Diamondbacks 2, Giants 6 - Suns out, Runs out

In what has been the worst performance stretch of the year for the young D-backs, a new series against a new face hopes to change their recent slide. But just like the Marlins before them, the Giants are also coming off a slide of their own, losing three of their last four. Unfortunately, the team had to face Alex Cobb, who had been excellent in the early season with a 2.01 ERA but only a 2-1 record. Facing him was Tommy Henry, fighting to keep a place on the team in a wide-open rotation begging for someone to take control of a spot. He’s gradually improved over his 3 starts, culminating in a very nice 6-inning, 2 ER appearance against Washington his last time out.

Cobb looked the part of an Ace all game long, inducing ground ball after ground ball to escape jams and erase the few runners he allowed to reach base. In the 2nd, the D-backs had something cooking with two singles putting runners on the corners, but Cobb got a double play ball from Moreno to escape the threat. Same in the 5th inning, a 1-out single from Fletcher was negated by another Moreno grounder.

For their credit the D-backs continued to battle, getting a runner in scoring position with 2 outs in the 6th and 7th innings, but again, it remained too difficult to string hits together to break through. His night ended in the 8th inning, after throwing 104 pitches and not allowing a run.

Tommy Henry had one small speed bump in his outing, but with the way Cobb was going it was all the Giants really needed. The 2nd inning started innocuously enough, with a ground ball and walk, but Casey Schmitt walked up to the play and delivered a massive 443 foot home run on a hanging breaking ball to put the Giants up 2-0.

Henry settled down after that, working around light damage in each inning to get through 6.2 innings himself. He wasn’t dominating, striking out only two batters and walking two more but generated just enough weak contact to allow his defense to do its job.

The Giants piled on in the 9th, scoring 4 runs against Jose Ruiz with Schmitt breaking it open with a double down the line as they connected on 4 hits and a walk in the inning.

The D-backs finally scored in the 9th inning, as Fletcher singled in two runners to score Pavin Smith and Walker to give us our final score of 6-2.

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It’s not the game you wanted to see coming off a series loss against the Marlins but the team will have an opportunity to bounce back tomorrow. Ryne Nelson will make the start and first pitch is at the normal 6:40pm start time.