Diamondbacks 4, Cardinals 2: Grienke’s pitching and Goldschmidt’s home run power win

Arizona struck early in the bottom of the first. With two outs, Jake Lamb hit a single to get things going. AJ Pollock walked, bringing David Peralta to the plate. He hit a single, driving in Lamb to get the scoring started. However, Ketel Marte grounded out to second to end the inning, before anyone else could score. 1-0 Diamondbacks

The Cardinals came right back in the second. Yadier Molina and Jedd Gyroko singled and doubled, respectively, to start the inning. Yario Munoz tied the game up with a single of his own, bringing home Molina and sending Gyroko to third. Kolton Wong hit a sac fly, bringing in the runner from third and giving St. Louis the lead. With one out, it was looking like a potentially big inning, but the Cards' starter Jack Flahertly lined out to left field, and the Dbacks were able to double Munoz off at first. That ended the threat before the Cards could extend the lead further. 2-1 St. Louis

It took the Diamondbacks a couple innings before they were able to respond to that. They were sat down in order in the second, third, and fourth innings, for a total of 11 in a row sat down by Flahertly, before Nick Ahmed lead off the fifth with a double. Immediately after that, Mathis and Grienke struck out and ground out respectively for the first two outs of the inning. Jon Jay did what he does and got hit by a pitch, putting runners on the corners. Didn’t really matter where the runners were, as Goldschmidt deposited the 2-2 pitch of his at bat just over the right field wall for a three run shot. DC will be disappointed to know that while Goldschmidt did hit a home run like he requested, it did not land in my margarita. 4-2 Dbacks.

Meanwhile, Grienke had completely recovered from the second inning and was dealing. He sat the side down in order in the third, and he stranded a two out walk in the fourth. He sat down the side in order again in the fifth inning, and again stranded a runner in the sixth.

The seventh wasn’t as smooth for him. He got the first two outs easily enough, but a regular single to Kolton Wong and a bunt single from pinch hitter Greg Garcia was the end of his night. Jorge De La Rosa was brought on to replace him, but walked the only batter he saw to load the bases. Yoshi Hirano was brought on, like he probably should have been to begin with, and finished off the inning with one pitch, keeping the Cards back by two. 4-2 Dbacks

Arizona put together one more threat in the eighth inning that was ended in very frustrating fashion. Paul Goldschmidt hit a one out single. That brought up Lamb who knocked a hard hit ball to the LF wall. An idiotic fan reached over the wall to try and grabbed the ball. It clanked off his glove, and was originally called a home run. Umpire review overturned it and it became a ground rule double, meaning Goldschmidt had to stay at third, instead of scoring, as he would have done if the play continued. The Cardinals walked Pollock, and Peralta grounded into a double play, ending the inning.

Thankfully, Boxberger was able to get the save in the ninth, and it was all irrelevant, but consider this a not so friendly reminder, DO NOT touch any ball that hasn’t been ruled dead yet, regardless of what team hit it. You aren’t part of the game, so don’t ruin it for the rest of us.

★★★ Paul Goldschmidt, 30.2% WPA

★★ Zach Grienke, 15. 4% WPA

★ Yoshi Hirano, 12.4% WPA

A quiet GDT, with only 416 comments. DC lead the way, with 71, followed by Guru with 52. All present were:

AzDbackfanInDc, BobDolio, DORRITO, DesertWeagle, FishOnEmm, Gilbertsportsfan, GuruB, Imstillhungry95, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Joey Lewis, Johnneu, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, MikeMono, PrettyBoyFloyd13, asteroid, edbigghead, gamepass, hotclaws, kilnborn, lildbackfan21x, onedotfive, ponus, shoewizard, smartplays, suroeste

Rubber game of the series tomorrow. Unlike most Wednesdays, it’s a night game, so there can be a 4th of July fireworks show after the game. Feel free to join us poolside or from the BBQ as you celebrate!