Recaps

[MLB] Corbin Carroll shines in D-backs sweep of Tigers - In any other park, Corbin Carroll might have hit for the cycle. At Comerica Park, he didn’t -- but the D-backs will certainly take it. Putting together a three-hit game in a 7-5 win over Detroit on Sunday afternoon, helping to lift Arizona to a fifth consecutive win and a series sweep, Carroll tripled in the first, doubled in the eighth, and knocked an RBI single during a four-run ninth to help shepherd along a last-ditch comeback rally. In the third, meanwhile, he crushed a 414-foot flyout to straightaway center. It came off his bat at 101 mph, and according to Statcast would have been a home run in 19 out of 30 big league parks.

[SI] D-backs 4-Run 9th Secures Comeback, Series Sweep Over Tigers - Gallen has been so good for so long that it's truly shocking when he has an game like today. Unfortunately he's had several of them lately. Over his last five games, 27 innings Gallen has allowed 18 runs, 14 earned, on 37 hits, 11 walks, 23 strikeouts and two homers. His ERA is 4.67 over this stretch and runs allowed per 9 innings (RA-9) is 6.00. Perhaps most concerning, his fastball velocity was down 1.5 MPH today, from 93.6 to 9.21. Earlier in the year he seemed to be establishing a dominating changeup. But he's all but abandoned that pitch of late. He threw only eight of them today, relying mostly on fastball and cutter.

[AP] Diamondbacks rally late to sweep Detroit, extend lead in NL West - Arizona had been 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position before Carroll had an RBI single for his third hit. Walker doubled to left on a 1-2 slider that scored Marte, and Carroll came home for a 6-5 lead when left fielder Kerry Carpenter allowed the ball to skip off his glove for an error. Geraldo Perdomo followed with a run-scoring single. With just its second victory in 21 games when trailing after eight innings, Arizona (40-25) has won five straight and 11 of 13, improving to 20-11 on the road. The Diamondbacks began the day with a 2 1/2-game NL West lead for the first time since July 2018.

Team News

[WaPo] Can the Arizona Diamondbacks really win the National League West? - The hard decisions are ahead. “I worry about big picture things every once in a while. Like, are we getting too comfortable? Are we getting way ahead of ourselves?,” Lovullo said. “It’s my job to kind of keep them in the now and be present.” At present, Arizona is one of this season’s most pleasant baseball surprises, emerging from years of losing seasons with a team that might surprise everyone all the way to October. But the opening is the easy part. The next moves will be the most telling.

[SI] Dominic Fletcher Reflects on WBC, First MLB Stint - "I feel like defense has always been a big part of my game. I take pride in my defense, I like to think of myself as a defense-first guy". Fletcher gives credit to the D-backs player development staff for getting him reps at all three outfield positions early in his minor league career, but feels the most comfortable in center and right field. In center, he has a better view of the pitch and the hitter's swing to get a better jump on a ball off the bat. In right field, his above-average arm plays up more. Statcast ranks him at +1 Outs Above Average in center and +2 in right.

[Arizona Sports] Verducci: D-backs rookie Corbin Carroll is Steve Finley, Mike Trout? - More important, perhaps, than his individual success are the memories he is rekindling of winning D-backs teams of the past and former player, Steve Finley. Verducci said Carroll’s swing finishes flat, level and compact, similar to Finley who was an important component of the 2001 D-backs team that won the World Series. Behind Carroll – who isn’t going anywhere soon after signing an eight-year, $111 million contract this offseason – the D-backs have their sights set on not only making the playoffs again but possibly winning a playoff series for just the third time since that 2001 World Series Championship.

And, elsewhere...

[Wisconsin State-Journal] Brewers swept by team with MLB’s worst record- - Since falling 5-4 at Pittsburgh on Monday for their 15th straight road loss, Oakland has gone 5-0 on the road against the NL Central’s top two teams — the Pirates and Brewers. This marks the first time the A’s have won five straight games within the same season since September 2021. This surge gives the Athletics (17-50) a higher winning percentage than the 1962 New York Mets, who went 40-120 for the worst season-ending record of any team since the start of the 20th century.

[The Sun] Inside Sacramento’s lost stadium ARCO Park, the abandoned MLB project never completed and now taken over by nature - Lukenbill and Co.’s plan involved luring both the Oakland Raiders and the Oakland Athletics to Sacramento... And it seems the locals were equally behind this project, selling out ARCO Arena to watch a Raiders game on screens, as per CBS Sacramento. In 1987, fans also organized ‘The March On Baseball’ which saw busloads of fans - 22,000 in total - head to an A’s game. Unfortunately for Sacramento, and its sports fans, neither team ultimately made the move. Eventually, construction on the proposed stadium never got past the foundations.

Dark Mountain (2013)

Dir: Tara Anaïse
Star: Sage Howard, Andrew Simpson, Shelby Stehlin

I’m no fan of found footage, and if there wasn’t an Arizona connection here, I wouldn’t have given this the time of day. I turned it on with low expectations. However, even those melted as the opening scene had a woman at night, lost in the wilderness, burbling tearfully about how sorry she was. Yes, folks: welcome to The Arizona Witch Project. I considered switching it off and pretending not to have learned of its existence. But I persisted, and here we are. I hope you appreciate my sacrifice. For it seems that the Curse of the Lost Dutchman’s Mine, is that anyone attempting to make a movie about it, is doomed to wander forever in the hell of bad cinema.

That conclusion is, admittedly, based on a sample size of two. However, this isn’t even entertainingly bad, like Ghost Warrior. It is just derivative, formulaic and deeply uninteresting. The story is about three Californians who come to Arizona – yeah, that’s my sympathy making an excuse and leaving already. Their aim is to find the storied mine, which lore says is located in the mountains east of Phoenix. It kicks of with obligatory interviews at the Superstition Mountain Museum, with locals about the area’s reputation. These include local icon George E. Johnston, then in his nineties, but still sharp as a tack. I’d probably have preferred the entire film to have been an 80-minute chat with him. It’d have been more informative and entertaining.

[Full review]