Diamondbacks 3, Reds 7: Swept away. Again.

The Diamondbacks started the season by avoiding being swept until they faced the Mets on July 4th-6th. Today, they came into the game trying to avoid being swept for the third time in five series. Opposing them on the mound for the Reds was Old... Acquaintance Luke Weaver and his 7.22 ERA. Weaver came into the game very hittable, but the Diamondbacks offense had been struggling for. oh, roughly the past month.

Early on, it became a game of wasted opportunities. Ketel drew a one out walk to prevent any talk of perfect games early on, and Carroll pushed him to second with a single the next at bat. But the struggles of two of the biggest keys to the line up continued, with Walker and Gurriel both flying out, ultimately stranding runners on first and third

The Reds and Elly De La Cruz wasted no time taking advantage of the Diamondbacks bullpen game. Jose Ruiz was the opener for the team today, and didn’t have it pretty much from the jump. Immediately got hit with a pitch clock violation to start the AB. Second pitch barely clipped the bottom of the strike zone, third was high and wide. The fourth? Well it was deep to right center field for De La Cruz’ fifth home run of the season. TJ Friedl followed it up with a single, bringing new, noted Diamondback killer Matt McLain to the plate. Ruiz was able to get past him, striking out, and an ill advised steal attempt plus a good Kelly throw turned it into a double play. Spencer Steer grounded out, but damage had already been done. 0-1 Reds

The Diamondbacks did nothing in the second and sent it right back to the Reds. Ruiz went back out for a second inning, and it looked like he was going to get out of it unscathed. It took him just five pitches to get Jake Fraley to ground out and Jonathan India to line out. Christian Encarnacion-Strand (who as you might have heard a hundred million times has the longest name in the history of baseball when you include the hyphen) singled to center on the first pitch he saw. Next batter up was Nick Senzel. Ruiz jumped out to an early 0-2 count, but Senzel battled the count full. He got a hanging curve from Ruiz and hit it 388 feet to left field for a two run shot. Ruiz was left in to give up another single before Kyle Nelson came in and recorded the final out. 0-3 Reds

In the bottom of the third, Arizona put together a second wasted opportunity. Alek Thomas singled to start things off, before Perdomo flew out to third for the first out. Marte got a one out single, which should have put runners on the corners with just one out, but an ill-advised, incredibly wide turn at first started a run down that lead to the second out. Carroll walked, however, Walker’s struggles continued and he flew out for the third out.

They tried again in the bottom of the fourth, this time with two outs, Dominic Canzone (whose awesome family was in the stands for the game) was hit by pitch. Carson Kelly singled to center, but Thomas struck out to end the minor threat.

I would be remiss to not mention Kyle Nelson’s performance. While the offense was being an exercise in futility, he was giving them a chance to get caught up. He came in with two outs in the second, got Elly De La Cruz to strike out. He followed that up in the third by getting Friedl, McLain, and Steer to go down 1-2-3, and then got the first out in the fourth before getting lifted in favor of Luis Frias. Frias finished the 1-2-3 inning, letting the Diamondbacks come to bat in the fifth with the lead unchanged.

Which was huge, as the Diamondbacks were finally able to take advantage of an opportunity, thought it wasn’t through lack of trying to throw it away. Perdomo singled and then raced around to score after Marte picked up an infield single that was thrown away by the first basemen Spencer Steer. That brought Corbin Carroll up. He hit an absolutely massive home run to center field that, at first, the camera couldn’t even track.

Tie ballgame.

Christian Walker followed that with a one out double to keep things moving, but he then just made a complete boneheaded baserunning error when he literally ran into a tag from Elly De La Cruz while he was heading to third on a Gurriel Jr. groundball. Gurriel was able to reach because of the tag. Still a runner on with one out, and Canzone singled and moved him to first. I would like to bitterly point out that Walker would have more than likely scored here, but instead, Carson Kelly flew out and they settled for three. Tied at 3.

Honestly, this was the high point of the game from the Diamondbacks point of view, and no one would blame you if you just stopped reading now. You’ve already seen the score, but just leave with that image of Corbin Carroll’s home run still burned into your retinas.

Still here? God you’re a masochist, but okay.

In the bottom of the fifth and the top of the sixth, both teams got a baserunner, but neither were able to bring him home. The Reds changed that with two outs in the bottom of their sixth. Steer singled, and then was brought home by Fraley. That gave the Reds the lead and they never looked back.

In fact, they kept adding to it in the eighth. Spencer Steer got an RBI single, then CES got a bases loaded, RBI single to increase the lead to 3-7 Reds.

Just to truly antagonize us, the Diamondbacks ended the game with their biggest missed opportunity of all. Geraldo Perdomo lead the inning off with a triple. Marte walked, and while Corbin Carroll struck out, Christian Walker drew a walk to load the bases. Gurriel Jr. came to the plate as the tying run with just one out. He took a ball, a single ball, then immediately grounded into a very easy double play ending the game.

Fangraphs.com

Barbie: Ketel Marte, 18.8%

Ken: Corbin Carroll, 13.3%

Being sent to bed without dinner: Lordes Guirrel Jr., 27.3%

An iPad box full of socks on Christmas: Jose Ruiz, 18.9%

Decent sized Gameday Thread with 192 comments as of writing. Lots of well-deserved negativity though, and I don’t feel like wading through it again to find a COTD.

The Diamondbacks failed to avoid their third sweep in the shortened month of July. and they went 2-7 on the road trip. The only saving grace today is that the Dodgers and Giants both lost as well, so no change in the standings.

They come back to Chase tomorrow night for a series against the Cardinals. Hopefully they’ll start to turn things around then. See ya!