Diamondbacks Hang On Again, Downing Marlins 5-4

Record: 12-13, Pace 78-84

Quick cap:

Homeruns by Christian Walker and Pavin Smith, and RBI doubles from Ketel Marte and Walker again, (3 RBI’s total) staked Humberto Castellanos to a 5 run lead against the Miami Marlins. Casty was excellent throwing shutout baseball for 5 2/3 innings.

For the second night in a row the D-backs bullpen, ( this time Luis Frias and Caleb Smith) turned a 5-0 game into a 5-4 nail biter by allowing a 4 run 7^th. It was a wild inning, see the frame-by-frame recap below. Fortunately, Kenyan Middleton and Joe Mantiply restored order each pitching a scoreless 1-2-3 inning to close out the victory.

T-1: D-backs go 3 up 3 down in the first.

B-1: One pitch one out for Jazz Chisholm by start things off with Humberto Castellanos on the mound. He finishes off the Fish in the First on just 9 more pitches.

T-2: Christian Walker ambushed a first pitch fastball down the middle and drilled it 435 feet to dead center, giving the D-backs a 1-0 lead. That was the 1^st homer Rogers has given up this year. It was Walker’s 6th, and he’s tied for 4th in the NL in that category.

B-2: Castellanos gets another 1-2-3 inning.

T-3: Pavin Smith hit a BIG BOY homerun 415 feet to right off the facing of the 2^nd deck. The Jupiter Florida native did so in front of numerous family and friends. 2-0 D-backs.

B-3: Castellanos perfect through three innings with three K’s and a pitch count at 38

T-4: Daulton Varsho dragged a bunt that Rogers couldn’t pick up for a base hit, but he advanced no further.

B-4: Jazz Chisholm lead off with a sharp single through the hole into right to break up the perfecto. Miguel Aguilar followed with a long at bat that ended up with a base hit to shallow center. Chisholm advanced to 3^rdeasily on the throw from Varsho. At this point Casty started nibbling, falling behind 3-0 to Jorge Soler, but managed to get him on a soft roller to 3^rd on a 3-2 pitch. Alcantara handled the play very nicely, gunning out Soler while Chisholm had to stay at 3^rd. Jesus Sanchez popped out to 3^rd. Then Garrett Cooper grounded down to Alcantara who threw low but Walker made an outstanding stretch and catch to retire the side scoreless. Castellanos was pumped, pounding his chest as he walked off the mound having thrown 23 tough pitches and his pitch count at 61. Still 2-0 Dbacks

T-5: The D-backs tallied 3 runs in this frame. It started when Alcantara singled, and Hummel hit into a 6-4 Force. Cooper stole second to get a RISP for Luplow, who walked and it was up to Ketel. This time the hit fell, a ground rule double to left scoring Hummel. That was all for Rogers, as Don Mattingly opted to bring in the right hander Cody Poteet to not to face Walker for the 3^rd. Christian responded with a 106 MPH smash down the 3^rd base line that glanced off the glove of Brian Anderson and down the line in left, scoring two runs. Initially ruled an error, it was changed to a double and two more RBI. The hit made me think of Torey’s discussion with media last homestand on third base and how hard guys hit the ball now. 5-0 good guys!

B-5: Castellanos pitched a shutdown inning, retiring the side in order on just 9 pitches to get his team back in the dugout quickly.

T-6: To no avail though, as bottom of the lineup went down in order.

B-6: Jacob Stallings singled on 9^th pitch of his at bat. Walker flashed some defense, fielding a ball from Jazz and making a good throw to Ahmed for the force. He then ranged over in foul territory behind the bag to make a nice snag of a popup from Aguilar. But a hard-hit ball by Soler bounced off the glove of Marte who was shifted behind the bag. That gave Miami 1^st and 2^nd with two out and that was all for Humberto. Torey went to the pen bringing in lefty Kyle Nelson to face the left-hand batter Sanchez, who struck out swinging, thus preserving Casty’s excellent line:

5.2 IP, 4 H, 4 K, 0 Runs, 0 Walks, 87 Pitches, 55 for strikes.

T-7: Hummel doubled off the top of the wall in right and Ketel followed a Luplow strikeout with a walk. But Walker’s drive to deep right was caught. Sadly the helpless Carson Kelly made his 4^th out of the game 6-3. Instead of driving a stake through the Marlins heart, did they give them hope of a comeback?

B-7: YUP!! That’s exactly what they did. Torey pulled Nelson and brought in Luis Frias. I didn’t like this move, and expressed that in game thread. Frias walked the leadoff batter, then a K, then hit a batter, then another K. That was followed by a wild pitch and another walk a to load them up for Jazz. Chisholm ripped a 2-2 pitch down the line that looked like it was initially called foul. Jazz was demonstrative insisting it was fair. After review the umpires said the call was fair but the first base umpire signaled incorrectly. They gave Jazz a ground rule double and the Marlins two runs. That made the score 5 to 2

Torey came out to argue and got HOT, tossing his hat and getting tossed from the game. Jeff Banister took over and replaced Frias with Caleb Smith. Aguilar drove a base hit into left scoring two more and a walk followed, but Smith managed to get out of it with no more runs scored. 5-4 Diamondbacks.

After the game Torey said he felt that explanation given, (that the umpire got turned around) was not satisfactory and that the umpire had a good view.

T-8: Three up three down for Dbacks.

B-8: Kenyan Middleton in to pitch, retires Miami 3 up 3 down with a couple of popups and a lineout.

T-9: Alcantara singled and Luplow drew his 3rd walk of the game to get the D-backs another runner in scoring position but they didn’t get him home. They were 2-11 w/RISP tonight. Despite scoring 5 runs, it should have been at least several more.

B-9: Joe Mantiply on for the save. Two more groundballs to Alcantara, (he recorded 8 outs this game with some fine defense) and a grounder to Ketel closed out the game.

Fangraphs Win Probability Box Score

WPA

Castellanos +.226, Mantiply +.174 and Middleton +.128 were great in this game.

Walker +.105 lead the offense with big hits.

Caleb Smith -.111 and Frias -.092 earned their poor scores.

COTD: Over 300 comments in the game thread tonight. I really miss the roll call tool, but I finally found Smurf’s comment which received and deserved the most recs. (I couldn’t agree more)

The D-backs will go for the series sweep tomorrow morning at 9:40 A.M. Arizona Time, Madison Bumgarner starts against Elieser Hernandez