The victory over the Marlins pushed the D-backs record to 34-22 and 1st place in the NL West. If their pace continues, that’s an incredible 98-win season. The jury is still out whether the role players will continue to play THIS well, but until they prove otherwise, enjoy it.
After a poor outing against the Brewers his last time out, the D-backs needed Zack Greinke to perform well if they were to keep pace with the blistering Dodgers. Safe to say he righted the ship and was great.
On a night with only 11 total hits between the two teams, it’s safe to say it was a struggle for both offenses. Both sides went down in order through the first two innings, with the D-backs striking out 4 times. The 3rd saw our first offense of the game, with the Marlins getting a 1-out double and 2-out walk to bring up Giancarlo Stanton. He’d line a first pitch fastball to right field, scoring J.T Riddle easily, but Owings clunked it, allowing Dee Gordon to score all the way from 1st to give the Marlins a 2-0 advantage.
Nick Ahmed tripled in the 4th with 1 out, but the D-backs were unable to drive him in. THe Marlins threatened as well, getting runners on 2nd and 1st with 1 out, but Greinke induced a beautiful 3-6-1 double play to end the threat.
The offense finally responded in the 6th, as Greinke and Ahmed singled to get a runner in scoring position with Goldschimdt up and 2 outs, who promptly delivered with a single of his own to cut the lead to 2-1.
It was quiet again until the 8th when the D-backs took the lead and gave us our final score. Leadoff walks from Hermann and Descalso preceded a sacrifice bunt from Fuentes to push the runners over. And the hero of the night, Nick Ahmed, responded with a sharp single to right against old friend Brad Ziegler, scoring the tying and winning run 3-2 D-backs.
The bullpen did an outstanding job in relief, with Andrew Chafin getting in some trouble but Archie Bradley was exquisite, striking out Stanton and Marcell Ozuna with the tying run in scoring position.
A 1-run lead meant Fernando Rodney would rear his head and to pleasant surprise he was perfect, grabbing 2 strikeouts and a flyout before launching his arrow into the sky.
Source: FanGraphs
World Series - Nick Ahmed (+39.6%)
Super Bowl - Fernando Rodney (+19.5%), Archie Bradley (14.6%)
NBA FInals - Chris Owings (-18.5%)
| Roll Call Info | |
|---|---|
| Total comments | 569 |
| Total commenters | 31 |
| Commenter list | AzDbackfanInDc, BenSharp, BigSmarty, Cumulus Choir, DORRITO, DbacKid, Diamondhacks, GuruB, I suppose I'm a Pessimist, Jackwriter, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Keegan Thompson, Michael McDermott, MrMrrbi, Rcastillo, Renin, Turambar, Xerostomia, aldma, asteroid, coldblueAZ, ford.williams.10, hotclaws, kilnborn, noblevillain, onedotfive, preston.salisbury, since_98, smartplays, winger49 |
Good showing for a weirdly timed game, with 500+ comments and some new faces. If you’re new, welcome! Comment of thread goes to onedotfive for the excellent pun.
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Come back tomorrow to watch the 2nd game of the 4-game set.