AZ Snake Pit - Game #43: 5/18, Arizona Diamondbacks 2, New York Yankees 4An unofficial Arizona Diamondbacks community and bloghttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/47033/azsnakepit_f.png2016-05-19T01:00:02-04:00http://www.azsnakepit.com/rss/stream/114705132016-05-19T01:00:02-04:002016-05-19T01:00:02-04:00Diamondbacks 2, Yankees 4: Sweep or sleep
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<figcaption>Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>In the 3rd meeting of these two titans of baseball mythology, we waited in trepidation, would Shelby Miller be better, would Nathan Eovaldi continue his hot hand... turns out, that both would be true, one more than the other....</p> <p><b>Record: 19-24. Pace: 72-90. Change on 2015: -2. </b></p>
<p>The game started off well for one team, not so much for the other... yet... Shelby did give up a dinger, eerily similar to what <span>Hunter Pence</span> did against us, stuck the bat out there and it did all of the work for Mr. Gardner, yet, after a couple of hard hit balls, was able to keep it from being one of those "Oh no, here we go again" innings. <span>Jean Segura</span> came up and came up with a pool table shot that appeared to get the rubber, 2nd base and Didi Gregorious' right hand before being gloved and tossed in while Segura stood on 2nd base wondering if this was a harbinger to come. While two ground outs scored him later, it was one of those offensive performances that was frankly.... offensive. End of the 1st, 2-1 bad guys.</p>
<p>Miller was seemingly in and out of trouble for the majority of his time out there, managing to keep the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.pinstripealley.com/">Yankees</a> at bay until the 6th when he got tagged for another run, but he went five plus, scattered 10 hits and a couple of walks and essentially kept the team in the game. All in all, an improvement, especially when compared to the majority of his starts this year.</p>
<p>Now as for the DBacks... you can look at either side of the coin... either, we were incredibly woeful and outmatched or we caught a hot pitcher who had excellent command of his stuff. Based on his results over the last two weeks, I would say its the latter. Given our struggles hitting in our own park, you could certainly pick the other side of the coin and there would every reason for doing so.....</p>
<p>The efforts put for by Mssrs. Chafin, Barret and Curtis were appreciated, they kept it from getting any worse and our faith was rewarded when <span>Chris Owings</span> went deep on <span>Andrew Miller</span> for his first dinger of the year. Then Miller was reminded by his catcher that he has an awesome breaking pitch and proceeded to make the next three batters look foolish.</p>
<p>Then Evan Marshall came in and quietly laid those hopes and dreams of a comeback to rest with a less than stellar effort that ultimately allowed another run in on a wild pitch (how wild was it? It was behind the batter by a good foot and a half, yeesh) 4-2 Yanks.</p>
<p>In return, we graduated from Miller to Chapman, who retired Gosselin on strikes (not wholly unexpected), got Goldy out on a line drive to right field (good play by Hicks, but encouraging to see Goldy go oppo field again) and <span>Yasmany Tomas</span>... he made contact and the Yankees made the play.</p>
<p>Was this loss, unexpected... not really, but considering how the unexpected has reared its head lately, it would have been nice for the baseball deities to have tossed us a bone, alas, it was not to be...</p>
<p>Now we get a day to reflect on our past transgressions before we take our baseball revival on the road and attempt to convert those pagans in Missouri to the ways of the snake. Bells and whistles to follow from the powers that be...</p>
<p align="center"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2016-05-18&team=Diamondbacks&dh=0&season=2016"><img src="https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6508671/chart.0.png" alt="chart.0.png"></a> <br>[<i>Click for details, at fangraphs.com</i>]<br><b>New York pizza: Chris Owings, +11.4%</b><br><i><b>New York traffic: <span>Welington Castillo</span>, -14.2%</b></i><br><i>New York attitude: Ahmed, -12.7%; Lamb, -12.3%; Drury, -11.7%</i></p>
<p>A tie at the top of the comments, SongBird and makattack71 sharing the lead, just ahead of MrMrrbi. Also present? That'd be: AzRattler, CardsRepInChile, Chelsea75, GuruB, Jackwriter, James Attwood, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Makakilo, MichaelMcD831993, Xerostomia, Xipooo, Zavada's Moustache, asteroid, cardinalshuffle, cardshuffle, catbat, coldblueAZ, hotclaws, jmfugate, luckycc, noblevillain and shoewizard. Nothing got more than two recs though, so much like this game, we can't hand out any awards.</p>
<p>It's off to St. Louis for the D-backs now, though they have an off-day tomorrow, before the series starts on Friday - with Rubby De La Rosa being skipped, that means it's <span>Robbie Ray</span> against <span>Carlos Martinez</span>.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2016/5/19/11711034/sweep-or-sleeppiratedan72016-05-19T00:56:20-04:002016-05-19T00:56:20-04:00Diamondbacks 2, Yankees 4
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<figcaption>Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>This felt awfully one-sided for a one-run game going into the ninth...</p> <p>It didn't take long for Shelby Miller to fall behind. Two batters, to be precise, as the Yankees went walk, two-run homer. However, Miller did settle down, though it seemed like there was a near-constant procession of New York hitters on the bags. The only further damage allowed was an RBI single to the last batter he faced with two outs in the sixth. He ended up allowing three runs over 5.2 innings, despite allowing 10 hits and a pair of walks; Miller also struck out five. Andrew Chafin, Jake Barrett, Zac Curtis combined for 3.1 innings of shutout - indeed, hitless - relief, which helped keep the D-backs in the game, but Evan Marshall gave New York an insurance run in the ninth.</p>
<p>However, they were unable to solve Nathan Eovaldi. Jean Segura lucked into a leadoff double, the ball bouncing off the second-base bag, and came around to score on a pair of groundouts. But, after Segura, Eovaldi retired 18 consecutive Arizona batters, before turning a 3-1 lead over to the triple-headed Yankees bullpen. The D-backs had their chances: the first two walked in the seventh, and Chris Owings then got his first home-run of the season (and only our second hit) to lead off the eighth, and made it a one-run game. But the D-backs fanned six times over the last three innings and couldn't come back to complete the sweep.</p>
<p>Piratedan7 will be along later with the recap, as scheduled recapper Mr. Burt is snowed under with real work.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2016/5/19/11711028/diamondbacks-yankees-scoreJim McLennan2016-05-18T20:30:02-04:002016-05-18T20:30:02-04:00Diamondbacks Game Preview, #43: Yankees SUCK!
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<figcaption>Patrick Smith/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>That was the counter-chant I wanted to hear during last night's game, whenever the "Let's go, Yan-kees" broke out...</p> <div class="pane sports_data_widget lineup clearfix">
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<td valign="middle" width="10%"><img src="https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/assets/381976/yankees.png"></td>
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<span>Nathan Eovaldi</span><br>RHP, 3-2, 4.85<br>
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<span>Shelby Miller</span><br>RHP, 1-4, 6.94</h5>
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<td class="td-last td-name" width="50%">
<span>Jacoby Ellsbury</span> - CF</td>
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<span>Jean Segura</span> - 2B</td>
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<span>Brett Gardner</span> - LF</td>
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<span>Phil Gosselin</span> - LF</td>
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<span>Carlos Beltran</span> - RF</td>
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<span>Paul Goldschmidt</span> - 1B</td>
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<span>Brian McCann</span> - C</td>
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<span>Jake Lamb</span> - 3B</td>
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<span>Mark Teixeira</span> - 1B</td>
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<span>Welington Castillo</span> - C</td>
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<span>Starlin Castro</span> - 2B</td>
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<span>Brandon Drury</span> - RF</td>
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<span>Didi Gregorius</span> - SS</td>
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<span>Chris Owings</span> - CF</td>
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<span>Chase Headley</span> - 3B</td>
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<span>Nick Ahmed</span> - SS</td>
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<td class="td-last td-name">Nathan Eovaldi - RHP</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Shelby Miller - RHP</td>
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<p>I am, however, pretty glad that we already sealed our first regular-season series victory over the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.pinstripealley.com/">Yankees</a>, because I did not want to go into this Miller start needing a win. While a victory would certainly be nice, giving us a sweep over a generally hated opponent, this feels like hanging around the blackjack table a little too long. If our hitting with runners in scoring position has sharply regressed from the drought seen over the weekend in the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/">Giants</a> series, the .333 average (9-for-27) we've seen there in the first two games, seems like a swing of the pendulum too far the other way. As usual, find myself wishing we could carry over some of Monday's blowout runs to this evening.</p>
<p>Tonight, we see another new name added to the list of <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.azsnakepit.com/">Diamondbacks</a>' outfielders: Gosselin. He had one start for us there last year, and started as many as 18 games in LF during a season back in his minor-league days (2013), but the approach the Diamondbacks seem to be taking is that experience is less important for outfielders than general athleticism. He'll be the ninth starting outfielder used by the team in 2016 - we had 11 for all of 2015. It will also be the fourth position at which Gosselin will have started; positional flexibility appears to be an essential for the Diamondbacks bench this year, as we have already seen with <span>Chris Herrmann</span>.</p>
<p>But tonight, it's all about Miller, who will have to face what looks like a close to full-strength Yankee line-up. Though that isn't what it used to be: at the time of writing, the Bronx Bloopers' 142 runs scored are ahead only of the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.twinkietown.com/">Twins</a> (141) in the American League, and their OPS of .675 is dead-last. That's more than 100 points less than the Diamondbacks - and we have out pitchers batting for themselves. So, given how Miller's best outing was against the equally-woeful <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.talkingchop.com/">Atlanta Braves</a>, perhaps there's reason to hope tonight might be in the same general area of success. Be nice to win, and take a sweep into the off-day before a potentially-tough road-trip through St. Louis and Pittsburgh.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2016/5/18/11706176/arizona-diamondbacks-game-preview-new-york-yankeesJim McLennan