Both pitchers were at the very top of their game tonight. They breezed through the first three innings, with neither Ray or Nova breaking a sweat. In fact, McCutcheon was the only one to even get a hit. It was moving so quickly, I was about twenty minutes late getting home from work and I had already missed the first two innings.
Fuentes must have been bored, so he decided to let the Pirates make it interesting in the fourth. Josh Harrison hit a ball that based off the comments on the GDT (“Steve Finley, at 52, could have gotten that”) that Fuentes should have gotten. Instead of being an out, it became a double, but only because Peralta did a great job of backing it up.
After that, Ray put on a clinic. He got Josh Bell to ground out, though that moved Harrison to third, for the first out. He then struck out David Freese and Fransisco Cervelli back to back to end the inning and preserve the shutout.
Both pitchers continued dominating until the top of the sixth, when once again after multiple times through the order the Diamondbacks got to the starting pitcher. Rey Fuentes got a one out single, slightly making up for his defensive brain fart. Ray moved Rey to second with a sac bunt, turning it over to the top of the order and Chris Owings. Owings broke the game open with a double, finally putting a run on the board. 1-0 Diamondbacks
They added on a couple more in the seventh. Paul Goldschmidt juuuuuuust missed a home run to lead off the inning, but instead got a double after a review. Lamb singled him to third. Tomas struck out, as expected. Drury singled, bringing home Goldy, then Hermann walked to load the bases. Fuentes continued atoning for his lack of defense by bringing home Lamb. That was unfortunately all they could manage, but it was 3-0 Diamondbacks
That was all Ray needed though. He cruised through the entire game, with the excitement in the fourth being the only time that the Pirates really threatened. He just straight up dominated. He ended up going for the complete game shutout, with only four hits, no walks, and ten strike outs. It was easily the best I’ve ever seen from him, and I think this tweet (h/t Guru) sums it up pretty well
Robbie Ray: 1st Diamondbacks pitcher to throw shutout with 10+ K on the road since Randy Johnson against Braves in his perfect game in 2004
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 31, 2017
Yep. I don’t really think there is anything else to say. Simply dominating.
Not a very busy GDT, which makes sense when you consider the game was over twenty minutes before games normally start in AZ. Guru lead the way with 56. All present were:
Anachronistic1, AzDbackfanInDc, BigSmarty, Cumulus Choir, DORRITO, DbacKid, GuruB, Hazzard21, I suppose I'm a Pessimist, Imstillhungry95, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Joey Lewis, Justin27, Keegan Thompson, Oscar Goldman, asteroid, blue_bulldog, coldblueAZ, edbigghead, hotclaws, makattack71, noblevillain, onedotfive, preston.salisbury, ryeandi, since_98, smartplays, thunderpumpkin87, winger49
No COTN tonight, since the most rec’d comment was mine and it wasn’t even close. Day game tomorrow, so make sure to tune in on time!