Diamondbacks 1, Brewers 7: A rough approximation to baseball

Record: 0-2. Five inning record: 0-2.

Yeah, this is not going to be a particularly detailed account. Why should I bother, when those playing the game chose to make it one which only loosely resembled baseball? Multiple innings were called when fewer than three outs had been recorded, and the contest came to a halt after 7¹⁄₂ innings, as previously arranged. Though, to be honest, this was probably close to a mercy rule as far as the D-backs were concerned.

Merrill Kelly’s start was, probably, the chief bright spot of the afternoon, despite allowing a walk and a home-run with two outs in the first inning. Five of the six outs Kelly recorded, came by the strikeout, including four batters in a row after the homer. He struck out the side on 11 pitches in the second, and going by Gameday, seemed to be generating some quite ugly swings. Kelly was sitting 91-92 mph, but got up as high as 93.7 mph, which is good to see, after his thoracic outlet surgery at the end of last season.

As yesterday though, the middle innings proved troublesome for the Diamondbacks. Riley Smith gave up four hits and three runs, two earned, over his two innings. He struck out two and walked none. Josh Green was also charged with two earned runs in two innings, on three hits and a walk with one strikeout, as Arizona fell 7-1 behind after five frames. Taylor Guilbeau worked a scoreless seventh, and Joe Mantiply stranded a lead-off double in the eighth. It might have been worse, but the top of both the fourth and fifth innings were stopped when only two outs had been formally recorded, as was the bottom of the third.

The latter was where Arizona got their sole tally, it came courtesy of Asdrubal Cabrera, who singled home Steven Vogt. The D-backs then loaded the bases, before the Brewers chose to pull the plug on the inning. For the second day in a row, the Diamondbacks were held to just four hits, with Josh Rojas getting a single and one of the three walks. Though in their defense this time, they only got seven licks at the lollipop, with the game being called in the middle of the eighth inning, by prior agreement between the managers. So, whatevs.

Tomorrow sees Arizona welcome San Diego, so maybe we’ll get a look at $340 million man, Fernando Tatis Jr? It’s a 1:10 pm start, and will be broadcast on 620 KTAR. Caleb Smith is the scheduled starter for the D-backs.