Arizona Diamondbacks 5, Philadelphia Phillies 1: AZ gets their Phill late

Record: 43-26. Pace: 101-61. Change on 2016: +13.

The Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies ended up in a rain delay for 40 minutes, starting at 1:50pm instead of 1:10pm, where the 2-1 Zack Godley faced off against the 0-7 Jerad Eickhoff (he of the 5.09 ERA). Rain would show up on and off throughout the day, and little did we know the pitcher’s duel we would witness progress at a snail’s pace. It was a wet, muggy, gross day in Philly, so basically the exact opposite of us here baking away in Phoenix.

The first inning started off with some noise, with David Peralta on 2nd and Jake Lamb on 1st with 2 outs, but Chris Owings popped out to end the threat. But not before we forced Eickhoff to throw 27 pitches, with Lamb drawing a bases loaded walk among those 27. Godley came out for the bottom half and showed dominance, striking out the side on 15 pitches with no base runners. 0-0 Tie.

The second inning was uneventful, with the D-Backs all grounding out back-to-back-to-back, and Godley getting another perfect inning on only 10 pitches with 1 strikeout, sitting at 4 Ks through 2 IP. 0-0 Tie. The 3rd inning is where things got interesting and the D-Backs were able to get something going. Godley popped out, Daniel Descalso (in the lead off spot today) drew a walk, Peralta flew out to left, Paul Goldschmidt singed to left, and then Lamb singled in Descalso to keep a firm hold on his RBI lead in the Majors, and advanced to 2nd on the throw attempt at home. 1-0 D-Backs. Owings popped out, but the D-Backs had a lead.

Godley came out for the 3rd and gave up 2 hits and a wild pitch, but still managed another K and gave up no runs, keeping it 1-0 D-Backs. The top of the 4th inning had nothing going for the D-Backs, going down in order. The bottom of the 4th got dicey, with Godley loading the bases with 2 walks and a hit, needing 28 pitches to escape the jam he put himself in by getting Freddy Galvis to ground out to shortstop. But he kept the Phillies off the board, leaving it at 1-0 D-Backs.

The 5th inning was quiet all around, with only a Descalso double and a Howie Kendrick dribbler that Owings couldn’t quite get a hold of making any noise, with Godley again only needing 15 pitches to get 2 more Ks and keep it at 1-0 D-Backs. We made a little bit of noise in the 6th, with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, but Chris Iannetta flew out to Aaron Altherr in left and Lamb was gunned down at Home trying to tag up and score, keeping it at 1-0 D-Backs.

The 6th inning for Godley is where it got bad, with 1 out walk, followed by a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd, and Andrew Knapp hit a Sac Fly to left to score and make it a 1-1 Tie. Godley was then removed for Jorge De La Rosa, who walked Galvis on 5 pitches, and then got pinch hitter Daniel Nava to line out to Lamb to save it. Godley’s Final Line: 5.2IP 5H 1R 1ER 3BB 8K on 99 Pitches.

The 7th inning saw Eickhoff replaced by Edubray Ramos, and what a 7th inning it was. Rey Fuentes singled, Lovullo had JDLR hit for himself in an attempt at a Sac Bunt, he dropped it right in front of home plate, but Knapp decided to throw out Fuentes at 2nd instead of going to 1st, and he paid for it by Fuentes beating the throw. So, runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs for the top of the order.

Descalso singled in Fuentes, which resulted in a pitching change to He Of the 9+ ERA Casey Fien, who got Peralta on strikes. But that led to Goldy coming up and clearing the bases with a double to deep left center field. Lamb commanded respect with a no pitch Intentional Walk, Owings fouled out to the catcher, but Drury got another RBI with a single to drive home Goldy which gave us TACOS! Iannetta grounded out to end the inning but not before it was 5-1 D-Backs.

The 8th inning got dicey again, JDLR got his lefty batter out, then Lovullo went to J.J. Hoover for a string of right handed batters. Hoover proceeded to suck instead of clean up, loading the bases with a walk and 2 hits around a fly out to left. Lovullo went to Andrew Chafin, who got bailed out by a tremendous! Goldy Glove saving runs on an excellent reach on a liner headed for the right field corner, keeping the game 5-1 D-Backs.

Adam Morgan, also He Of the 9+ ERA, came on to pitch the 8th, striking out the side, with a questionable looking strikeout of Descalso, which looked like the umpire decided he wanted to go home. T.J. McFarland came out to pitch 8th with Hazelbaker in on the double switch in LF for Descalco, and McFarland needed only 12 pitches to get through the 8th giving up only 1 hit and getting a K. Again, still 5-1 D-Backs.

The 9th inning came and went quietly, with 3 up and 3 down for the D-Backs in the top half, and McFarland came out and shut down the Phillies in the 9th to preserve the win, 5-1 D-Backs. The Rockies and Dodgers both won, so there’s no change in the overall standings at the top of the NL West. I don’t think there will be, until next week, when the Rockies first host us, then travel to Los Angeles...

Bells and Whistles by Jim

Thanks to those who stayed out of the heat, in the nicely cool Gameday Thread. Present were: Anachronistic1, AzDbackfanInDc, BigSmarty, BobDolio, DbacKid, GuruB, Hazzard21, Jackwriter, James Attwood, Jim McLennan, Joey Lewis, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, MrMrrbi, Oldenschoole, PaulGoldsmith, Rcastillo, SenSurround, SongBird, Sprankton, aldma, asteroid, gamepass, hotclaws, kilnborn, megnetic, nolanriley13, onedotfive and smartplays. Just the one Sedona Red comment, this positive note from GuruB:

Robbie Ray faces off against Ben Lively tomorrow, with the first pitch at 10:35am Arizona Time - barring any sort of rain delay again.