Snake Bytes, 4/27: Had our Phill edition

Recaps

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks jump on Philadelphia Phillies early, take another series - With an 8-2 win over the Phillies, the Diamondbacks secured their eighth consecutive series victory to start the season, the longest such streak in baseball since 2001 and the longest in the National League since 1977. If they can depart the nation’s capital on Sunday with another notch on their belt, they’ll trail only the 1907 Chicago Cubs for the most consecutive series wins to start a season. “It means we’re playing good baseball,” shortstop Nick Ahmed said. “It means we’re being consistent. We’re winning in a lot of different ways. We’re in every single game. The game we lost the other night, we had the winning run at the plate in the ninth. We’re doing a good job and playing well.”

[dbacks.com] Homers lift D-backs to 8th straight series win - "I was talking to Lamb last night through text messages and I was like, 'Dude, I just keep picturing a full lineup,'" Bradley said. "Nothing against the guys who are starting and playing now, but I think that's what everyone keeps saying. You look at the way we're winning, our starters, our bullpen, our defense. "And, yeah, collectively we may not be hitting as a whole but we're hitting when we need to. With the way we've thrown the ball and the way we've played defense, it's exciting. If we're doing this with the guys now and we're missing two power hitters, what is the rest of the season going to play out to be?"

[AP] Diamondbacks power past Phillies 8-2 - "We're just taking it one game at a time," said Dyson, who hit his second homer of the series in the first inning. "We're not looking too far ahead. We're worried about who we are facing right here and now and not looking behind us." Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said, "The Diamondbacks are a good club. There's a really good lineup over there. There's a very athletic defense on the infield and in the outfield. It's challenging middle of the lineup. If you don't have your best stuff, they're going to punish you and they did today."

Team news

[dbacks.com] Lovullo looking to recharge Goldy's batteries - D-backs manager Torey Lovullo says he is "hunting" for a day off for first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, which could come as soon as this weekend against the Nationals. "It's something I'm thinking about right now. You can always fall back on the idea that there's a scheduled [team] day off, which, they're nice, but it's not necessarily the same as watching the game and relaxing and knowing you're not going to play. It recharges your batteries. The thing I do with Paul and certain other guys is, I tie in a conversation and just get some feelings from them and see what they're thinking about."

[AZ Central] Matt Koch’s curveball improving - “It’s coming along really well,” Koch said. “It’s getting a lot more consistent.” Koch said there have been no major changes in the way he throws it or grips it. Rather, he says the improvement has been a matter of focusing on it. “Just repetitions,” he said. “I’ve been really working on it because I knew I needed that pitch to start working for me to be successful. It’s just been a point of emphasis to really get it going.” He said he’d still probably rate is as his third-best pitch, behind his fastball and cutter.

[The Athletic] Diamondbacks may be clicking, but their top two starters are still figuring it out - As befits their starkly contrasted skillsets, Greinke and Ray seem to be fighting completely opposite issues at the plate. Greinke’s control is still terrific — he’s walked just three batters in 30 innings — while Ray’s continues to be scattershot. Greinke’s slider has been a liability, while Ray’s is generating a career-best whiff rate as batters have hit just .185 against it. Greinke thinks his stuff could be sharper. Ray is more focused on getting into counts that allow him to use it. “Maybe the biggest thing is just falling behind guys, getting into hitters’ counts,” Ray said after his start Tuesday night. “I make good pitches in hitters’ counts and they’re a little more comfortable so they’re going to put a little bit better swing on it. It might not be barreled up, but it’s at least a little more comfortable.”

[FanGraphs] Jarrod Dyson Bunted With the Bases Loaded - The game was one of those miserable new Facebook broadcasts, so I can’t speak highly of the viewing experience, but as the feed rolled into a replay of the swing, one of the announcer’s voices cracked as he exclaimed, “He bunted last night! With the bases juiced!” He wasn’t wrong, and if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have known. On Thursday, Jarrod Dyson went deep. On Wednesday, he dropped down a bases-loaded bunt. Both of these events are unusual, but I’d like to now focus on the latter.

[Washington Times] Robbie Ray to start for Diamondbacks against his former Nationals organization - The Nationals took Ray as a 12th-round pick out of high school in Tennessee in 2010, and he began working his way up the minor league system. Playing in the minors at Harrisburg, his roommate was outfielder Steven Souza, Jr., now his teammate in Arizona. Talking about the Nationals’ reputation for developing pitchers, he said the organization deserves credit for its low-risk approach. “I think honestly they get you on a (throwing) schedule early,” he said. “They are really careful with their young arms. Coming out of high school I hadn’t thrown a lot of innings. They were really careful with me.”

And, elsewhere...

[MLB} Worst no-hitters in baseball history - 2. Edwin Jackson, Diamondbacks vs. Rays, June 25, 2010. It's a wonder that Jackson made it out of the first three innings, to be honest. He walked seven those first three innings, including the bases loaded with nobody out in the third. How did Jackson get out of that? He then coaxed a short fly ball that didn't score a run. And then Melvin Upton Jr. and Hank Blalock both grounded out on the first pitch of the at-bat. Jackson threw 70 pitches those first three innings.

Sachio Kinugasa, Japanese Baseball’s Iron Man, Is Dead at 71 - The New York Times - Sachio Kinugasa, the Japanese slugger who in 1987 broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played, only to see his testament to durability exceeded nine years later by Cal Ripken Jr., died on Monday. He was 71. In Japan, Kinugasa embodied consistency and effort by playing in game after game for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp over 17 years despite broken bones, slumps and age. Even after a pitch fractured his left shoulder blade in 1979 — about halfway through his streak — he continued to play. He reasoned that it would have been more painful for him to sit out.

[AP] Baseball document, thought worth millions, spurs court fight - One of the most valuable pieces of baseball memorabilia — a copy of the 1876 National League constitution that established business practices that remain the norm today — is at the center of a legal dispute between the family of a late baseball executive and an auction house they say is holding it hostage. The two sides were working together last May to sell the papers that had been among Fred Fleig’s belongings when he died in 1979, a year after he retired as the National League’s secretary and treasurer. But after ads and an Associated Press story appeared about the auction, Major League Baseball claimed it was the rightful owner and the sale was stopped.