Snake Bytes, 6/22: A perfect 10

Recaps

[AZ Central] Arizona Diamondbacks turning things around on the road - They are hitting .320 on this trip through Detroit, Philadelphia and Denver. They are no longer a team that feasts at home and is feasted upon on the road. They made this point loudly and clearly in the fourth inning at Coors Field, when they sent 14 batters to the plate, collected nine hits, drew two walks and scored 10 runs. That was really fun,” Diamondbacks right fielder David Peralta said. “I started that inning and I went back up to hit and scored twice. I don’t think I’ve ever done that in my life. That was a really fun inning.”

[Arizona Sports] D-backs put up 10 runs on Rockies in one inning: By the numbers - The D-backs are the first National League team to score double-digit runs in an inning without a home run since the Cardinals plated 12 against the Cubs in 2012. As a road team, no NL squad has scored 10 or more runs without a home run since the Phillies did so in 2005. Hoffman entered Wednesday with a 2.25 ERA. By the end of the fourth, his ERA through 35.2 innings pitched this year sat at 4.29. Hoffman had only eight earned runs in 32 frames prior and left with nine in just 0.2 innings.

[MLB.com] 10-run inning carries D-backs past Rockies - With runners at second and third, one out and a 1-0 lead, Hoffman fanned Lamb and had a full count -- with a couple of close misses -- before hanging an 83 mph slider that Drury drove along the outfield grass to left-center for the first two of his career-best six RBIs on the night. Hoffman had another chance to escape. With two down and still down, 3-1, he walked Nick Ahmed intentionally to face Walker. But Walker fired at the first pitch and lashed his RBI single. Another run scored on the play on center fielder Charlie Blackmon's error.

[AP] 10-run 4th keys D-backs' blowout of Rockies - A seventh-inning fastball from Estevez skipped off the left hand of Chris Iannetta as he dropped to the ground and smacked into the face mask of home plate umpire Andy Fletcher, knocking it askew. Fletcher, apparently still feeling some of the effects from taking a pitch to the head, left the game midway through the seventh and second base umpire Ron Kulpa moved behind the plate to call balls and strikes the rest of the way. In a statement released by the Rockies, officials said Fletcher was being evaluated for a concussion and would not work Thursday’s finale.

Team news

[AZ Central] Godley’s curveball a reason for success - He was in the dugout with teammates Jeremy Hellickson and Robbie Ray, and Hellickson started talking about the way he gripped and threw his curveball. For Godley at the time, his curveball wasn’t one of his better secondary pitches. He figured he could benefit from trying to tinker. “I had been doing the same thing since high school and never tried anything different,” Godley said. “I was like, ‘The curveball is OK. But I’ll try something different and see how it works.’ I started trying something different, and it worked out really well.” After implementing tips from the conversation with Hellickson, Godley said the pitch started to become an important one for him last season. But it seems to be even better this year.

[MLB.com] D-backs doing well with pitch framing - According to Statcast™, the D-backs have gotten called strikes on just over 10 percent of the pitches they've thrown outside the zone that opposing hitters have taken. That's the second-highest rate in MLB. Last year, the D-backs ranked 28 out of the 30 teams.. For [Jeff Mathis], framing pitches has always been a component in being a good catcher. "What I've told everybody when they're making a big deal about it -- it's something that I feel like I've done my entire career since they've put me behind the plate," Mathis said. "It's just something that I enjoy doing and felt I was decent at and continued to work on it. It's pretty cool now that it's getting looked at."

[AZ Central] Chafin establishing himself with aggressiveness - “It was a bit of trying to be too perfect (last year) instead of just rear back, throw the damn thing and wish them luck,” Chafin said. “This year, it’s just been going out there and attacking guys, being aggressive and going after them and saying, ‘All right, let’s see what you got.’” Another change for Chafin this year has been in the way he’s warmed up before appearances. “It’s been night and day difference as far as my saving of pitches in the bullpen,” he said. “Now, if I throw 11 or 12 warmup pitches in the bullpen, that’s a lot. Last year or the year before, I’d be upwards of 20.”

And, elsewhere...

[ESPN] The unsung hero on every contending MLB team - Arizona Diamondbacks: Zack Godley. The thin Diamondbacks seemed to be in trouble when Shelby Miller, having a nice bounce-back season, went down for the campaign. In stepped Godley, a 27-year-old righty who had a 6.19 ERA at the big league level last season. All Godley has done since is put up a 2.34 ERA over eight starts with a 3.17 FIP that suggests, yes, he's pitched that well. Godley has been a vital cog in what has been baseball's best rotation so far.

[SI] Baseball's pressing question: What happens to a sport when nothing happens? - The signature game of what baseball has become took place in Milwaukee on June 2. The Dodgers beat the Brewers 2–1 in 12 innings. What may sound like a thriller passed for a tedious revival of a Samuel Beckett play. Instead of waiting for Godot, the plot revolved around waiting for a ball in play. Over the course of three minutes shy of four hours, 90 batters came to the plate and only 40 of them put the ball in play, or once every six minutes.

[For The Win] MLB hitters are on pace to hit nearly 500 more homers this season than ever before - Entering play Wednesday, Major League hitters have combined to hit 2,701 home runs in 2017. That puts them on a pace for about 6,186 longballs on the season, a total that would shatter the previous record high of 5,693 from 2000, in the thick of the sport’s so-called “steroids era.” the uptick is so outrageous and so unprecedented, at least since the dawn of baseball’s live-ball era in the 1920s, that it feels like it merits a more detailed examination.