Diamondbacks 6, Giants 2: A Potentially Costly Sweep

After two ridiculous games of massive run production and acceptable pitching by the Diamondbacks, I think we were all looking forward to the three-peat and a series sweep. And sure enough, we started off in that vein, drawing first blood with one out in the top of the first, thanks to a Ketel Marte bomb over the right field wall:

Eduardo Escobar kept it going with a dunk single to right off Giants starter Shaun Anderson. He then advanced to second on an Anderson wild pitch, and a Buster Posey throwing error on the play allowed him to advance to third. Adam Jones then brought him home with a sacrifice fly to center. Another inning, another crooked number. 2-0 D-BACKS

Luke Weaver, meanwhile, had a rough start to his day, giving up a leadoff double, high off the right field wall, to Joe Panik. After striking out Giants CF Steven Duggar, Weaver gave up another double to Buster Posey, this one down the right field line, driving in Panik. Brandon Belt then walked on Weaver’s third full count in four batters. Thankfully, however, Luke induced Evan Longoria to fly out to right, then struck out Brandon Crawford to end the threat. 2-1 D-BACKS

The good guys answered back in the second, with Nick Ahmed hitting a leadoff single to left. After Blake Swihart flew out to right, Nick stole second and wound up on third base, thanks to another Anderson wild pitch. Good timing, that. Carson Kelly drew a walk, putting runners on the corners. Torey Lovullo put on the safety squeeze with Weaver at the plate, and Luke laid down a beautiful bunt to the third base side, freezing Ahmed but allowing Keely to advance to second. Anderson fielded the bunt, and thought he’d looked Ahmed back to third, but as soon as he threw to first, Ahmed took off for home and scored ahead of the tag. Jarrod Dyson then singled to center, allowing Kelly to score from second. Ketel Marte then singled on a liner to center, and a bunch of clown-show fielding antics by San Francisco allowed Dyson to score from second, Marte to advance to second, and then to advance to third when Longoria threw the ball away trying to catch him advancing. 5-1 D-BACKS

Weaver, meanwhile, seemed to have settled in on the mound after his 29-pitch first inning, retiring the side around a one-out hit by new Giants call-up Mike Yastrzemski, who TOOTBLANned himself into an out. He also pitched around a one-out single in the third, and seemed to be cruising. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks tacked on another in the top of the fourth thanks to a one-out Luke Weaver single to left, another Dyson single, a Marte groundout that allowed Weaver to advance to third, and then an Eduardo Escobar infield “hit” that involved Shaun Anderson trying to field a dribbler to the right side of the infield, falling down on it instead, and getting no outs and, for whatever reason, no error on the play. It was pretty pathetic, but gave us a bit more insurance. 6-1 D-BACKS

Weaver, meanwhile, gave up a couple more singles in the fourth and fifth, but kept the Giants from getting anything going. He was right around 80 pitches when he came out to start the sixth, which was great given how rough his first inning was. He gave up a leadoff single to Posey, and then stepped off the mound, flexing his throwing hand, and was promptly removed from the game. It honestly didn’t look that bad, but word came down an inning or two later that he was pulled with right forearm tightness, which as we all know often is a sign of very bad things. Anyway, here’s the last pitch Weaver threw, and his exit from the game. Take a look:

TJ McFarland came in to relieve, and allowed Brandon Belt to reach before getting settled and retiring the next three batters.

Meanwhile, the Weaver injury seemed like it kinda took the wind out of the Diamondbacks’ sails, as the offense pretty much stalled out after that. Meanwhile, a leadoff double from Yastrzemski started the seventh, and one out later, a Joe Panik single brought him home. McFarland struck out Duggar, then was pulled for Yoshihisa Hirano, who induced Posey to ground out to Ahmed. 6-2 D-BACKS

And that’s pretty much all she wrote. The bullpen was a bit shaky, bending but not breaking, as Yoan Lopez, Matt Andriese, and Greg Holland closed it out to complete the sweep, getting the save despite the 4-run lead due to the traffic on the bases when he came in.

Win Probability, courtesy of FanGraphs

Good Job: Ketel Marte, +17.5 WPA, Nick Ahmed, +11.0 WPA
Not So Good: Blake Swihart, -4.4 WPA, Carson Kelly, -3.1 WPA

Unsurprisingly, we had a well-attended afternoon Game Day thread, with everyone being excited about the possibility of a sweep. The enthusiasm waned a lot after Weaver left, as gloating gave way, not entirely unreasonably, to apocalyptic speculation. 345 total comments, with DC leading the way by far with 93 comments. All present and accounted for were: AzDbackfanInDc, DBacksEurope, Dano_in_Tucson, DeadManG, Diamondhacks, Gilbertsportsfan, GuruB, Jack Sommers, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Johnneu, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, NikT77, Samburt, Schilling2001, SenSurround, Smurf1000, Snake_Bitten, Sprankton, kilnborn, onedotfive, suroeste

No CotG, sadly, as nobody seemed to feel up to handing out recs, and nobody received more than two.

Join us again tomorrow for a return to Coors Field for our third day game in a row. Zack Greinke takes the mound for the first time since his recent injury scare, facing off against Rockies RHP Jon Gray. First pitch is 12:10pm Arizona time. Hope to see you, and, as always, thanks for reading!