D-backs 5, Giants 1 - Young, Wild and Free

At 41-41, these next 7 games are crucial in deciding what the team should do going forward. As shoewizard mentioned on twitter, the NL Wild Card race is, for lack of a better term, wild. All those teams bunched up with nowhere to go. If this team can go on a mini-run heading into the All-Star Break, I’d love for them to make a splash on the pitching side.

Alex Young made his MLB debut and looked the part. Well, he kind of didn’t, going 3-0 against the leadoff batter before working it all the way back for a groundout. He worked a clean 1st after that. A HBP led off the 2nd for the Giants, but again Young was excellent picking up his 1st career strikeout sandwiched with two fly-outs to escape then inning without damage. More of the same for Young in the 3rd, working extremely quickly to get another clean inning while keeping his pitch count low.

The offense did not do much, with a hit in the 2nd erased by a double play ground ball and a walk in that same inning left stranded. They finally capitalized in the 4th, as Ketel Marte got a generous call to draw a 1-out walk. Peralta grounded a ball up the middle that clanked off Crawford’s glove into shallow left center to allow both runners to take another base. Walker grounded out, but it scored the run to give the D-backs an early 1-0 lead.

That lead would not last, as Young made his first mistake of the night to Brandon Belt, who promptly deposited it into the bleacher for a homer.

Young made quick work of the next 3 batters, using only 11 pitches for 3 outs.

Nick Ahmed struck back immediately in the top of the 5th, driving a ball deep down the left field line to take back the lead, 2-1 D-backs.

Alex finally saw some trouble in the top of the 6th, allowing a leadoff single and walk to put a runner in scoring position. Despite only throwing 74 pitches, Torey had seen enough and went quickly to the bullpen with Yoshihisa Hirano. He was lights out, escaping the jam, stranding the runners and getting 4 outs. That gave Young a chance at a victory in his MLB debut with a final line of 5IP, 3H, 1ER and 5Ks. Nice stuff from the rook.

The bullpen was perfect over the final 4 innings, with the only blemish being a Greg Holland walk to lead off the 9th. The Giants were no match for the awesome power of the 200 save man, and they went down in order to end the game.

The offense added a couple more runs with Carson Kelly homering to center.

He would double in the 9th down the left field line, and Eduardo Escobar blooped a single to drive him in, giving us our final score of 5-1.

☆☆☆ - YOSHIHISA HIRANO (1.1 scoreless IP) +.273 WPA
☆☆ - Nick Ahmed (1 for 3, 1HR, 2R) +.161 WPA
☆ - David Peralta (2 for 3, 1BB) +.144 WPA

The D-backs will look to keep this stretch of winning baseball alive as Merrill Kelly faces off against this same Giants team tomorrow at 7:15PM. Stop on by!