Arizona Diamondbacks 3, Texas Rangers 2: Texas in July

Where are the medals, podiums, and anthems?

By Keegan Thompson@k_man5000 Jul 28, 2021, 11:25pm EDT

In all honesty, I had to be pried away from the Olympics for this one. Given the choice of watching the world’s best athletes compete in a multitude of different sports or the Arizona Diamondbacks mull around in mediocrity... well... I’d say we’ve all had our fill of the latter this season. They took on the Texas Rangers who are almost just as bad this season. But that is not what you are here to read about, and I have a duty to fulfill. How would the D’backs perform without their lone All Star, Eduardo Escobar, who was traded just prior to the game? The only place they would find sympathy from the Texas Rangers today would be in the dictionary somewhere between $h!+ and syphilis as they also traded their All Star, Joey Gallo, a few moments later.

Jordan Lyles squared off against Madison Bumgarner on the mound. Both men hardly faced much difficulty through seven innings pitched for each of them. They allowed a combined nine base runners and four runs moving the game at a much appreciated quick pace. Arizona struck first in the second inning on a solo home run to right field from David Peralta. That was his first dinger since May 15th, a drought spanning 58 games. Lyles settled back down after that shot and would retire the next fourteen D’backs in a row.

Bumgarner’s bumpiest inning came in the bottom of the fourth. He had only had two baserunners in the innings prior, a walk in the first and a single in the third, but gave up a trio of hits to begin the fourth. Adolis Garcia began the frame with a double to left field. Nathaniel Lowe brought him in to score on a single tying the game at one. An Andy Ibanez double to right field put runners on the corners with no outs. Bumgarner was able to retire the next three batters in order although a sacrifice fly from Charlie Culberson with one out gave Texas the 2-1 lead.

Lyles struck out two in the fifth en route to retiring six D’backs in a row, and you could not be blamed for having a bad feeling about this one. However, Bumgarner matched him step for step also retiring six in a row to keep Arizona in the contest. They capitalized on that opportunity in the seventh inning started by a lead off double from Josh VanMeter. He stole second base with one out, and consecutive walks from Christian Walker and David Peralta loaded the bases. Andrew Young brought VanMeter home on a sacrifice fly to center field tying the game once again.

Daulton Varsho put Arizona in the lead for good with a solo home run to right field in the top of the eighth inning. Varsho was the first batter faced by Texas reliever Brett Martin. Daulton now has three home runs on this road trip and four in the past week. Great to see him start to come around.

Arizona would go on to hold that lead and win the game. Torey Lovullo switched things up in the back end of his bullpen going with Joakim Soria for the eighth and Tyler Clippard for his first save since 2018 in the ninth. Both men allowed a single base runner but also struck out two each in their respective innings bringing the game to a decisive end.