D-backs 6, Astros 4: Extra inning winning

Record: 48-100. Pace: 53-109. Change on 2004: +2.

Almost there folks. I can practically taste the off-season…..it smells like rebuilding and lockout.

Inning 1:

1-2-3 we go in the first, so nothing there. The Florida v Bama game was exciting though.

Castellanos is pitching for us tonight and records his 1st K again Altuve, but immediately thereafter records his first Walk against Bregman. Alvarez makes him pay for that mistake with the launching of a later tater to make this a 0-2 Astros lead. Ughhhhhh

Inning 2:

Varsho (one of the few bright things to come out of this bleak season) gets his 14th double of the year. McCullers Jr then walks Pavin Smith leaving up to the mostly underwhelming VanMeter to help even things up. Of course his at bat went as expected and we’re off to the bottom of the 2nd down by 2.

No further fireworks from the Astros in the 2nd, though Chas McCormick was inches away from another 2run blast. Thankfully Pavin’s glove was there.

Inning 3:

McCullers strikes out the side here in the top of the 3rd; feels like it’s gonna be that kinda game.

Yet another bloodless inning of work for Castellanos. Almost gives me hope we might have something here.
Heading to the 4th still down. 0-2.

Inning 4:

Peralta leads off the 4th with a double, but Cole falls victim to a vvvvveeeerrrrrryyy low strike.
Varsho’s easy groundout turns in to a Gurriel error allowing Peralta to reach home and make this a one run game. 1-2 Astros

Walker then ties it all up with a double to drive in Varsho. Brand new game now folks: 2-2

Make that 3-2 Dbacks off a Pavin Smith single. I like this kind of inning! Even VanMeter got a hit!

The Stros threaten in the bottom of the 4th, but end up stranding two leaving our precious lead intact.

Inning 5:

Leadoff double by Marte to start things off, not bad at all.

Sadly that’s all the action we see for us in our side of the 5th.

Castellanos seems to have found his stride after a rough start to the night, but despite getting the first to outs relatively easily in the 5th a Altuve double followed by Bregman single brings those feelings of dread back once more.

Alvarez must have been feeling merciful as he grounds out to close out the 5th. Still 3-2 Dbacks

Inning 6:

The Dbacks had a chance to tack on another run after VanMeter gets aboard with a 2out walk, but he gets little greedy trying to score from 1st off a McCarthy double. He tried…..

Castellanos night is over after opening up the 6th with back to back hits, now it’s Sittinger’s turn with Astros on 2nd and 3rd.

A sac fly ties things up at 3-3, but we exit in to the 7th without any further hurt.

Inning 7:

Nothing doing for us in the 7th, with Peralta being the lone runner, and we’re off to the bottom of the frame.

Widener is now in for Sittinger and promptly throws back to back hits, which leads to Rojas squandering what could have been a triple play. Feels like with all our errors and misplays that the team has mailed this season in as much as I have. 3-3 heading in to the 8th.

Inning 8:

More arguing over pitches and strikes from our batters, but that avails us not and we’re still tied heading in to the bottom of the 8th.

And Mantiply takes over on the mound in the 8th and puts the Astros down 1-2-3.

On to the 9th…..

Inning 9:

Hmmm. ASU game is about to start, but I must persevere and complete this game.

Rojas shakes off his bad batting he’s endured this game with a 2out double, but Marte ends that brief hope by grounding out to end things.

Whelp, the Astros get denied in the 9th and we have free baseball. Woot.

Inning 10:

Though I don’t like the new rule I do like the 1run lead we quickly acquire in the 10th.
Thanks to a Calhoun single and a Varsho homer we now own a 6-3 lead.

That lead turns to 6-4 as the Astros claw a run back in the bottom of the 10th, but that’s all they’ll get and we’re done. Yay Dbacks!!

Bells and whistles, by Jim

Present in the Gameday Thread were: AzDbackfanInDc, DeadManG, Diamondhacks, GuruB, Jack Sommers, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, NikT77, Oldenschoole, Schilling2001, Snake_Bitten, azdbacksfan1, gzimmerm, kilnborn, makattack71 and since_98. Just the one Sedona Red comment. from GuruB:

Since this one does require clicking through, here’s the BBREF Link.

Rubber game of the series tomorrow morning, and should be an interesting one. It will be a battle of the Zac(k)s, with our Zac Gallen taken on their Zack (but our former Zack) Greinke. First pitch is at 11:10 am, Arizona time.