Phillies 6, Diamondbacks 1 - Not a Good Start

Tonight was the first game of a four-game series against the lowly Philadelphia Phillies. This was supposed to be a game where the Diamondbacks made up ground on one of their division rivals. Alsa, Mark Leiter, Jr. and the Phillies had other plans.

The game started off in what is becoming typical “Corbin fashion”, with the Phillies getting a run in the first inning. In Corbin’s defense, David Peralta’s missed catch on a diving attempt set the table for that run, allowing Freddy Galvis to triple. Altherr grounded out, but drove Galvis home. That would be the end of the scoring, by either team, for quite some time.

For the next 5 ²⁄₃ innings, Patrick Corbin pitched solid baseball, stiking out five and walking only one. His opposite was just as sharp though. Leiter, making his first MLB start, kept the Diamondbacks off the board for six innings. The Diamondbacks threatened in the fourth, but were unable to capitalize.

In the seventh inning, the Diamondbacks welcomed Rubby De La Rosa back to the mound. The right-hander was activated today, completing his return from the long road of rehab after receiving platlet rich injections for his strained throwing elbow. He faced only one batter, and struck him out on five pitches.

The eighth inning is when the game finally picked up again. Jorge De La Rosa came on in relief of Rubby, but was unable to keep Philadelphia off the board. He surrendered a solo home run to Maikel Franco, giving the Phillies a two-run lead.

The Diamondbacks responded in the bottom of the eighth. Rey Fuentes led things off with an infield single. That was followed by a strikeout from pinch-hitter, Jeremy Hazelbaker. Hazelbaker was followed by Daniel Descalso, who belted a triple to drive Fuentes home. With a man on third and only one out, David Peralta drilled the first pitch he saw. Unfortunately, Freddy Galvis happened to be standing in just the right place, and caught it.Goldschmidt walked on five pitches, putting runners on the corners for Jake Lamb. Lamb had a very un-Lamb-like at-bat, first swinging at a pitch up near his head, before finally striking out on a wicked offspeed pitch fading into the opposite batter’s box. That ended the Diamondbacks’ threat to tie or take the lead, and also the inning.

The ninth inning saw T.J. McFarland take the mound. McFarland had a rough night, giving up four runs on three hits, including a home run to Tommy Joseph. Only one run was counted as earned, as Chris Owings committed his 11th error of the season behind McFarland.

Final score: Phillies 6, Diamondbacks 1. Robbie Ray takes the mound tomorrow to face off against Ben Lively, Ray looking to shake off a somewhat rough outing last week against this same Philadelphia team.

The gameday thread was only mildly active, with 333 comments. There were two commenters with 38 comments each, to lead the way: Justin27 and smartplays. All present were:

AzDbackfanInDc, BigSmarty, Cumulus Choir, DORRITO, DbacKid, GuruB, James Attwood, Joey Lewis, Justin27, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, MrMrrbi, Oscar Goldman, Sprankton, TylerO, Xerostomia, asteroid, coldblueAZ, hotclaws, kilnborn, onedotfive, preston.salisbury, rustynails77, samath, smartplays, winger49

Not much to work with for COTD, but we’re going to take the return of Rubby De La Rosa as something to get excited about.

I think we lead the league

in De La Rosas.

by kilnborn on Jun 23, 2017 | 8:36 PM reply rec (4) flag actions

The Good: Patrick Corbin 24.2%

The Bad: T.J. McFarland -16.4%, David Peralta -16.5%

The Ugly: Jake Lamb -27.3%