Snake Bytes 5/14: Tacos? Never Heard of Her.

Arizona Diamondbacks 9, Pittsburgh Pirates 3

[D’backs.com] D-backs get key hits to take series opener - Free tacos. We haven’t tasted them in over a week. Well, longer if you’re not a fan of Taco Bell like me, but that’s a different conversation. The Pittsburgh Pirates pounced on a quick 2-0 over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first inning, but Arizona responded by scoring in each of the first 5 innings. Arizona went 6-for-16 with runners in scoring position. Eduardo Escobar missed the cycle by a double.

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks ‘get back to basics’ offensively in timely clobbering of Pirates - Five D’backs in the lineup had multiple hits, and 7 of the team’s 13 hits went for extra bases. The D’backs changed their pregame hitting workout with hitting coach Darnell Coles because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.

“Whether that was the reason we scored runs or not, I highly doubt it,” Diamondbacks catcher Alex Avila said. “I think that’s more of a fact that we’re a pretty good team so eventually you’re going to be able to drive in those runs as long as we kept creating opportunities for ourselves.”

[Arizona Sports] D-backs offense wakes from slumber, drops 9 runs on Pirates in win - This game was a slow paced doozy with a plethora of early inning hits. Robbie Ray and Pirates starter Nick Kingham both had their pitch counts approaching 50 by the second inning which took around an hour to get to. Recaps from the usual sources weren’t even available by the time I went to bed last night. Woe is me.

Arizona Diamondbacks News

[Arizona Sports] Ray becomes second-fastest lefty to reach 800 strikeouts in MLB history - *By number of games pitched. Ray becomes the third fastest to reach the 800 strikeout mark by number of innings pitched behind Aroldis Chapman and Billy Wagner.

[D’backs.com] Why D-backs didn’t tell Godley he’d be opener - Because if he knew that, he’d probably fall over in disbelief. I’ll see myself out now.

“It was not a communication breakdown,” Lovullo said. “It’s something that I consciously chose to do. I know I pride myself on communication but in this case, I felt like it was going to be the best option. I didn’t want him to worry about anything other than throwing the baseball as good as he possibly could for as long as he could. I wasn’t lying to him. I wasn’t deceiving him. I’ll never do that to a player. But I just wanted the best possible outcome.”

Around the League

[ESPN] Power Rankings: Preseason favorites rebound to contend with early surprises - Not the greatest week for the snakes, but a few hits with runners in scoring position could have produced drastically different results. ESPN drops Arizona to #11. CBS Sports short circuited plummeting the D’backs 7 spots to #15. No movement over at MLB.com. Bleacher Report also has them at #15. Finally, the Diamondbacks round at the top 10 over at the Athletic.

[ESPN] Boston’s Pedroia has setback during rehab stint - I’ve got a feeling that Dustin Pedroia’s career is going to end remarkably similar to David Wright’s. The former ASU Sun Devil and MVP has played a total of 9 MLB games over the last two seasons.

[Yahoo Sports] Justin Verlander has an interesting theory on why his Tigers teams never won a World Series - Verlander comments on what a few of us have discussed here in the past towards a season’s conclusion. Once the playoffs begin, the records of each team resets to 0-0, and the hottest team throughout the playoffs stands the best chance of winning it all. I realize that is very lazy commentary and not much of a take at all. However, both of Verlander’s Tigers teams which made the World Series swept their opponents in the ALCS, and had to sit around and wait for the NLCS to conclude after 7 drama filled games. Is momentum a factor in the playoffs?

[CBS Sports] Padres make Twitter handle ‘Madres’ for Mother’s Day, temporarily lose ‘Padres’ in the process - I’m still waiting for @POTUS to become available, and then I’ll be the leader of the free world. At least on Twitter.