Arizona Diamondbacks 6, San Francisco Giants 9: Godley sends out an SOS

We’ve documented Zack Godley’s issues of late, which have seen him somehow manage to pick up W’s in his last four starts, despite a plethora of base-runners. Sadly, his Houdini-style escapology ran out of batteries this afternoon at Chase Field. Perhaps it was finally coming up against a decent set of hitters: the four starts in question had been against the Rockies (28th by wRC+), Mets (22nd), Pirates (16th) and Marlins (26th). The Giants had also done very well against Godley the last time they saw him, chasing him with seven earned runs after only 3.1 innings on June 4th. Godley was charged with the same amount here, though did at least record two more outs this afternoon. So... progress?

The problem was more or less the same. Horribly inconsistent ability to locate his pitches. He had some at-bats, and even entire innings, where Godley looked perfectly reasonable. His 16-pitch first, for example, included eleven strikes to five balls, and although four of those came to walk Brandon Belt, the inning finished on a lovely three-pitch strikeout of Brandon Crawford. However, anyone who has watched Godley this year, knows not to put their faith in the false prophets of good innings. It wasn’t long before he was once again toppling off the mound towards the first-base line, with pitches typically sailing into the right-hand batters’ box.

After the first, the San Francisco hitters seemed to realize this, and did a good job of waiting on the fastballs in the zone, slapping them around the diamond. The scored in each of the their next four trips to the plate, including crooked numbers in the third (a to-spot) and fifth (four runs). Godley helped them out by issuing five walks before eventually being lifted without recording an out in the fifth, with a final line that included nine hits and five K’s, further shrinking his K:BB ratio. He left two runners on base, and Silvino Bracho didn’t do his team-mate any favors, allowing both of those to score, as well as one on his own account, to put the Giants up 8-3.

The D-backs had actually still been in the game to that point, as Derek Holland had his own share of issues. Arizona had the lead-off man aboard in each of the first four innings, and it took Holland 31 pitches just to navigate the first. David Peralta just missed a three-run homer to end the inning, flying out to the fence in right after walks to Jarrod Dyson (in there at lead-off, with Jon Jay getting a mental health day) and Paul Goldschmidt. Arizona briefly took the lead in the second, as John Ryan Murphy walked and Jake Lamb doubled: both men scored on a Chris Owings sacrifice fly and Dyson single respectively, putting the home team 2-1 up. The Giants, however, responded immediately to reclaim their edge.

The Diamondbacks’ best chance thereafter to make a game out of this, was likely in the bottom of the fourth, with Holland on the ropes - he was at 83 pitches as he recorded the first out there, a good sacrifice bunt by Godley, which advanced two runners. Another RBI single by Dyson then pulled the D-backs to within one again, at 4-3, and a stolen-base put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with one out. Unfortunately, Nic Ahmed struck out, and after the inevitable intentional walk to Goldschmidt loaded the bases, Holland was lifted for a reliever - managing to beat Godley back to the locker-room, and recording one fewer out.

But Christian Walker could only squib the ball weakly down the first-base line, though it almost managed to sneak through into the outfield. The failure to capitalize, combined with the immediate melt-down of Godley in the top half of the fifth inning, seemed to suck the heart out of the Diamondbacks, who went down in order in their halves of the fifth and the sixth. Which did, at least do some good as far as the pace of play here was concerned. For the pitchers’ ineffectiveness meant it had been painfully slow, the game to the middle of the fifth taking about two and a quarter hours to play. At this point, I just wanted the Brazilian wax which was this contest to be ripped off.

The D-backs wouldn’t go entirely quietly, however. In the sixth, Ahmed led off with a triple and Goldschmidt followed with his 18th home-run of the year (above), a two-run shot which made the score 8-5 to the Giants. The B-bullpen got their work in. Bracho and Jorge De La Rosa each working two innings, before Fernando Salas allowed San Francisco their ninth and final run in the last inning. That wouldn’t quite be it for Arizona’s offense, as two-out hits by Walker, Peralta and Murphy of Mark Melancon brought in a run and made Lamb the tying run at the plate. Bruce Bochy wasn’t THAT dumb, however, and brought in a left-hander. The inevitable K was inevitable.

Can’t really blame this one on the offense, who got 13 hits. Goldschmidt reached base three times, walking twice in addition to his home-run, Walker, Ahmed, Murphy, Lamb and Dyson each got two hits, with the last-named also adding two to his team-leading SB total, giving him 16 for the season. This one was entirely on the pitching, who allowed a total of 16 hits and eight walks, with a disturbing K:BB ratio of 8:8. Better will be expected for the rest of the home-stand...

Present in the Gameday Thread were: AzDbackfanInDc, DORRITO, DeadManG, DesertWeagle, Gilbertsportsfan, GuruB, Jackwriter, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Joey Lewis, Johnneu, Michael McDermott, MikeMono, MrMrrbi, Rockkstarr12, ShirtOffYourBack, cookie_monster, gamepass, hotclaws, lildbackfan21x, onedotfive, shoewizard, smartplays, and suroeste. No Sedona Red comments, so no comment of the day. I did almost give it to AzDbackfan, for echoing my (independently conceived!) recap title. But... nah. :)

The Dodgers came back to beat the Rockies (finally), so Arizona’s lead in the National League West is down to 2¹⁄₂ games. The Cardinals come to town tomorrow, and the D-backs will be looking to do better, simply because they can’t really do worse. Robbie Ray will start, looking to build upon a very good first game back.