Snake Bytes 7/1: Mash Into July

Diamondbacks News:

D-Backs 4, Cardinals 7

From the Keegan: Riley Smith was on the bump against Kwang Hyun Kim in a showdown of then single victory pitchers. Arizona handed Kim a 9-to-2 defeat one month ago at Chase Field, but would fare much worse against him today in the exact same amount of innings.

Diamondbacks lose 4th straight, get swept by Cardinals

From the article: “Fundamentally, we just got to execute at a better level,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We do a lot right and again, when we do two or three things wrong, it costs us the ballgame and those stick out.”

Kole Calhoun suffers possible setback

Calhoun, playing for Triple-A Reno in the second game of his rehab assignment, was trying to get out of the way of a pitch that hit him when he might have reaggravated the injury. “We’re hoping for the best news possible,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “He knows his body as good as any athlete I’ve ever been around and he just felt like there was a little bit of discomfort. It was something the medical team wanted to get evaluated.”

From ed: Once again it sounds like the team is going to defer to the player ‘‘knowing their body’’ and see how it goes...That strategy has worked out pretty well for the team and the players (who are also Doctors, I guess) in determining the next steps or path for recovery. Seems like every time I hear that from the Manager, the player mentioned is usually out for a long - long time, or longer than need be had they not followed their gut, or in this case, their employees’ instinct on their body.

Baseball News:

Cardinals sign T.J. McERA

The Cardinals have signed left-hander T.J. McFarland to a split contract, The Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty reports (Twitter link). McFarland has spent the season pitching with the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate, but he was granted his release earlier today, as the southpaw “felt he had a better shot of being called up by the Cardinals than Washington,” Dougherty writes.

Given the Cards bullpen’s lackluster performance this year, McFarland is probably correct in that assumption, though he has a 5.25 ERA in 24 innings at Triple-A Rochester this season. However, some bad luck (and three home runs allowed) lies behind that inflated ERA, as McFarland also has a 25.74% strikeout rate, 4.95% walk rate, and 63.6% grounder rate.

Snek Byte:

It is that time of year in Arizona.