Dbacks 2, Pirates 6: Pitching bad, offense worse

Luke Weaver started for the Diamondbacks tonight. He didn’t have his best outing ever, but overall made it work. In the first inning, he gave up a one out double to Starling Marte, but got a couple of strike outs from Gregory Polanco and Josh Bell to leave Bad Marte at second. In the second, he got into a bit more trouble. He gave up singles to Colin Moran and Melk Cabrera to get things started. He recorded a couple of outs thanks to an Elias Diaz infield fly and a strike out of Cole Tucker, but then walked Pirates starter Joe Musgrove to load the bases. Adam Frazier stranded all of the runners, though, when he popped up to Nick Ahmed to end the inning.

He wasn’t as lucky in the third. Singles to Bad Marte and Polanco put runners on the corners before they got an out. Bell grounded into a force out, that might have been a double play if Weaver had covered, but instead they had to settle for a fielder’s choice and the out at second. On the play, Marte scored. That was all Weaver allowed, however, as a couple of fly outs from Cabrera and Moran would end the inning. 1-0 Pirates

Weaver put together a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, and went to the fifth only down by one run. It wouldn’t stay that way through the inning. He walked Frazier to start the inning, but got Bad Marte to pop up to second and Polanco to ground out to short. However Josh Bell homered and extended the lead by two. Melky Cabrera followed it up with a single, but after a mound visit, Colin Moran lined out to Flores at second to end the inning. 3-0 Pirates

Weaver went one more inning and sat the Pirates down in order before being pinch hit for in the bottom of the sixth. He ultimately had a fairly successful night, but it was a bit of a struggle at times to get there. His final line was 6 IP, 3 R, 7 H, 2 BB, and 5 Ks. Not a bad night from the young starter.

If you’re wondering why I’ve yet to mention the Diamondbacks offense, that’s because they never really showed up tonight against Joe Musgrove. Ketel Marte lead off the first with a walk, but the next nine went down in order before Eduardo Escobar got a lead off single in the fourth inning. Other than that, the only other baserunner they managed off Musgrove was a two-out, Nick Ahmed walk in the fifth inning.

Zack Godley relived Weaver in the seventh, and actually sat Frazier, Bad Marte, and Polanco down in order. However, he also had to pitch the eighth, which did not go as well. Josh Bell took the first pitch of the inning and launched it over the fence for a solo home run. Cabrera followed that with a single, and two outs later, Cole Tucker hit a home run of his own to put the Dbacks in an even deeper hole. Bryan Reynolds was called on to pinch hit for Musgrove, but grounded out, ending the inning. 6-0 Pirates

With Musgrove out of the game, the offense was able to briefly show up, but it wasn’t enough. Carson Kelly hit a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth to break up the shut out. Adam jones brought Peralta in with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth as well, but it was pretty meaningless. The Pirates win, 6-2

With the general futility across the board, no one ended up with a positive WPA of more than one percent. The worst offenders were Adam Jones with -10.5% and David Peralta with -9.9%.

Twenty two of you guys made it out to the GDT tonight and manged 219 comments between you all. DC and Rockkstarr tied for first with 34 comments a piece, and ShirtOffYourBack followed with 29. All present and accounted for were:

AZPerson, AzDbackfanInDc, DeadManG, Gilbertsportsfan, GuruB, Hannibal4467, Jack Sommers, Jim McLennan, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, MikeMono, MrMrrbi, NikT77, Rockkstarr12, ShirtOffYourBack, Snake_Bitten, VeeLoh, asteroid, edbigghead, onedotfive, pyroman168, suroeste

No red comments. No COTN. Them’s the rules.

Rubber game and a day game tomorrow, as the Diamondbacks send Zack Greinke to the mound to face Chris Archer. See if the Dbacks can add another series victory to their tally!