D’backs 7, A’s 1: Release the Offense

Record: 26-24. Pace: 84-78. Change on 2017: -5.

If you decided to forgo watching tonight’s game assuming Arizona’s offense would continue its woes, announce yourself in the comments and prepare for your shaming. The Arizona Diamondbacks lineup erupted against the Oakland Athletics tonight securing more hits than they had in the entire previous series against the Milwaukee Brewers. For the first time in what seems a substantial amount of games, they had more hits, extra base hits, and runs than they did strikeouts as a unit. Pair that with another effective outing from Patrick Corbin on the mound to get this Memorial Day weekend started on the right foot.

It was Star Wars night in Oakland, and it seems like the Diamondbacks have taken part in that event an obnoxious amount of times on the road this season. Mike Hazen joined the team on the road to show his support for the struggling D’backs. Prior to the game, Archie Bradley, David Peralta, Chris Owings, Ketel Marte, and others took part in either shaving off facial hair or receiving a complete haircut in hopes to end this horrible rut the team has found themselves in. That initially appeared to be a tall task with A’s lefty Sean Manaea on the mound. He had already thrown a no hitter against the high powered offense of the Boston Red Sox on April 21st, and averaged the least amount of pitches thrown per inning in the majors prior to this start. Nick Ahmed cared not with a solo home run 399 feet to left center as the second batter of the game giving Arizona an early 1-0 lead. Manaea had allowed 4 runs in all of his starts in the month of May before this game, a trend Arizona would continue. He found himself knocked from the game in the 4th inning after giving up 8 hits and 6 earned runs. Former D’backs manager and now A’s skipper Bob Melvin had to use 4 bullpen pitchers to limp through this one.

Patrick Corbin opposed Manaea on the mound looking for his 1st win in May and 50th overall for his career. His fastball velocity hovered around 88-89 mph again in this start, but it was hardly an issue as he did not have to labor much at all. His only blemish came in the 3rd inning when he allowed a lead off solo home run to Mark Canha. It would prove to be the Athletics only run of the game. In total, Patrick only allowed 4 hits with 2 of them going for extra bases. He was able to complete the 7th inning and tallied 7 strikeouts on only a single walk. Corbin retired 6 of the first 7 A’s he faced and 12 of 14 after the Canha homer.

Plenty of great things to say about Arizona’s offense in this one which is quite refreshing in a recap lately. Four Diamondbacks starters tallied multiple hits, and Chris Owings was the only one who failed to reach base. Arizona had more extra base hits (6) than strikeouts (5). John Ryan Murphy was the designated hitter for this interleague matchup and hit a loud double off the wall in left center scoring Jeff Mathis and David Peralta to put Arizona ahead 3-0 in the 3rd.

Paul Goldschmidt had his first multi-hit game since April 26th. He delivered tacos for the first time since May 8th with a two out triple to left field that scored a pair in the the 4th inning. Chad Pinder attempted to make a diving play on the sinking liner, but it bounced in front of his glove rolling all the way to the outfield wall allowing the play to unfold. Goldy narrowly missed his 7th home run of the season in the 1st inning with a deep fly out to the warning track in left field. Paul had a leadoff double in the 9th inning with an exit velocity of around 109 mph and was driven in by a Ketel Marte triple two batters later to make the score 7-1. Arizona had the leadoff batter reach base safely in innings 3 through 7. Jake Lamb continues to pick up speed and had not one but two hits off of a left handed pitcher to go along with 2 walks.

It was the kind of offensive performance that Torey Lovullo has mentioned numerous times. The Diamondbacks were able to string together at bats and come through with timely hits. All of this without a Daniel Descalso sighting! There is no telling if this is a sign of things to come, but it was definitely a step in the right direction. Tonight’s victory snapped a 7 game losing streak. It was only the 11th time this season that Arizona had scored 7 runs or more in a game. The only negative that can be mentioned tonight is that both the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers won their games resulting in no ground gained on the division.

Fangraphs

Lefty Grove: Patrick Corbin 17%

Babe Ruth: Nick Ahmed 13.8%

Ted Williams: Paul Goldschmidt 9.4%, John Ryan Murphy 7.8%, Jeff Mathis 6.8%, Jake Lamb 6%

Easy to find positives when only three players posted a negative WPA

Total comments: 461

Total commenters: 31

Commenter list: AZDovs11, AzRattler, DORRITO, DeadManG, Diamondhacks, Fangdango, GuruB, Jackwriter, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Keegan Thompson, Michael McDermott, MikeMono, MrMrrbi, RMHSVoice, Renin, SedonaRed24, ShirtOffYourBack, Smurf1000, Sprankton, coldblueAZ, edbigghead, gamepass, hotclaws, lildbackfan21x, megnetic, onedotfive, ponus, shoewizard, smartplays, suroeste

The comment count was very much even balanced similar to tonight’s offense. MikeMono led the way with 59 followed by Michael with 41 and a handful of others hovering around 30.

CoTN to suroeste. I felt a similar sentiment on the Goldy triple. I yelled so loud when it rolled to the wall you would have thought it was the Gonzo World Series blooper. It’s been like that folks.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to listen to some Miss May I and Parkway Drive and pray these good offensive performances continue. Change the entrance music and keep it metal, dudes.