AZ Snake Pit - Game #93, 7/11: Diamondbacks 2, Rockies 19An unofficial Arizona Diamondbacks community and bloghttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/47033/azsnakepit_f.png2018-07-12T00:15:07-04:00http://www.azsnakepit.com/rss/stream/173267432018-07-12T00:15:07-04:002018-07-12T00:15:07-04:00Colorado Rockies 19, Arizona Diamondbacks 2: So... Goldy Homered...
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<img alt="Arizona Diamondbacks v Colorado Rockies" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Eq9fH0F3sMviofaDQYqyE1rPVHI=/0x0:4551x3034/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60344261/996681988.jpg.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>The baseball gods are demented.</p> <p id="E91uhG"><strong>Record: 51-42. Pace: 88-74. Change on 2017: -3. </strong></p>
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<p id="Df8pLm">Boy, what cruel act warranted that level of punishment from the baseball gods? After the <a href="https://www.azsnakepit.com/">Arizona Diamondbacks</a> put up a 20 spot on the <a href="https://www.gaslampball.com/">San Diego Padres</a> last weekend, the <a href="https://www.purplerow.com/">Colorado Rockies</a> massacred the D’backs tonight. It didn’t matter who Torey Lovullo had out on the mound because the Rockies were hitting everything. <span>Shelby Miller</span> took the start and did not reappear in the game following the 1st inning. The team is currently reporting that he has soreness in his throwing elbow, so we should find out in the near future if he will land on the disabled list again or not. He needed 37 pitches to record three outs. </p>
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<p id="nI9P82">The Rockies plate appearances against Miller were as follows: walk, single, single, fielder’s choice, single, strikeout, three run home run, walk, groundout. It was horrendous, folks, make no mistake about it. I’m referring to both Miller’s ability to record outs, and home plate umpire Chad Whitson’s strike zone. Now, I’m not going to craft some sort of defense for Miller on the basis of a garbage strike zone. There should be some value to that given my signature on this site. Could his outing have gone differently if more calls had gone his way? Absolutely, but it doesn’t change the fact that Colorado was putting bat to ball all night, and it started against Shelby. By the time the first inning had concluded, the Rockies had gone through their entire lineup and scored 5 runs.</p>
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<p id="yHhQza">I’m not really sure what else to inform you of. Jorge De La Rosa pitched an inning and two thirds giving up five hits, three walks, seven earned runs and two home runs. Game clearly out of reach by that point, yes? Not according to Colorado I suppose. McFarland took the call next and may have sustained an injury himself. He fell off the mound towards third base awkwardly after a pitch to Gerardo Parra. McFarland stayed in the game to retire Parra on a ground out, but did not return to pitch the 4th inning. Official word from the team on him was a neck strain. </p>
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<p id="2GTnxo">It was evident the game was getting into dangerous territory for the bullpen when Yoshi Hirano entered to pitch in the 4th. At about this time that Bob Brenly commented on how it was unnecessary for Colorado to continue swinging the bat, and I could hardly agree with him more. Hirano retired only a single batter and allowed a triple and two singles. <span>Daniel Descalso</span> took the mound in the bottom of the 4th with one out and the score already escalated 14 to 1, and yet the Rockies continued... to swing... the bat... for the fences. <span>Carlos Gonzalez</span> hit his second home run of the game, a three run shot off Daniel. Even Rockies starting pitcher <span>German Marquez</span> got in on the fun with a solo home run of his own.</p>
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<p id="oui0Qf">At one point in the game all three D’backs “catchers” were on the field at once, <span>Jeff Mathis</span> at second base, <span>Alex Avila</span> at first, and <span>John Ryan Murphy</span> behind the dish. Descalso tossed two and two thirds followed by two scoreless from Avila. Thankfully, everyone decided to begin swinging at the first pitch to induce ground outs resulting in the last few innings ending much quicker than how the game began. I can’t lie, I turned it off by the 7th inning to watch Big Brother on CBS. I could probably recap the veto competition better than the end of this game. Before you throw complaints my direction, keep in mind that the Rockies had a win expectancy of 99% by the third inning, so you’re lucky I stuck around that long. Let’s hope the bullpen isn’t completely destroyed for tomorrow’s series finale at noon. Daniel Descalso and Alex Avila might have salvaged that, but I’d imagine an arm or two are already on their way to Denver from Reno.</p>
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<p id="nQSCOa">Oh, and <span>Paul Goldschmidt</span> hit a solo home run in the first. Yay Paul. You’re the best. Please don’t ever leave. Final tally 19-2 in favor of Colorado.</p>
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<p id="hr6xtU">For those of you wondering, this is tied for the third most runs allowed in a single game by Arizona in their 20 year franchise history. It was the third time they have allowed 19 runs, and they have surrendered 20 and 21 runs once. Ironically, Colorado defeated the D’backs 19-2 on June 18th, 2000. Take a look at the Baseball Reference Play Index (subscription required) <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/game_finder.cgi?request=1&match=basic&series=any&series_game=any&min_year_game=1908&max_year_game=2018&WL=any&team_id=ARI&opp_id=ANY&game_length=any&HV=any&temperature_min=0&temperature_max=120&wind_speed_min=0&wind_speed_max=90&as=team_pitching&class=team&offset=0&type=p&c1gtlt=gt&c2gtlt=gt&c3gtlt=gt&c4gtlt=gt&c5gtlt=gt&c5val=1.0&orderby=tgl_stats.RA&number_matched=1">for a complete list of horrendous outings</a>. You’ll notice that most of these bizarre beatings have come at the hands of Colorado at Coors Field.</p>
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<p id="p8VCGZ">Total comments: 430</p>
<p id="1E46au">Total commenters: 30</p>
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<p id="de6RLj">Yeah, you can catch me watching the live feeds of Big Brother After Dark. Ta Ta everyone.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/diamondbacks-gamedays/2018/7/12/17563174/colorado-rockies-19-arizona-diamondbacks-2-so-goldy-homered-that-sucked-so-badKeegan Thompson2018-07-11T19:30:02-04:002018-07-11T19:30:02-04:00Preview #93: 7/11 vs. Rockies
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<img alt="San Francisco Giants v Arizona Diamondbacks" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tf5KLnmuhFlCrxQuQeXlezFwZ3o=/0x0:3000x2000/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60342247/988441948.jpg.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>¯\_(ツ)_/¯ </p> <div id="jqt72X">
<div class="pane sports_data_widget lineup clearfix">
<h3>Today's Lineups</h3>
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<th align="left">ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS</th>
<th align="left">COLORADO ROCKIES</th>
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<td class="td-last td-name">Jon Jay - RF</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">DJ LeMahieu - 2B</td>
</tr>
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<td class="td-last td-name">Paul Goldschmidt - 1B</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Charlie Blackmon - CF</td>
</tr>
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<td class="td-last td-name">Jake Lamb - 3B</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Nolan Arenado - 3B</td>
</tr>
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<td class="td-last td-name">A.J. Pollock - CF</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Carlos Gonzalez - RF</td>
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<td class="td-last td-name">David Peralta - LF</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Trevor Story - SS</td>
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<td class="td-last td-name">Ketel Marte - SS</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Gerardo Parra - LF</td>
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<td class="td-last td-name">Daniel Descalso - 2B</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Ian Desmond - 1B</td>
</tr>
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<td class="td-last td-name">Alex Avila - C</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Tony Wolters - C</td>
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<td class="td-last td-name">Shelby Miller - RHP</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">German Marquez - RHP</td>
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</tbody>
</table>
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<p id="jv6ULk"><span>Shelby Miller</span> will make his fourth start for the <a href="https://www.azsnakepit.com/">Diamondbacks</a> this evening, in the unforgiving location which is Coors Field. Here’s to this one going better than the first three, which have seen him allow 14 earned runs over 14 innings, for a 9.00 ERA. To some extent, he has been unlucky: Miller has a BABIP of .400, despite a line-drive rate which is below league average (20% vs. 24%), and HR/FB% of 20% compared to his career figure of 7.2%. Also safe to say, he hasn’t got much help from his defense. However, Shelby’s fielding-independent ERA is still 5.34, which... isn’t good. We knew it would be a process as he returned from TJ. But this has certainly been rougher than, say, <span>Patrick Corbin</span>’s comeback.</p>
<div id="ypQm0b"><div style="max-width: 960px;"><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.2493%;"><iframe src="https://www.mlb.com/video/share/mlb-tonight-looks-at-miller/c-2235764283?tid=7417714" style="border: 0; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;" allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no"></iframe></div></div></div>
<p id="fyfq2N">For a neutral perspective, we can turn to John Smoltz. On a recent edition of <em>MLB Tonight</em>, he discussed Miller (above) and explained what Shelby is going through. In the clip, Smoltz says, “I think he’s moments away from getting fastballs up and down, his focus seems to be down with all of his pitches. That’s where the hitters are going with it and I think it’s just a matter of time. This is the downside of recovering from Tommy John: some days you have an explosive breaking ball, some days it rolls, some days you’ve got that good two-seamer... You can see, even though the miles per hour’s nice, it probably doesn’t have the late life that you want - and over time it will.”</p>
<p id="8Z8qBz">There’s no problem with the velocity. Per Fangraphs, Miller has averaged 94.9 mph over those three starts, in line with his career average of 94.5, and virtually where Shelby was in the limited action last year, when he averaged 95.5 mph. But he needs to do a better job getting ahead of hitters. Miller’s career first-strike percentage is right at MLB average, which is 60.3%. But so far, he has thrown strike one to less than half of the hitters he has faced (49.3%), and that makes a big difference. There’s more than 200 points of OPS difference in how NL pitchers fare, between starting an at-bat 0-1 versus 1-0, and Miller needs to be on the right side of that line more often tonight, especially given the location. </p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2018/7/11/17562706/preview-93-7-11-vs-rockiesJim McLennan