Diamondbacks Defeat Padres 4-3 for First Win of 2020

Starling Marte, Ketel Marte and David Peralta had late RBI’s in the 8th and 9th innings and the Diamondbacks offense finally broke through to deliver the first win of the year for Arizona. By doing so the team avoided being the only winless team in MLB. Archie Bradley was the winner, getting the last 5 outs of the game. But not without some drama.

Starter Zac Gallen struggled with control and high pitch counts in this game. Lasting just 4 innings, he walked 5 batters, while giving up two hits, including a solo homerun to Eric Hosmer in the 3rd inning. Somehow, that was the only run Gallen allowed as he kept wiggling off the hook. But with 88 pitches through 4 innings, including a slew of 3 ball and full count at bats, his day was short.

Early game highlights for the D-backs included two nice defensive plays from Jake Lamb and one from Kole Calhoun. Lamb made a nice catch on a high sailing throw from Nick Ahmed and managed to come down on the bag to nip the speedy Fernando Tatis Jr. In the 2nd inning Lamb made a diving stop on a smash off the bat of Trent Grisham and flipped to a covering Gallen to end that inning. In the 3rd inning Calhoun made a leaping catch as he crashed into the wall to rob Tommy Pham of extra bases

In stark contrast Garret Richards efficiently shut down the Diamondbacks offense through 5 innings of work allowing just 1 hit, walking three and striking out 6, needing just 73 pitches.

The fifth inning included some controversy. Kevin Cron was clipped on the elbow by an inside pitch. As he trotted off towards first base, the ump called him back, and called the ball a strike as he determined Cron failed to try to get out of the way, (or stuck his elbow out intentionally) A livid Torey Lovullo came out to argue, and soon afterwards got himself tossed from the game for the 5th ejection of his managerial career. While he denied he was trying to “Fire up the Troops” he admitted it seemed to have that effect. Listen to his post game comments linked below.

The Padres bullpen came on and held the Dbacks scoreless in the 6th and 7th, but the snakes had chances, stranding runners at 1st & 3rd in the 6th, and a runner on 2nd in the 7th.

Alex Young worked two scoreless innings, walking one. He was relieved by Kevin Ginkel in the 7th after a Ketel Marte error put Josh Naylor on. But Naylor was caught stealing. Ginkel White knuckled his way through the rest of the inning, allowing a single, a wild pitch and an intentional walk to Manny Machado, but got out of the inning unscathed.

The Diamondbacks finally broke through in the 8th. Ketel Marte drew a leadoff walk to reach base for the 3rd time of the day. David Peralta singled him to 3rd, and Starling Marte delivered a clutch game tying hit. Eduardo Escobar just missed a homerun with a long foul, and ended up hitting into a double play that scored David Peralta giving Arizona a 2-1 lead.

Unfortunately Andrew Chafin’s first batter walks issue reared it’s ugly head again. This time he actually walked the first two in the 8th, Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers. After inducing a flyout to center that advanced Hosmer to 3rd, Archie Bradley came in to relieve and go for the 5 out save. That lasted one batter. Pinch hitter Greg Garcia dunked a ball into centerfield scoring Hosmer to tie the game. Archie retired the next two batters , including a pretty curve to catch Tatis looking to end the inning, but the lead was blown.

Kirby Yates came out for the 9th for the Padres and had an uncharacteristically bad inning. After striking out Carson Kelly, he allowed a single to Ildemaro Vargas, and then waked Cron and Ahmed to load the bases. That setup Marte’s sac fly go ahead RBI. David Peralta then bounced a single up the middle scoring Tim Locastro who had come in to run for Cron, giving the DBacks a 4-2 lead.

Bradley came back out for the 9th and promptly allowed a leadoff single to Trent Grisham on a rolling hanging curveball. After striking out Machado, Tommy Pham drove a ball deep to the left center field gap. David Peralta made a fantastic over the head running catch however to help preserve the victory. But it was’t quite sealed yet. With two outs pinch hitter Jake Cronenworth doubled to right in his first major league at bat, scoring Grisham. Wil Myers then tapped back to Bradley, who bobbled the ball briefly just to tighten our sphincters one final time before flipping to Vargas and sealing the victory.

While they had to squeak through this win, this is exactly the type of game the D-backs MUST win with regularity if they hope to compete for a playoff spot and make some noise if they get there. So we can all breath a sigh of relief at least for 24 hours as they go for the series split tomorrow. It’s also a day game, with a 1:10 PM Arizona Time Start. Luke Weaver will get the ball for Arizona.

Torey’s post-game audio

WPA Leaders of the day:

Kete Marte +.267, David Peralta +.164, Starling Marte +.162, Archie Bradley +.079

Box Score

Present in the GDT were: AZDovs11, Augdogs, AzDbackfanInDc, ChuckJohnson56, DBacksEurope, DeadManG, Docnoeld, Driaz, EdTheRed99, GuruB, Hazzard21, Imstillhungry95, Jack Sommers, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, Muu, NikT77, Oscar Goldman, Preston Salisbury, Ridster09, Smurf1000, Snake_Bitten, Theolser4, Totally Not Blind Squirrel, but still I apologize, edbigghead, gzimmerm, kilnborn, onedotfive, ponus, redsedona, ryeandi and since_98. COTD goes to Smurf who got the most recs. It was true at the time he wrote it, but I think we are all happy the second half of the game turned around the way it did