Diamondbacks 0, Brewers 2: Beercap in the Pines

Record: 20-41. Pace: 53-109. Change on 2004: -5

Welcome back folks. Usually I look forward to these light hearted articles, but the Dbacks have given me very little joy this past month. We got some bright spots on the team like P Smith and C Kelly, but overwhelmingly the portends of this team have been ominous.

Beer 1: First Light Lager by Lumberyard Brewing Co

Morning games call for a morning beer, and nothing hydrates like a good light lager.
No excitement to report in the 1st inning with both Caleb Smith and his counterpart Burnes putting up zeros and no hits did either.

Great catch by Peralta saving what could have easily been a lead off triple......but he might have messed up his wrist. He stays in the game, but that’s certainly something to watch.
Another solid inning on the mound from Corbin, so we’re now going in to the 3rd still in a 0-0 game.

Beer 2: S.E.T.I #3 Hazy IPA by Dark Sky

Huh, weird. Both pitchers are throwing a no no through 3. Did not see that coming at all.

Decided on a change of scenery to watch the game and meet a buddy of mine, and Dark SKU makes the finest ales in all of northern AZ.

Marte finally breaks the hitting stalemate with a single in the 4th, and two outs later Walker’s own single gives us our first chance of the game to get a lead going.

Pavin Smith, though beyond great thus far in his young career, was unable to drive em in. Sigh......

Caleb Smith shows that he’s also human here in the 4th; giving up his first hit as well.
That followed by a walk to Yelich, followed by Caleb plunking Manny Pina juices up the bases for the Brewers with 2outs.
Blessedly Tyrone Taylor pops up to end the 4th and the Brewers threat is over..... for now.

Beer 3: Doom Tree Foeder Fermented IPA by Dark Sky

I asked what Foeder Fermented means and apparently it means the beer is fermented in a wood barrel. Very good and very old school cool.

Still no offense for us in the 5th. Kinda not surprised considering how historically awful we’ve been on the road, but I was really expecting that to break sooner than later. Doesn’t quite seem to be the case yet...

Whelp, Caleb tried, but the Brewers finally tagged him in the 5th for a solo homer. 0-1 Brewers with one out in the bottom of the 5th.
The wheels on the Caleb train appear to fall off right after that as he issues a walk and allows a double. Now with Brewers on 2nd and 3rd it looks like Caleb’s day is through....except Torey seems to think it’s not. I can’t fault him on that choice too much considering how shoddy our bullpen is.
Thankfully Torey’s faith in Caleb proves to be well placed and he somehow gets out of the 5th without any further blood letting. Yay. 0-1 going in to the 6th.

Beer 4: Best Friend Munich Style Helles by Dark Sky

So here we are, 6innings in and not a run to show for it, honestly if the weather up here in Flag we’re not perfect and the beer not superlative I might be in an evil mood. Would sure like a win, but I’ll settle for a pulse from the Dbacks. Any sign of a fight.

Riley Smith allows the second solo shot of the game, and the Brewers lead is now a comfortable 0-2.

It was at this point that I got the text from Turambar, requesting an early exit after seven innings. Considering that’s about six innings longer than our hitters made their way out the door, it seemed churlish to refuse. Still, since I needed to be out the door at 3 pm, I appreciated Arizona’s commitment to getting this out of the way as quickly as possible. They clearly were not very interested in extending this, for example by “scoring runs.” Indeed, through seven they had 13 strikeouts, no walks and just one at-bat with a runner in scoring position. Stephen Vogt did address at least the last of those, with a lead-off double in the eighth. But the D-backs did what the D-backs do, and left him there.

The final insult was the Brewers sending member of the 2018 Diamondbacks, Brad Boxberger, to the mound in the ninth for the save. Carson Kelly did get a lead-off single, bringing the tying run to the plate with no outs. But Christian Walker became the 16th Diamondback to take his bat back to the dugout with him, Pavin Smith grounded out and Peralta followed suit. It was the seventh time this year Arizona have been shut out. That matches their total for the entirety of the last 162-game season, in 2019. The final tally of 16 strikeouts was tied for the most ever by the team in a game where they had no walks. It had only been done once before in a regulation game, against Jacob DeGrom and the Mets in May 2018.

Marte had two of Arizona’s six hits, as the team lost their seventeenth consecutive road contest. There has not been a longer streak in the majors for over 35 years, since the 1985 Pirates lost nineteen in a row. We could well be there by the time this road-trip ends on Wednesday...

Bells and whistles

There was a Gameday Thread, and the following seventeen people get a virtual participation trophy for bothering to show up. Because the offense sure as hell didn’t. AzDbackfanInDc, DBacksEurope, DeadManG, GuruB, Jack Sommers, James Attwood, Jim McLennan, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, NikT77, Oldenschoole, Smurf-1000, Snake_Bitten, The-Icon, Tom Babbage, gzimmerm and kilnborn. Comment of the thread to Jack, for an appropriate summary, not just of the game, but more or less the entire season.

It’s particularly appropriate, since I’ll shortly be heading out the door to go down the rabbit hole... [see the preview if you are curious...er and curiouser] The Diamondbacks have an off-day tomorrow, before heading to Oakland for a quick two-game set. Insert unfunny comment about how they can’t lose tomorrow. We’ll be here, /gestures vaguely in direction of website.