AZ Snake Pit - Game #143, 9/8: Diamondbacks 3, Reds 4An unofficial Arizona Diamondbacks community and bloghttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/47033/azsnakepit_f.png2019-09-08T17:21:14-04:00http://www.azsnakepit.com/rss/stream/206192002019-09-08T17:21:14-04:002019-09-08T17:21:14-04:00Diamondbacks 3, Reds 4: Bullpen successfully avoids sweep
<figure>
<img alt="A panel from the Codex Fejervary Mayer shows Tlazolteotl, the goddess of witchcraft" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UCD7tB85r39LhMoWBqHOJJbZTFk=/0x229:3450x2529/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65204599/152193613.jpg.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>A panel from the Codex Fejervary Mayer shows Tlazolteotl, the goddess of witchcraft, She rides a snake, the symbol of sexuality, and a broom since she sweeps away the sinfulness of mankind. She is surrounded by date symbols and dot and bar numerals. Mexico. Mixtec style. Before 1521. | Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the whole, I should have stayed in San Diego. </p> <p id="uQMgks"><strong>Record: 75-68. Pace: 85-77. Change on 2018: -1. </strong></p>
<p id="m04gtF">Criticism will likely be leveled at the <a href="https://www.azsnakepit.com/">Diamondbacks</a> bullpen for this one. It’s understandable, considering they combined to allow five hits and two runs while recording a mere six outs. But the offense certainly has to come in for their share of blame. You won’t win many games when being outhit by a 12-3 margin, as Arizona were by Cincinnati this afternoon. Indeed, the D-backs now have a 10-89 record when recording just three hits in a game, so while the L may be hung by the name of <span>Yoan Lopez</span>, a good chunk of it goes to the position players who went 3-for-27. Either way, the series finale was dropped, though it does appear it won’t lose Arizona any ground on Chicago, as they are currently losing too. </p>
<p id="4jP5kf">Arizona got on the board first, taking advantage of a Cincinnati error. After Eduardo Escobar drew a walk, <span>Jake Lamb</span> hit into the shift, and what could have been a double-play ball. However, it was the third-baseman on the pivot at second, and on taking the throw, never had it under control. Initially, Escobar was called out, the umpire saying the ball was dropped on the transfer, but replay showed that was clearly not the case, and the decision was reversed from New York after Torey Lovullo appealed. <span>Nick Ahmed</span> then rolled the ball through the hole at short, and Escobar motored around from second to score the game’s opening tally.</p>
<p id="JtJr7p"><span>Mike Leake</span>, meanwhile, was doing <span>Mike Leake</span> things. He scattered seven hits over his 6.1 innings of work, but five of those came with two outs in the inning, and proved harmless. The exceptions came in the bottom of the third where <span>Joey Votto</span> singled, before <span>Eugenio Suarez</span> sent the ball out of the fun-sized venue which is Great American Ballpark. the 36th home-run allowed by <span>Leake</span> this year. It tied him with <span>Matthew Boyd</span> of the <a href="https://www.blessyouboys.com/">Tigers</a> for the major-league lead. At the other end, he walked none, expanding his MLB lead in BB/9, but did hit a batter. It made him 7-for-7 in outings with 3 or fewer K’s since coming to AZ. That’s tied for fifth in such streaks by a D-back; the last longer was <span>Steve Sparks</span>’s 8, back in 2004. </p>
<p id="KSBg7l">Speaking of records, congratulations to <span>Tim Locastro</span>, who set a new franchise record for plunkings in a single season. He was hit for the 20th time this year, breaking <span>Justin Upton</span>’s mark set back in 2011. <span>Upton</span> played in 159 games for the Diamondbacks that year. This was just appearance #81 for <span>Locastro</span>. He’s almost certain to become the player with 20+ HBPs in the fewest number of games for almost 130 years. Chief Roseman of the American Association was hit 29 times while playing for the St. Louis Browns, over 82 games in 1890. The next lowest is 99 games, needed by <span>Tyler Flowers</span> for his 20 in 2017.</p>
<div id="jD1oXu">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">You just LOVE to see this. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RattleOn?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RattleOn</a> <a href="https://t.co/9kUEYH4lxk">pic.twitter.com/9kUEYH4lxk</a></p>— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) <a href="https://twitter.com/Dbacks/status/1170769183497281536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2019</a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div>
<p id="8wm61b">As seems to happen so often, it sparked an Arizona rally. In this case, in the shape of <span>Ketel Marte</span>’s 32nd home-run of the season (above). Courtesy of <span>Locastro</span>’s franchise record, it gave the D-backs a 3-2 lead with one out in the top of the fifth. However, the offense would vanish thereafter, not getting another hit, with just walks to <span>Jake Lamb</span>, <span>Josh Rojas</span> and <span>Jarrod Dyson</span> for their efforts. Despite this, <span>Leake</span> batted in the top of the seventh, but was lifted at exactly 100 pitches, after the HBP with one out in the bottom half. <span>Matt Andriese</span> came in to tidy up, and retired both batters faced. Good thing too - otherwise we’d have seen <span>Joey Votto</span> come to the plate, with two men on and the tying run in scoring position. </p>
<p id="KIrr1o">In the end though, it didn’t matter: odd how baseball works. Yesterday, <span>Andrew Chafin</span> was the goat, and <span>Jimmie Sherfy</span> was the GOAT. Today, both men pitched an inning earlier, in the eighth, and their roles were reversed. <span>Chafin</span> made short work of perennial MVP candidate Votto, carving him up and striking him out with a slider well out of the zone. But <span>Sherfy</span> was unable to repeat the success he found against <span>Suarez</span> last night. While he looked more stable on the mound - yesterday, it looked like he’d been taking pitching lessons from <span>Zack Godley</span> - his pitches were catching too much of the plate this afternoon. Suarez connected and was just able to keep the ball fair down the left-field line, for a game-tying homer. </p>
<p id="4jyaty">Having apparently forgotten there was such a thing as a bullpen in the top of the seventh, Lovullo decided to make up for lost time. The final six Cincinnati outs were recorded by six different Arizona relievers. <span>Sherfy</span> was the only one to face more than two batters, and none of the six threw more than 11 pitches. [This is why a regulation 4-3 game still took 192 minutes to complete. Doncha just love September rosters?] It appears neither <span>Kevin Ginkel</span> or <span>Archie Bradley</span> were available, so we saw a ninth worked by Robbie Scott (who did retire his batter), <span>Lopez</span> (who didn’t) and <span>T.J. McFarland</span> (ditto). There may be an issue when McDFA is giving up walk-off hits in a post-season chase, to a pinch-hitting relief pitcher. </p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/32uGqP6gzJl_-4VDJf2_7ImHah4=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19179133/chart.png">
</figure>
<div id="5hOGBS"><p style="text-align:center"><b>Click <a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2019-03-30&team=Dodgers&dh=0&season=2019" target="_blank">here</a> for details, at Fangraphs.com</b>
<br><b>Michelangelo: Ketel Marte, +14.8%</b>
<br>Da Vinci: Lamb, +12.9%; Leake, +11.6%; Andriese, +11.3%
<br><b><i>A load of Jackson Pollocks: T.J. McFarland, -29.2%</i></b><i>
<br>Four Dogs Playing Poker: Sherfy, -25.9%; Locastro, -14.8%; Almonte, -13.2%; Lopez, -12.8%</i></p></div>
<p id="CPZx9y">Pleased to see people were able to make up in today’s GDT. :) Present were: AZDovs11, AzDbackfanInDc, BobDolio, DBacksEurope, DORRITO, DeadManG, EphBoston, GuruB, Hannibal4467, Jack Sommers, Jim McLennan, Justin27, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, MikeDavisAZ, MrMrrbi, NikT77, Oldenschoole, Schilling2001, SenSurround, Snake_Bitten, UofALifer, William Kubas, gzimmerm, kilnborn, onedotfive and rekameohs, with MikeDavisAZ getting CotG for this bit of snark, even if it turned out to be inaccurate!</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RqMusz0mTMK182YpARSjYMbePmE=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19179182/Capture.jpg">
</figure>
<p id="vlRhu7">Oh, well: can’t win ‘em all. And I’ve just held off on posting this, to be certain that the <a href="https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/">Cubs</a> have lost as well, so the D-backs remain 1<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>2</sub> games back of the second wild-card spot. Arizona moves on to New York for a crunch four-game set against the <a href="https://www.amazinavenue.com/">Mets</a>. Merrill Kelly gets the sticky end of the lollipop, having to go up against Jacob DeGrom in the series opener, with first pitch at 4:10 pm Arizona time tomorrow. </p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2019/9/8/20855795/diamondbacks-reds-mike-leake-ketel-marte-mvpJim McLennan2019-09-08T13:00:00-04:002019-09-08T13:00:00-04:00Gameday Thread, #143: 9/8 @ Reds
<figure>
<img alt="David (about 1010-970 BC), king of Israel, by Mich" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nG1EabJswozJSMjlbp2sEDiZUAs=/67x16:1656x1075/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65203777/55754656.jpg.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo by LL/Roger Viollet via Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<div id="GY5FMz">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">September 8 - 1504: Italy - Michelangelo's David, a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture, was unveiled in Florence. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/history?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#history</a></p>— Today In History (@Yesterday_Today) <a href="https://twitter.com/Yesterday_Today/status/1170686473424789505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2019</a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2019/9/8/20855543/gameday-thread-143-9-8-redsJim McLennan2019-09-08T12:00:00-04:002019-09-08T12:00:00-04:00Preview, #143: 9/8 @ Reds
<figure>
<img alt="San Diego Padres v Arizona Diamondbacks" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/51qH6j7zoQb2ma8g-9uQL8SJjms=/0x0:2614x1743/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65203495/1172055729.jpg.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If we can win another Mike Leake start, who can possibly deny the D-backs are contenders?</p> <div id="jO8kts">
<div class="pane sports_data_widget lineup clearfix">
<h3>Today's Lineups</h3>
<div class="lineup">
<table width="100%" cellspacing="0" class="zebra">
<thead>
<tr>
<th align="left">DIAMONDBACKS</th>
<th align="left">REDS</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">Tim Locastro - CF</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Josh VanMeter - RF</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">Josh Rojas - LF</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Joey Votto - 1B</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">Ketel Marte - 2B</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Eugenio Suarez - 3B</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">Eduardo Escobar - 3B</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Tucker Barnhart - C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">Jake Lamb - 1B</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Freddy Galvis - 2B</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">Abraham Almonte - RF</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Jose Iglesias - SS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">Nick Ahmed - SS</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Derek Dietrich - LF</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">Alex Avila - C</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Brian O'Grady - CF</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">Mike Leake - RHP</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">A. DeSclafani - RHP</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="Wjj3gC">
<p id="0n2Lsu">It’s nice to travel, but it’s nice to be back home, where the bed has an adequate number of pillows, and we are not under the landing path at an international airport. Mind you, it will clearly take some time for me to re-adjust back to my regular keyboard. The one I was typing on while in San Diego was a tablet one, which was rather smaller than normal, and made heavy use of function keys for special characters. Just as I had learned where the ‘ and - combination were, we’ve returned to Phoenix, and I have to forget everything I had learned over the last five days. So, apologies for any typos in the remainder of this or the recap I’ll be doing today.</p>
<p id="oK540l">Though if I had realized it was a Mike Leake start, I might well have made a different decision when Jack asked me whether I needed him to recap Saturday or Sunday... Even though Leake has won his last two starts, they were against the Giants and the Padres. Indeed, the two before that, he faced the Rockies and Giants. And going forward, he’ll face the Reds, both today and next Friday, when the D-backs open a series against Cincinnati back at Chase Field, then the Marlins. So that will be seven consecutive starts for Leake against teams ranked in the bottom third of the National League by OPS+. </p>
<p id="cYPmId">But it isn’t as if he has dominated them: in the four already played, despite a 2-1 record, he has an ERA of 5.47. The results have been slightly better in the last couple of outings. He pitched into the eighth versus San Francisco, and had a shutout with two outs in the sixth against San Diego, and the bases empty. Of course, Leake ended up not even getting a quality start there, allowing four runs before getting the third out. It also helped the D-backs offense have scored 39 runs across Leake’s six starts. When you’re averaging 6.5 runs per game, you can handle an ERA of 6.43. But I am concerned about his HR tendencies, especially in a Little League-like part like GAB. Still, road series is in the bag = house money.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2019/9/8/20855160/preview-143-9-8-redsJim McLennan