Snake Pit Sim Season 5/10: No Mother’s Day Joy

The Diamondbacks suffered a series defeat at the hands of the Brewers in Milwaukee on Mother’s Day. This is another one of those games where there simply is not much to report. The game was a snappy one, clocking in at under three hours. For those who tune into the condensed version, the game will last about six minutes, and that’s if the broadcast makes sure to include a couple transition shots of the infield grass growing.

After Mike Leake’s last outing, there was some concern that the crafty veteran was starting to lose his ability to miss bats. After all, he started out the season strong, but then, he had a so-so outing followed by getting destroyed. Thus, when Lorenzo Cain started the Milwaukee first with a walk and then was promptly brought home by an Eric Sogard double, the level of Leake concern rose quickly. However, after spotting the Brewers a run, Leake buckled down and retired the next three batters, two with swinging strikeouts on some sort of “off-speed” pitch.

Unfortunately for Leake, limiting the damage was too little too late. Corbin Burnes was on his game for the Brewers. The right-hander threw eight innings of shutout baseball. Although he struck out only three Diamondbacks, he did not issue any walks. He also scattered a paltry seven hits across the eight innings, never more than one in a frame and never leading off an inning.

In the fourth inning, the Brewers added some insurance when they nickle-and-dimed Leake for two more runs. The runs came courtesy of a walk, a wild pitch, an intentional walk, and two singles to center with both Ben Gamel and Manny Piña just beating throws home from Ketel Marte. A final nail was put in the coffin when Justin Smoak chipped a solo home run just over the right field wall off of Héctor Rondón.

Final Score: AZ 0 - MIL 4

Player of the game honors went to Corbin Burnes for his dominance on the mound. The Diamondbacks never looked like they had any sort of shot to score and even though he did not rack up the strikeouts, the Snakes never made much in the way of loud contact.

Mike Leake’s performance was nothing special, but he deserved better than he got. He had the sort of outing that is more or less expected out of him at this point in his career; unspectacular but serviceable.

The team is now headed back home to take on the New York Mets. The first game will be tomorrow evening with a match-up between Noah Syndergaard and Robbie Ray.