Diamondbacks 4, Nationals 3 - Homers Are Good

Matt Davidson has had a whirlwind of a career in his last 5 years. Starting in Chicago with the White Sox, he went to Texas with their AAA club, Cincinnati for a handful of games in the COIVD season, then last year with the Dodgers and now Arizona. All he’s done during that time is hit homers. 92 of them in fact. But now, after 254 career homers, he’s finally back at the place where his career started, looking to infuse a 3rd base position with some much needed firepower.

He took no time to make his presence known to the big league team. With two outs and on a chilly day, Matt blasted a drive deep to right. 1-0 Dbacks.

The same occurence happened in the 2nd, two outs and Jake McCarthy at the plate. He delivered. 2-0 Dbacks.

Zach Davies making his third appearance of the year, looking to perform better than his previous outing against the Mets where he allowed two homers and boy did he ever his first pass through the Nationals batting order.

Staked to an early lead, Davies struck out 4 batters while allowing a single walk to Victor Robles before inducing a ground ball out to Walker to end the 3rd. His command was excellent, using his sinker and change-up effectively to confuse Nationals batters.

That control escaped him in the 4th as Juan Soto led things off with a 5-pitch walk. Nelson Cruz followed and after a strike, he tattooed one deep to left, tying things up at 2.

After that mistake to Cruz however, Davies was excellent. A 1-out single made a little noise, but Zach struck out the next two batters and pitched a clean 5th inning to end his day after 87 pitches, and Juan Soto due up in the 6th. He left allowing 2 walks and 2 hits (homer and single), with 7 strike-outs. Sure, you’d want to see him go longer into games, but I think you’d take 2 runs allowed across 5 innings every time out.

The D-backs started the 5th with Geraldo Perdomo at the plate, and he dumped a ball down the line in left, which looked to be a surefire double. But an awkward deflection and a hard charging Yadiel Hernandez in left cause the rookie to take a cautious approach, settling for a single. No matter. Cooper Hummel is here to save the day. 4-2 D-backs.

A small lead meant the bullpen was summoned to protect that lead, and the lesser-known guys were solid. Joe Mantiply needed just 4 pitches to get through the heart of the Nationals order in the 6th, and induced a double play after a leadoff single to set up Noe Ramirez, who forced a grounder to end the inning.

It was a wild ride for both Ian Kennedy and Mark Melancon though. A leadoff walk and two-base error gave the Nats two runners in scoring position. A strikeout brought up Soto, but he was immediately intentionally walked to load the bases. A foul out from Cruz on the first pitch, gave the D-backs life and after going up 0-2 on Josh Bell, a very late swing on the next pitch smacked Jose Herrera’s glove, pushing a run across on catcher’s interference. 4-3. Thankfully, Keibert Ruiz popped out in foul territory to end the threat.

Mark Melancon wasn’t any better, although it appeared that way to start things off. Hernandez and Franco lined out and grounded out respectively for a quick two outs. But Alcides Escobar singled, Robles singled, and Hernandez was hit by a pitch to load the bases against the closer. In the end, Mark got the job done, getting Juan Soto to pop out behind the pitcher's mound to end the game.

What a ride and a nice win after losing both games in the doubleheader.

Never in doubt :)

Cooper Hummel (2 for 5, 1HR) led the WPA way with a +.197 and Mark Melancon (1 Save) calmly came out of the threat with a +.192.

The negative was both Ketel Marte and Carson Kelly with a -.046, as they combined to go 0 for 7.

The Mets return to Arizona for a 3-gamer starting tomorrow at 6:40pm. Stop by the field and make sure you’re checking AzSnakepit.com for more Arizona Diamondbacks news!