turned out to be a good thing, with Drury hitting a groundrule double next giving the Diamondbacks their only lead of the game. 3-2 Diamondbacks

Don’t worry, it didn’t last long. Neither team scored in the fourth inning, but Detroit got their own three-spot in the fifth inning. Two walks, to singles, and a double pushed across the runs for Detroit, and it probably would have been worse, if it hadn’t been for a heads up play by Goldschmidt on the last single to throw one of the runners out at third and end the inning. 5-3 Detroit

The only real chance the Diamondbacks had to come back was largely, no completely, wasted. In the seventh, they got a lead off walk from Hermann followed by a single from Pollock. Two outs later, Lamb was intentionally walked to load the bases for Tomas. Tomas then struck out on three of the weakest swings I have ever seen from a Major League hitter, ending the inning and effectively the game.

The Tigers pushed the lead further in the eighth and ninth with single tallies to extend the lead to 7-3 Oh and one of those was a Justin Upton solo home run to straight away center field, because of course it was.

Listening to a great song, at just the right moment of your life: AJ Pollock 12.2%, Brandon Drury 11.7%

Listening to a song you used to love, but at a point when it just makes you sad: Robbie Ray, -32.1%

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 Death, taxes, Paul Goldschmidt being awesome

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by Michael McDermott on May 9, 2017 | 7:44 PM reply rec (5) flag actions

Join us again tomorrow as the Diamodbacks go for the spilt of the two game series!