Diamondbacks 4, Giants 3

Zack Greinke threw 7 scoreless innings against the Giants, improving his record to 9-3 and lowering his ERA to 2.90 in the process. He gave up 5 hits, didn’t walk a batter, and struck out 6. His K/BB ratio now stands at 6.6, which would be the best of his career. It’s hard to imagine a valid reason why Dave Roberts would not pick Zack for the All Star Team.

Zack also played his usually all around great game. In his last inning of work he jumped off the mound and raced over to first base to complete a 3-6-1 Double play to end his night on a high note.

The offense took a while to get going in this one. In the first inning an Adam Jones walk, and a Ketel Marte double gave them runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, but the middle of the order went down 1-2-3 and they failed to score.

The DBacks had at least one baserunner in each if the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings, but could not convert. Giants starter Drew Pomeranz, who came in with an ERA well over 6, pitched 5 scoreless innings. He was locating his fastball well and struck out 7.

Through the first 6 innings the DBacks were 0-7 with runners in scoring position and there were groans throughout the interwebs of “oh no, not again” , (ok, well at least the game thread and on twitter) And understandably so. I mentioned the following on twitter tonight:

The team came in tonight ranked 3rd in NL B.A. W/RISP & OPS W/RISP. So why does it FEEL much worse than that?

Because the better numbers have been run up in Low and Medium leverage situations. In High Leverage situations W/RISP MUCH worse. (Numbers before tonight)

So of course, right on cue:

The DBacks tacked on three more runs in the 8th that turned out to be vital. They loaded the bases with nobody out thanks to a Christian Walker base on balls and singles by Nick Ahmed and Alex Avila. (The latter being a rare infield hit for Alex). After Tim Locastro struck out Ildemaro Vargas delivered a base hit to score Walker and Ahmed, and Adam Jones drove in the last Diamondbacks run of the night with his 2nd hit of the game. Adam also drew two walks, getting on base 4 times out of the leadoff spot....stilling the concerns of one particular pundit who’d commented in the game day thread and on twitter about Adam’s low OBP out of the leadoff spot of the order.

Torey Lovullo made a decision to pull Greinke after 90 pitches and go to the bullpen to start the 8th. This decision came under criticism. Torey addressed this in his post game press conference in seconds 45-56 in this clip

It should also be noted that Zack almost never goes more than 105 pitches in a game now and probably would have needed 15 pitches or more to complete the 8th. Game with 105 or more pitches

2019: Once = 105 Pitches

2018: Three times = 111, 109, 108

2017: Eight Times =111, 107 five times, 106 twice

However this decision came very close to backfiring on Torey. Yoan Lopez walked two batters while recording just one out in the 8th. Andrew Chafin, who has been very good in high leverage situations this year struck out Brandon Belt and got Buster Posey to pop up to end that thread. But in the 9th he allowed a bloop single into center . Yoshi Hirano came in and committed a throwing error on a dribbler near the baseline, giving the Giants two runners on. Greg Holland relieved to try to lock down the save. But he gave up a big e run homer to right to Steven Voigt, and suddenly it was a one run game. Fear not, as Holland retired the next three to get the save.

This game improved the Diamondbacks record to 43-42, however they remain 2 games out of the Wild card with four teams in front of them

The DBacks will go for the series victory tomorrow at 1:05 P.M. It will be a battle of lefties as Robbie Ray faces off against Madison Bumgarner.

Fangraphs Box

WPA:

Positives: Zack Greinke. +.444, Adam Jones +.245, Eduardo Escobar +.198

Negatives: David Peralta -.205, Ketel Marte -.192

COTN goes to Asteroid who clearly has been enjoying a well deserved vacation to the Bay Area