Arizona Diamondbacks 2, Milwaukee Brewers 4: Please Make it Stop

After a bone crushing sweep by the New York Mets, the Diamondbacks opened the series with……a loss. Yep, the fire is still burning and the fireman aren’t showing up. With an ump who calls the most balls in the big leagues, the D-Backs were not able to take advantage. We also learned that Bob Brenly does not care for Game of Thrones.

This game looked to be an interesting one for the Diamondbacks as the first inning produced a (single) run. With the way this team has been playing, its hard not getting excited about that right? David Peralta led things off with a great single on a pitch on the outer half of the plate. Jake Lamb, Paul Goldschmidt and Ketel Marte were all able to get on base (walk, hit-by-pitch, walk) with Marte bringing in the first run of the game.

Now I don’t know about you, but I felt pretty good about our chances when the top half of the first was over. Boy was I wrong…

Lorenzo Cain was able to drop a single in front of Chris Owings. Zach Greinke looked really good for portions of this game as he was locating his changeup rather effectively which fooled Christian Yelich, who eventually struck out. Chris Owings made a great play on a Jesus Aguilar pop up that was doomed in the Bermuda Triangle. After two great outs, Travis Shaw unloaded a ball into the left-center-field area. The Mayor of DDC hit his 11^th of the year on a changeup that Greinke used on Yelich earlier. The changeup was used again and got Domingo Santana to end the first.

The second and third innings were rather quick as the D-Backs saw 7 pitches in the second. Greinke put more emphasis on the slider this inning which allowed him to make quick work of the brewers lineup.

There were some positive moments as Ketel Marte and Nick Ahmed pieced some balls that were ultimately caught to end the top of the fourth. The Brewers didn’t do much besides a bomb by Domingo Santana on an 89.4 mph middle-down. Needing some form of offense in the fifth the D-Backs were not able to hit Chase Anderson, who was electric. The bright spot of this game for the good guys was Jake Lamb. Who, in the sixth inning, hit his first home-run of the year. An oppo shot that proved Jake is starting to get his timing back.

Snake Stars:

I decided to not give out three stars because in all honesty, Jake Lamb seemed to be the only bright spot on this team. With two walks and a home run, Lamb could be the spark the team needs.

For tonights game we had over 488 commenters which included: xAZDovs11, Andrew Chrun, AzDbackfanInDc, AzRattler, DORRITO, Diamondhacks, GoldyHitAnotherOne, GuruB, Jackwriter, Jim McLennan, Michael McDermott, MikeMono, MrMrrbi, Renin, ShirtOffYourBack, Xerostomia, asteroid, coldblueAZ, edbigghead, gamepass, hotclaws, megnetic, onedotfive, shoewizard, smartplays, and suroeste.

The comment of the game came from MrMrrbi who thinks that cartoon characters might provide more thump than some of the D-Backs currently, “Hell Master Po from Kung Fu would make more contact than these guys.”

Fangraphs:

Jake Lamb was one of 4 D-Backs with a positive WPA with a 15.1%. Zach Greinke, Chris Owings, Jarrod Dyson, and Nick Ahmed had rather negative WPA’s with -15.3%, -11.9%, -15.0% and -12.7 respectively.

Lorenzo Cain, Chase Anderson, and Travis Shaw all had high WPA’s (11.9%, 15.5% and 15.2% while there weren't any Brewers with a WPA over -10%.

The Brewers matched Lamb’s homerun with one of their own, as Lorenzo Cain tanked a ball to deep left field. A 90mph fastball high and slightly outside did not fool the leadoff man for the Brew-Crew.

You know your offense is starving for runs when you jumped up and down when Jeff Mathis hits a ball that looks gone, only to be caught at the warning track.

The 7^th, 8^th and 9^th innings were rather uneventful as Fernando Salas and Andrew Chafin stopped the bleeding with 2 innings pitched 2 K’s and only 1 hit.

I know what youre thinking….when will this losing stop? Is it time to worry?

I say no. While it isn’t emphatic, it is confident. Jake Lamb is slowly coming around and there is too much power on this team to not create runs. While it was only one game, the b-team bullpen came in and delivered. It seems as though each games bring promise but also lack of trust in this team. With ever hole they plug, another one bursts through.