Diamondbacks 9, Pirates 3

This one started off a bit rough, with a Christian Walker error on the first play of the game. Starter Robbie Ray wound up giving up two runs in the frame, and using 26 pitches to get through it. Not an auspicious beginning.

It turned out okay, though, as the Diamondbacks offense flared to life and Pirates starter Nick Kingham was, well, not good. Kingham threw 36 pitches, and gave back the two runs we’d spotted the Pirates thanks to base hits by Jerrod Dyson, David Peralta, Adam Jones, and Ketel Marte.

Ray settled down after that, in terms of not giving up any more runs (if not in terms of pitch count), going five innings ultimately with 6 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts—including his 800th in his young-ish career—and one earned run allowed. The D-Backs, meanwhile, kept piling on, adding another 3 runs in the second, and then single runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings.

Our bullpen also behaved itself, broadly speaking, with Matt Andriese and Jimmy Sherfy (hello, Reno commuter!) putting up zeroes in the sixth, seventh, and eighth. Archie Bradley, perhaps settling into his new role as Matt Koch, took the mound for the ninth, and gave up three consecutive one-out hits to the heart of the Pirates’ order. It only resulted in one run, though, thankfully, and given that our offense had continued adding on a run here and a run there, we had banked 9 runs, so we had enough of a cushion to survive another Archie implosion.

Lots of offense in this one, which is fun, but the full recap will take a little while to put together properly. It will be up soon!