Arizona Diamondbacks 1, Chicago White Sox 3: Safety first

Record 12-14-1. Change on 2017: -4.

For the second night in a row, the D-backs were almost entirely unclutch - over these two games, they have gone 1-for-25 with runners in scoring position. It’s probably good they get it all out of their system now, and we can then enjoy the fruits of the regression once the meaningful games start. This IS how it works, isn’t it? Tonight, the only such hit came in the bottom of the sixth, when Daniel Descalso singled home A.J. Pollock, and we still had two men on with one out. But Nick Ahmed hit into a double-play, and that was the end of the Diamondbacks’ scoring for the night. Pollock had two of Arizona’s eight hits, while Yasmany Tomas got a hit and a walk.

On the mound, Taijuan Walker went 5.2 innings, scattering eight hits and three runs, but walking none and striking out seven. Most of those innings weren’t too bad, except for the third where he allowed three doubles, a single and a wild pitch, conceding two runs before getting a called strike three past former Diamondback Matt Davidson. A Yoan Moncada home-run in the fifth was the last score Walker allowed. The bullpen was solid, combining for 3.1 innings of scoreless ball, with just one hit given up, no walks and four K’s. Andrew Chafin tidied up the sixth, then there were scoreless frames from Archie Bradley, Brad Boxberger and Jorge De La Rosa, Boxberger fanning two of the three batters her faced.

This was the Diamondbacks’ fifth consecutive spring loss, over which time they have been outscored by a total of 33 runs. While, obviously, these pre-season results don’t matter, and there were some cases where we clearly were not using anything like our best line-up, it’s safe to say I’m now officially fed-up of spring training, The good news is, there is now less than a week to go before we can put all this meaninglessness behind us, and get stuck in to the real thing. Can’t come quickly enough!