Arizona Diamondbacks 1, San Francisco Giants 7: Faria Us From This Pain

Just like that my three game recap winning streak is snapped. It sure was a nice month of writing about anything other than abysmal losses. Four in a row was asking far too much. Zac Gallen and Kevin Gausman had a bit of a pitcher’s duel going through the first five innings. However, a miserable seventh inning would seal the defeat for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Zac Gallen eclipsed the 100 pitch mark for only the second time this season after hitting that number on the dot in his last outing. It probably would have been a good idea to stop him just at or right below that count tonight for that is when the San Francisco Giants were able to do most of their damage against him. The first three innings on the mound for him were relatively painless. He only allowed three baserunners through those frames, two walks and a single, but held the Giants scoreless. A beautiful diving stop by Nick Ahmed in the third inning with runners on the corners and two outs aided in that effort.

Opposing starter Kevin Gausman improved his already impressive ERA to 2.31 with six innings of one run ball. Gausman did not give up his first hit until the third inning, a single from Jake Hager. I disclosed in the GDT, and will do so again here, that I had no prior knowledge that Hager was even a member of the team. He was drafted out of high school in the first round ten years ago by the Tampa Bay Rays, but has since been waived by the New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, and Seattle Mariners in this season alone. But you all knew that already. That is what I learned tonight after saying, “who the heck is this guy?” Hager began the bottom of the third inning with a single, but Arizona failed to advance him past second base.

San Francisco scored first with two outs in the fourth inning on a solo home run to left field from second baseman Donovan Solano. Gallen rebounded with a clean fifth inning including two strikeouts, but ran out of gas in the sixth. Tommy La Stella began the sixth with a single. Alex Dickerson walked with one out to put runners on first and second. It appeared that Gallen would escape the jam by getting Brandon Crawford to fly out to left field for the second out. Gallen was at 104 pitches at that point, but Torey Lovullo looked to allow him to complete the sixth inning despite an arm injury that shelved him earlier in the season. Donovan Solano struck again, after a wild pitch advanced the runners, with a single to right field that scored La Stella and Dickerson. That marked the end of Gallen’s evening. Brett De Geus came in to put out the fire and did so by getting a groundout to end the inning.

Arizona tried to mount a comeback in the bottom of the sixth, but just like so many times this season they failed to capitalize with multiple runners on and no outs. David Peralta hit a pinch hit leadoff single to right field. Kole Calhoun followed with a single of his own to the opposite side bringing up the ever-dangerous Ketel Marte. Unfortunately, he hit a bouncer to second base where Calhoun ran into a forceout. That left Peralta and Marte on first and third. Asdrubal Cabrera brought in Arizona’s first run with a single to right center field, but that was it for Arizona. Drew Ellis popped out to shortstop, and Daulton Varsho struck out for the third time in the game to end the inning.

Tonight’s recap concludes in the seventh inning, not because of some weird innings restricted mandate from Rob Manfred, but because that is where the game got away from Arizona. Jake Faria was tabbed next out of the bullpen. He recorded outs against the first three Giants he faced in the seventh inning, but a wild pitch dropped third strike against LaMonte Wade Jr. with two outs allowed him to reach and keep the inning alive.

Four outs it is then... but not as quick as the first three came. La Stella walked putting two runners on ahead of Buster Posey. The last thing you want to do is make mistakes and put runners on in front of him. Posey made Faria pay with a double to left field that scored Wade Jr. Alex Dickerson, who had been flying out to right field all night long, hit a three run home run over the right field to give San Francisco a 7-to-1 advantage. With the game seemingly out of reach Faria remained in the game. Brandon Crawford followed with a single down the first base line. He stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch ahead of Solano, but the inning finally came to an end with a fly out to right field.

Arizona never stood a chance after that nor did they come close to getting back in the game. Don’t believe me? Just check the win probability chart below.

FanGraphs

Total comments: 99

Total commenters: 18

Commenter list: AzDbackfanInDc, Dano_in_Tucson, Diamondhacks, Dschumac, GuruB, Jack Sommers, Keegan Thompson, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, NikT77, Oldenschoole, Smurf-1000, Snake_Bitten, Ubersnake, VW Beetle, gzimmerm, kilnborn, therealramona

Although not the most rec’d comment of the GDT I’m going to make an executive decision and go with kilnborn’s Sedona red comment. Partly because I wanna goof off and troll him/her with CoTN despite not having the most recs following protests earlier in the season. Partly because it is really cool when you get to see the ISS zoom by in the night sky.