Snake Pit Sim Season: 7/1 - Early Homer Carries the Day

The winning runs in this contest came in the first inning of this contest, despite another sub-optimal start from Jon Duplantier. Brandon Marsh started the game with a crisp single to center. He moved up to second on a one-out ground ball single by Ketel Marte. Christian Walker followed with a base-loading single just over the head of Whit Merrifield at second. Josh Rojas proved unable to bring the runner home from third, as he lined out to Nicky Lopez at short. Jake Lamb, filling the role of DH, picked up Rojas, grounding a ball back through the box, just to the right of second. This scored Marsh. Ketel Marte engaged in some aggressive running and also managed to score just ahead of the throw home by Brett Phillips. Stephen Vogt then hit a bomb to right center on an 0-1 pitch. The ball traveled an estimated 430 feet. Nick Ahmed continued to inflate Kansas City starter, Brady Singer’s pitch count by drawing a walk. Ildemaro Vargas singled to right, advancing Ahmed to second and ending Singer’s day with only ²⁄₃ of an inning pitched. That brought Brandon Marsh back up for the second time in the first inning. This time, reliever Jorge Lopez managed to induce a lazy fly off the bat of Marsh to end the inning.

From the Arizona side of things, Duplantier’s start was plagued by inefficiency. The right-hander simply could not seem to put away Kansas City hitters once he got ahead in the count. Somehow, despite allowing a walk and five hits in 3 ²⁄₃ innings, he managed to concede only one run. The rocky outing came to an end at 89 pitches after he spent eleven pitches walking Anthony Alford and allowing a single to Cam Gallagher to put runners on the corners. Junior Guerra was called on to slam the door on the fourth inning and managed to do so without incident.

It was a battle of bullpens the rest of the way, the sort of battle that overwhelmingly favors the Arizona Diamondbacks. In the sixth inning, the Diamondbacks were able to play small ball to put another two runs on the board. Brandon Marsh drew himself a two-out walk. He then swiped second base with a big enough jump that there was no attempt to throw him out. He again showed off his speed when he scored from second on a single to right by David Peralta. Peralta was then able to score when Ketel Marte followed with a triple to the wall in left center.

As for the Snakes, they got some length out of Guerra before turning the ball over to Andrew Chafin. Chafin allowed one run in the seventh. Will Smith came in to clean up after Chafin in the eighth and then pitched a flawless ninth to secure the win for Arizona.

Final Score: AZ 7 - KC 2

The player of the game was Stephen Vogt. The Arizona catcher made his one hit on the day count. The three-run home run put the game out of reach of Kansas City early, allowing the Arizona bullpen to coast to victory.

The Diamondbacks are off tomorrow as they travel home in order to host the Cincinnati Reds on Friday evening. Zac Gallen (9-4, 3.91) will get the start for Arizona while the Reds will look to use the opener approach, having R.J. Alaniz (1-2, 3.62) make the first pitches.