Diamondbacks 6, Rangers 4: Goldy Leads Offense, Corbin Quiets the Rangers

It didn’t take long for the Diamondbacks to get on the board in Arlington, and it came from a familiar source. With one out, Paul Goldschmidt worked a 2-0 count against Yovani Gallardo and deposited the third pitch into the seats for his 27th home run of the season. 1-0 Diamondbacks

They kept it going in the second inning as well. A single from Steven Souza Jr. and a double from Ketel Marte to move him to third started the inning, setting things up for Daniel Descalso. He grounded out to first to score Souza and move Marte to third. That was where he stayed, though, as Ahmed popped out to second, and Avila struck out to end the inning. 2-0

They went quietly in the third, with a one out Goldschmidt single getting stranded. However, in the fourth they managed to put up more than a single tally. With one out in the fourth, Marte walked and was quickly doubled home by Descalso. He then took third on the throw home. That brought Nick Ahmed to the plate. During the at bat, Gallardo uncorked a wild pitch, and Descalso scurried home. Wouldn’t have mattered, though, as Ahmed finished off his at bat by smacking a double, his 26th of the season. Alex Avila walked on four straight pitches, putting two on and only one out.

That was the end of the night for Gallardo. He was pulled in favor of Jeffery Spring, who immediately let out another wild pitch to move the runners to second and third, and then walked Jon Jay to load the bases with one out for Goldschmidt. You’d be forgiven if you expected something special here, but you’d be wrong. Goldy grounded into a double play and ended the inning. 4-0 Diamondbacks.

In the bottom halves of the innings, Patrick Corbin was doing what we’ve come to expect from this year’s second ace. In the first, he gave up a lead off single to Shin-soo Choo, but sat the next three down to end the inning before anything else happened. He then sat down the side in order in the second and third, racking up three strike outs over the first three innings.

The fourth wasn’t quiet as successful for him. He gave up a lead off double to Rougned Odor, who I’m pretty sure is actually a minor villain in a self-published YA fantasy novel who accidentally escaped into our world, Inkheart-style. Elvis Andrus grounded out to move him to third. Jurikson Profar (remember when everyone wanted the Diamondbacks to trade for him?) hit a sac fly to score Odor, putting the Rangers on the board. Corbin finished the inning off with another strike out before any more damage. 4-1 Diamondbacks.

Alex Avila extended Arizona’s lead in the sixth with a solo home run, which turned out to be a good thing. Corbin suffered from something of a death by a thousand cuts. A lead off single to Choo got things going. A strikeout of Odor later, Andrus hit a single of his own, then Profar hit a double, sending Andrus to third and scoring Choo. After that, Robinson Chirinos brought another home on a ground out, before Corbin struck out Joey Gallo to end the inning. 5-3 Arizona

Corbin added another scoreless inning in the bottom of the seventh to round out the rest of his night. He finished with a very respectable line of 7 IP, 3 R, 6 H, 0 BB, 7 K. Jon Jay added another run for the Dbacks in the eighth to extend Arizona’s lead to 6-3, and send the game to the ninth inning.

Brad Boxberger hadn’t pitched in eight days, and it showed when he came in for the save. A lead off triple to Profar and a sac fly to Chirinos cut the lead to two. A two out walk made it look like it might get even more interesting, but a strike out of Ronald Guzman ended the game. 6-4 Diamondbacks

★★★ Patrick Corbin, 21.4% WPA

★★ Ketel Marte 10.9% WPA, Daniel Descalso 10.4% WPA

Quiet night in the GDT. Only 226 comments, and to really give you an idea of how slow it was, Jim was in fifth place with only 9 comments. No red comments. Heck, only one comment with multiple recs, so no COTN. All present were:

AZDovs11, BobDolio, DORRITO, GuruB, Jack Sommers, Jackwriter, Jim McLennan, Johnneu, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, MrMrrbi, asteroid, coldblueAZ, david.munter, kilnborn, onedotfive, smartplays

The team goes to San Diego tomorrow for what should be a very winnable four game series. Just sayin, but now would be a really good time to pad that win total and hopefully extend that division lead...