Snake Bytes 8/18: Taylor Clocked

Arizona Diamondbacks 6, San Francisco Giants 11

[D’backs.com] D-backs can’t recover from rough second frame - The D-backs lost another game on the field Saturday night and one in the Wild Card standings as well. The Giants jumped on Taylor Clarke for five runs in the second inning, handing the D-backs an 11-6 loss at Chase Field. It was the fourth loss in a row for the D-backs, who now trail the Cubs by 4 1/2 games for the National League’s second Wild Card spot. Things get no easier for Arizona as it has to face San Francisco ace Madison Bumgarner in Sunday’s series finale. Things spiraled away from Clarke quickly in the second inning after the rookie right-hander had retired the Giants in order on 11 pitches in the first inning.

[Arizona Sports] Diamondbacks lose third straight home game to Giants - Things fell apart for Clarke and the D-backs suddenly in the second inning. After allowing a leadoff walk to Alex Dickerson, a throwing error by Flores and a single by Kevin Pillar to load up the bases, Brandon Belt needed just three pitches to give the Giants the lead with a grand slam. The HR marked his second big fly in consecutive nights at Chase Field. Clarke continued to struggle, as he gave up singles to Brandon Crawford, Mike Yastrzemski, and Stephen Vogt to load the bases again for a second time in the inning. An Evan Longoria sac fly scored Crawford to put the Giants up 5-2. Torey Lovullo had seen enough of Clarke at that point. The rookie went 1.2 innings, allowing five hits, five runs, with three being earned, and one walk. He also struck out one.

[SF Gate] Scout given CPR in stands during Giants-Diamondbacks game - A scout for the San Francisco Giants had a medical issue and was given CPR in the stands behind home plate at Chase Field during Saturday’s Giants-Diamondbacks game. The game was delayed briefly before the start of the third inning while emergency medical personnel attended to the man in a section of field-level seats. It wasn’t clear how the man ended up on the concrete beneath his seat, but the section was cleared quickly while security workers and EMTs rushed to the man’s side. The medical workers gave CPR to the man before strapping him to a stretcher and taking him out of the seating area. Fans applauded as the man was rushed up the steps to the concourse. Stadium staff said the man was a Giants scout and said he was taken to a hospital and was breathing on his own.

Diamondbacks News

[AZ Central] Strange sophomore season for Diamondbacks’ Yoshihisa Hirano halts with elbow injury - When a struggling player is placed on the injured list after a rough outing, there tends to be a sense among fans that the trip might be more related to a mental break than a physical ailment. On the matter of Yoshihisa Hirano, however, there are many reasons to believe that not to be the case. Hirano was placed on the 10-day injured list with right elbow inflammation, the team announced Saturday. Right-hander Joel Payamps was recalled from Triple-A Reno in his place. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said Hirano underwent an MRI on Saturday that came back clean, although Hirano will still need a cortisone injection before he can resume throwing.

Around the League

[FanGraphs] We’ve Reached Peak Mike Trout, Again - Last week, Mike Trout celebrated his 28th birthday, and here at FanGraphs, Craig Edwards baked a cake, so to speak, by using some yardsticks to measure Trout’s career to date without considering Wins Above Replacement. As Craig noted here, and as Ben Lindbergh said similarly at The Ringer, WAR and Trout have become rather inextricably linked during the span of his career. The metric’s ability to estimate value in the field and on the bases as well as at the plate has helped us appreciate the completeness of Trout’s game and accelerated our understanding of the breakneck pace at which he has carved out a spot among the very best in history. With roughly six weeks to go in his age-27 season, Trout already has the highest WAR of any player at that stage. By FanGraphs’ version, his 72.9 WAR is 4.1 ahead of Ty Cobb, while by Baseball-Reference’s version, his 72.1 WAR is 3.1 ahead. Trout has done this despite having reached 120 games played in just six seasons thus far, though by this time next week, he’ll have reached that modest plateau a seventh time.

[Yahoo Sports] Dodgers’ Julio Urias accepts 20-game suspension for domestic battery arrest - Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias accepted a 20-game suspension for his domestic violence arrest in May, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced Saturday. The suspension will include the five games he missed when he was placed on 7-day administrative leave immediately after the incident.

[Bring Me The News] Benches clear after Rangers’ Shawn Kelley, Twins’ Marwin Gonzalez exchange words - Shawn Kelley has been involved in two incidents during the first three games of a four-game series between the Twins and Rangers in Arlington, Texas. During Minnesota’s 12-7 win Saturday night, the 35-year-old right-hander got Marwin Gonzalez to ground out for the third out of the eighth inning. Gonzalez slammed his bat down while running to first base, which led to him and Kelley jawing at each other. The benches cleared and both players had to be held back from each other, but it was an otherwise tame situation. Kelley is the same pitcher who retaliated in Thursday’s game by intentionally hitting Max Kepler with a 93 mph fastball after Jake Cave swung at a 3-0 pitch and singled when the Twins were up big in the ninth inning.

[Cincinnati.com] Aristides Aquino rewrites the record books again with another home run in Cincinnati Reds’ win - A young fan asked Reds manager David Bell before Saturday’s game if he thought rookie sensation Aristides Aquino could continue to hit at his record home run pace. Bell laughed and turned the question back to the fan, “What do you think?” The child said yes, and Bell agreed, “That’s what I think too.” That was the correct answer. The magical start isn’t over yet. Aquino crushed a three-run homer in the fifth inning to lead the Reds to a 6-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Great American Ball Park in front of 37,698 fans. He became the first player since at least 1900 with 11 home runs in his first 17 career games, according to Elias Sports Bureau. “Thank God I’m in my best moment right now as a player,” Aquino said through translator Julio Morillo. ”I’m just going to enjoy this moment, keep doing what I’m doing out there and, hopefully, things just go well for me along the season.”