Arizona Diamondbacks 3, Baltimore Orioles 7: Predatory Birds

The wife and I dropped the kid off at her grandparents tonight and attended this game in person. Tonight was Mexican Heritage Night at Chase Field. With 34,000 in attendance there was a serpientes jersey giveaway, a band in the left field bleachers, and a postgame concert made for a lively atmosphere.

Slade Cecconi took on the American League’s best Baltimore Orioles making his fourth start of the season. Entering the game he’d yet to tally a win under his belt but had a respectable 2.57 ERA through a small sample 21 innings. He remained on the same path through three innings tonight, but the fourth inning saw him give up as many runs as he had all season prior. Through three innings of play he gave up only two doubles striking out four Orioles along the way.

Arizona took the first lead in the bottom of the third, but all that seemed to do was awaken the slumbering Orioles’ offense. Geraldo Perdomo opened the bottom of the third with a walk. Corbin Carroll hit an infield tapper to third and was able to beat the throw to first for a single. Perdomo keenly aware of the play was able to advance to third putting runners on the corners with no outs. Ketel Marte followed with a double to right field bringing in Perdomo for the first run of the game. With one out in the inning, Christian Walker was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Walker initially remained in the game, but was later removed so hopefully it was just precautionary and that he is not seriously injured. Alek Thomas reached on a fielder’s choice giving Arizona a two run lead that would evaporate and then some in the next inning.

After recording the first out of the fourth inning, Baltimore strung together seven hits in a row against Cecconi scoring six runs and chased him from the game. Three of those seven hits went for extra bases including a three run home run that put Baltimore in the driver seat. My opinion was that Torey Lovullo should have pulled Cecconi after he gave up the fourth run in the inning which would have kept the game within reach, but he didn’t and things spiraled until the Orioles took their 6-2 lead.

Adley Rutschman and Gabriel Moreno each hit solo home runs in the later innings resulting in the final score of 7-to-3.

FanGraphs

Not much change in the Wild Card race. In addition to the D’backs, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco all lost while Cincinnati, Miami, and San Diego won.