Snake Bytes 7/28: Does This Stadium Make Us Look Barbecue?

Arizona Diamondbacks 2, San Diego Padres 6

[D’backs.com] 3 takeaways from D-backs’ series loss to SD - Things were moving along well for the D-backs through the first three innings Monday afternoon at Petco Park. The offense had taken advantage of a pair of Padres miscues to take a one-run lead, and starter Luke Weaver was keeping San Diego’s bats in check. That all changed quickly in the fourth, as the first six Padres reached base and blitzed Weaver for five runs on their way to a 6-2 win. San Diego took three of four from Arizona in the season-opening series.

[Arizona Sports] D-backs’ control issues continue with Luke Weaver in loss to Padres - The Arizona Diamondbacks’ starters can’t seem to get a grip in San Diego. Through four games, Madison Bumgarner, Robbie Ray, Zac Gallen and now Luke Weaver have been unable to command their pitches or the strike zone. Through 16.2 innings, D-backs starting pitchers have walked 13 batters, which is also the amount of earned runs the quartet has allowed.

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks fall flat, drop another vs. Padres in series finale - The team’s flat start raised questions about the unusual build-up to the season, something shortstop Nick Ahmed believes might have been a factor. The Diamondbacks played more than a week’s worth of intrasquad games and only two exhibitions before the start of the season. “The intrasquads were good, but it’s definitely not the same as playing competition for real,” Ahmed said. “We’ve got four games under our belts right now. That period of getting ready is far behind us now. It might be a factor, but I definitely feel like the intensity has to get turned up.”

Around the League

[The Athletic] ‘Probably shouldn’t have played yesterday’: MLB worries after Marlins outbreak - It was Monday morning, just past 9 a.m., when the first reports emerged about a big problem in the Marlins clubhouse. There had been signs of trouble the day before, prior to a game in Philadelphia. But now there were more positive tests and little doubt. Four days into its attempt to stage a season despite a pandemic, baseball was facing its first team-wide outbreak of COVID-19... In the hours before Major League Baseball postponed Monday night’s game at Citizens Bank Park between the Phillies and the Yankees, Yankees players expressed hesitance about using the same space the Marlins had just vacated. Another player, who was in uniform for Sunday’s Phillies-Marlins game, arrived at a sobering conclusion: “Probably shouldn’t have played yesterday.”

[Yahoo Sports] Dr. Anthony Fauci: Marlins’ outbreak puts MLB season in danger, but it doesn’t need to stop - Fauci was asked point blank by “Good Morning America” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos whether the baseball season can continue in light of the Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak, and he took an optimistic approach. “I don’t know,” Fauci said. “I hope so, because I know Major League Baseball — the players, the owners, the managers — have put a lot of effort into getting together and putting protocols that we feel would work.”

[ESPN] Playing MLB games during coronavirus pandemic leaves us with an uneasy feeling -

“My level of concern went from about an eight to a 12,” emotional Nationals manager Dave Martinez said before his team’s game. “This thing really hits home now that you’ve seen half a team get infected and go from one city to another. I have friends on that Miami team, and it really stinks. I am not going to lie or sugarcoat anything. It’s not good for them. It’s not good for anybody. I have guys in our clubhouse that are really concerned as well, and for me, this is my family.”

[MLB.com] Commissioner addresses positive tests -

“I think that a team losing a number of players that rendered it completely non-competitive would be an issue that we would have to address and have to think about making a change. Whether that was shutting down a part of the season, the whole season, that depends on the circumstances. Same thing with respect to league-wide; you get to a certain point league-wide where it does become a health threat and we certainly would shut down at that point.” - Rob Manfred