AZ Snake Pit - Game #82: 7/1, Arizona Diamondbacks 4, San Francisco Giants 6An unofficial Arizona Diamondbacks community and bloghttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/47033/azsnakepit_f.png2016-07-02T01:14:40-04:00http://www.azsnakepit.com/rss/stream/118501692016-07-02T01:14:40-04:002016-07-02T01:14:40-04:00Diamondbacks 4, Giants 6: 40s and grunts beer cap
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<figcaption>Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Hello friends. Here we are fresh off of a day off after being swept at home by The Phillies. Mike Butcher somehow still has a job, and I will be suppressing my anger with all the beers this evening. </p> <h5>Record: 36-46. Pace: 71-91. Change on 2015: -4.</h5>
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<p>Anyone else think Bochy looks like a very drunk Bolshevik? Game on.</p>
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<li><span>Wow, Very Miller did not give up such runs in the top of the 1st. </span></li>
<li><span>End of the 1st, Cueto is not worthy and we are up 3/0.</span></li>
<li> <span>End of the 2nd and its 3/1 us </span> <img alt="1353012961029.0.jpg" src="https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6738181/1353012961029.0.jpg"> </li>
<li>Bottom of the 3rd and my boy Lamb with a HR. Mary had a little Lamb, little lamb, little HOMERUNS EVERYWHERE!</li>
<li>Top of the 4th and Her Mon cannot be trusted in left field. I remember my 1st pop fly AND my 1st yellow shirt. Next up some guy on the Giants and he hits a ball and now it's 4/3 us. Anger rising. <img alt="1355519305791.0.jpg" src="https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6738215/1355519305791.0.jpg"> </li>
<li>Top of 5th and I Love Goldy.</li>
<li>Bottom of the 5th and WE DID NOTHING. NOTHING. </li>
<li>I hand things over to Jim, most wise. He will right the wrong. He will make the D-backs great again. </li>
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<p><b> Jim</b> Ah, the pressure. Mind you, the game probably should still have been 4-1 to the Diamondbacks at this point. With two outs in the top of the fourth, and men on second and third, Chip Hale [I'm presuming Shelby Miller is not allowed to make such decisions] inexplicably chose to pitch to the #8 guy rather than load them up for the opposing pitcher. It was as if Hale though Madison Bumgarner were up there, rather than Cueto, a career .102 hitter, who is batting a microscopic .054 this season. Instead of facing that, they sent Shelby Miller up against an actual, professional hitter. If you were surprised at the two-run single which followed... you are Chip Hale, I guess.</p>
<p>It was more of the same in the top of the sixth, Miller giving up another two-run hit with two outs, just proving unable of getting the crucial outs. That's been Shelby's folly all season: coming in to tonight, with runners in scoring position, opposing batters were hitting .333/.441/.796 against him. That likely hasn't dropped much here, with a double leveling the score and giving the Giants their first lead. Miller got through the inning, but his final line was five runs on eight hits and two walks, with five strikeouts, and his ERA went back up to 6.85.</p>
<p>With Miller likely having only one more start before the All-Star break, it's time to start looking at where his season will stand in the worst first halves of franchise history. The answer is: right up there. In terms of ERA, his 6.85 trails only two pitchers with 50+ innings of work. Brian Anderson had a 6.94 in 1999, and Omar Daal went 2-10 with a 7.36 ERA in 2000. So Miller probably won't be able to take Daal down, but another start like this one before the break, and he'll be neck and neck with Anderson. And, of course, both of them were operating in a much more offensively-minded time.</p>
<p>Anything exciting happen the rest of the way? Not really. Andrew Chafin tossed a scoreless top of the seventh, and Phil Gosselin was stranded on second after getting there with one out. Randall Delgado took things the rest of the way, but did allow a crucial insurance run on a solo home-run in the eighth. The Diamondbacks did threaten in the ninth, having runners on the corners with no outs. A Yasmany Tomas double-play ball ended that threat, though Gosselin then drew Arizona's first walk of the ninth to put the tying run back on base, and Peter O'Brien up, representing the winning run. Or actually, the game-ending K, though in his defense, strike three was well inside.</p>
<p>And so, Arizona rolled to their sixth consecutive defeat, also their sixth straight loss at Chase Field. That's tied for fifth worst in franchise history, yet isn't even the worst of this season. They need one more, to equal the seven straight defeats at Chase, between April 29 and May 15. It was their eighth consecutive game allowing double-digit hits, the longest streak since nine in a row, back in 2006. On offense, Welington Castillo pick up two hits, and Gosselin got a hit and a walk. Nick Ahmed left the game - suspicion is, his wife has gone into labor - and Michael Bourn banged a foul-ball off his foot late on, but hopefully won't join the entire roster of DL center-fielders we have.</p>
<p align="center"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2016-07-01&team=Diamondbacks&dh=0&season=2016"><img src="https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6738329/chart.0.png" alt="chart.0.png"></a><br>[<i>Click for details, at fangraphs.com</i>]<br><b>Rhett Butler: Welington Castillo, +21.1%</b><br>Scarlett O'Hara: Gosselin, +14.0%; Herrmann, +13.3%<br><i><b>Frankly, m'dear, I don't give a damn: Yasmany Tomas, -34.5%<br></b>Burning like Atlanta: Shelby Miller, -25.4%</i></p>
<p align="left">Yeah, Mrs. SnakePit is watching <i>Gone With The Wind</i> in the other room. MichaelMcD831993 crushed everyone else, with 4x as many comments as SongBird and GuruB, who were second and third. Also present: AzRattler, Indedave, Jackwriter, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, Oldenschoole, Xerostomia, asteroid, coldblueAZ, hotclaws, onedotfive and yakiniku. Once again, nothing more than two recs. Looks like we've lost the will to click the "rec" button, which seems strangely appropriate Still, we'll do it all again tomorrow, hoping for a different result. Patrick Corbin goes for the D-backs, and it's a 7:10pm first pitch.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2016/7/2/12086088/diamondbacks-giants-beercapM_LopezJim McLennan2016-07-02T00:34:50-04:002016-07-02T00:34:50-04:00Diamondbacks 4, Giants 6
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<figcaption>Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Shelby Miller couldn't hold onto an early lead and the D-backs dropped their sixth straight game, losing the series opener to the Giants at Chase Field. </p> <p>The Diamondbacks succeeded in getting to Johnnie Cueto early, scoring three times in the first inning. Paul Goldschmidt drove in the first one, blooping an RBI double down the right-field line, to score Jean Segura. Welington Castillo followed one out later, with his ninth home-run of the season, and Miller had an early lead. He gave up a run in the second inning, but Arizona got the run back in the bottom of the third, as Jake Lamb cranked his 18th homer, to right-field. But that was all the offense would muster in the way of runs. The nine hits were divided among eight different players - Castillo got two - and we struck out 10 times, with one walk.</p>
<p>Miller only walked two tonight, but of those came around to score, on two-run hits with two outs. The likely questionable decision was not walking the #8 hitter with a base open in the fourth inning to face Cueto. Instead, a two-run single pulled San Francisco back within one. And in the sixth, Miller allowed a two-run double that just went fair down into right field, scoring the tying and go-ahead runs. His final line was five runs over six innings, on eight hits, with five K's. Andrew Chafin worked a scoreless seventh, then Randall Delgado allowed a solo home-run to give the Giants some insurance.</p>
<p>edbigghead's recap will be up in a bit.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2016/7/2/12086666/diamondbacks-giants-scoreJim McLennan2016-07-01T20:30:03-04:002016-07-01T20:30:03-04:00D-backs Game Preview, #82: The second-half begins
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<figcaption>The Herrminator will see you now.... | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Only the Cubs have won more games in the NL this year than the Giants. They're 14-2 when Cueto starts. We're sending up Shelby Miller. Yeah, not exactly feeling optimistic about this one. </p> <div class="pane sports_data_widget lineup clearfix">
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<span>Johnny Cueto</span><br>RHP, 11-1, 2.42<br>
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<span>Shelby Miller</span><br>RHP, 2-7, 6.79</h5>
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<td class="td-last td-name" width="50%">
<span>Denard Span</span> - CF</td>
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<span>Jean Segura</span> - 2B</td>
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<span>Angel Pagan</span> - LF</td>
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<span>Michael Bourn</span> - CF</td>
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<span>Brandon Belt</span> - 1B</td>
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<span>Paul Goldschmidt</span> - 1B</td>
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<span>Brandon Crawford</span> - SS</td>
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<span>Jake Lamb</span> - 3B</td>
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<span>Jarrett Parker</span> - RF</td>
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<span>Welington Castillo</span> - C</td>
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<span>Conor Gillaspie</span> - 3B</td>
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<span>Chris Herrmann</span> - RF</td>
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<span>Grant Green</span> - 2B</td>
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<span>Yasmany Tomas</span> - LF</td>
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<span>Trevor Brown</span> - C</td>
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<span>Nick Ahmed</span> - SS</td>
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<td class="td-last td-name">Johnny Cueto - RHP</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Shelby Miller - RHP</td>
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<p>The arrival of Tuffy (at least for the weekend) means we have Castillo and Herrmann both in the starting line-up, Chris making his third start of the season in right-field, with Tomas in left. <span>Peter O'Brien</span> is once again on the bench. The team does seem to be cooling significantly on his potential, with just one start for him since Saturday. He has struck out at least once in 15 of the 17 games where he has come to the plate. Admittedly, he still doesn't have that much experience at the major-league level, but O'Brien turns 26 two weeks today, so the "prospect" level is getting a little tenuous going forward. Few things are more aggravating than potential in one area (power), negated by major issues in another (contact).</p>
<p>After a burst where they won 12 out of 13, the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/">Giants</a> have come back somewhat to earth. They were a little lucky to win the series against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.thegoodphight.com/">Phillies</a>, needing a walkoff win in the rubber game, then dropped three of four in a home-and-away Bay Bridge series against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.athleticsnation.com/">Athletics</a>. The game they won saw <span>Madison Bumgarner</span> hit for himself, rather than San Francisco using the DH, which is pretty cool. It was the first time a starting pitcher has batted for themselves, in a game where the DH rule was in effect, since Andy Sonnastine of the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.draysbay.com/">Rays</a> did so in 2009. He hit <i>third</i> in their line-up, but this appears to have <a target="_blank" href="http://m.mlb.com/news/article/4783714/">been a mix-up</a>. Before that, you have to go back to Ken Brett, who did it twice in 1976.</p>
<p>Obviously, no such issues this evening for either side, as we return to the regular world of the National League, where such abominations as the DH do not exist. I'm far more worried about whether Miller will pitch effectively, than whether he can hit. He's 0-5 with a 6.97 ERA in six starts at Chase Field, and facing a team like the Giants isn't exactly the kind of easy outing which have led to his two victories (those came against the Phillies and <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.talkingchop.com/">Braves</a>). Still, having now effectively abandoned all pretense at this team contending in 2016, guess he might as well work out his issues in the big leagues as anywhere else.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2016/7/1/12086040/arizona-diamondbacks-game-preview-san-francisco-giantsJim McLennan