Snake Pit Sim Season: 4/8

***There is a math error in the boxscore. Junior Guerra actually pitched two full inning. He came in with two outs in the fourth and retired the side. He then pitched a full inning and then picked up a double play after surrendering a run. That’s six out, yet only being counted as five for some odd reason.

Despite being shut in, I have a rather full slate of tasks on my agenda for today. Thankfully that fact gives me cover for keeping this recap a short one because, let’s be honest, this would not be a fun or pretty game to recap.

What is key to this game is that walks are once again killing the Diamondbacks. Today, it was Zac Gallen’s turn to have difficulty finding the strike zone with any sort of regularity. In the last five games, Arizona starters have surrendered 21 walks. This number is as “low” as it is thanks to a single-walk performance by Bumgarner. Outside of that game, Weaver surrendered four, Leake gave up five, and Ray, not to be outdone, gave up six. Things were just as ugly today as Gallen gave up five free passes in only three and two-thirds innings. Coincidentally, he also gave up five earned runs before being pulled from the game, not having completed four full frames.

By contrast, Johnny Cueto was rather efficient. He managed to not walk anyone while striking out five. The Giants’ hurler provided a full seven innings worth of work on 107 pitches.

It was not all bad news for Arizona though. Carson Kelly had himself a fine day, despite the losing effort. Kelly hit a pair of home runs off Cueto, making him responsible for all the Diamondbacks that actually managed to cross home plate. In the second inning, Kelly pounded the first pitch he saw from Cueto on a low liner to left that just cleared the wall. Then, with two outs in the fourth inning and Kole Calhoun on first, Kelly took an outside fastball to the opposite field, clearing the high wall in right for a 400-foot blast.

As seems to be the pattern, when Arizona starters struggle, the bullpen does well, or vice-versa. Today, despite giving up a single run, the Arizona bullpen turned in a very solid performance. Unfortunately, the damage was already done over the course of Gallen’s short 88-pitch outing.

The final score in this ugly game once again favored the Giants.

AZ 3 - SF 6

Tomorrow, the two teams face off for the final game of the four-game series. Slated to start the game for Arizona is Mike Leake. The Giants are expected to counter with Jeff Samardzija.