AZ Snake Pit - Game #106: 8/5, Arizona Diamondbacks 11 @ Washington Nationals 4An unofficial Arizona Diamondbacks community and bloghttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/47033/azsnakepit_f.png2015-08-05T23:37:30-04:00http://www.azsnakepit.com/rss/stream/88679702015-08-05T23:37:30-04:002015-08-05T23:37:30-04:00Offense sparks late as Dbacks destroy Nationals
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<figcaption>i know nick, i'm shocked too | Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Once Gio left, the Dbacks feasted on the Nationals bullpen winning easily 11-4.</p> <p>AsĀ <a href="http://www.azsnakepit.com/2015/8/5/9103731/game-106-preview-8-5-arizona-diamondbacks-washington-nationals">Jim mentioned in the Game Preview</a>, we've had the opportunity this season to see many sides of Rubby de la Rosa. This game summed up well his season. Ineffective and wild to start but did well to fight through 5 innings of 2-run ball.</p>
<p>Rubby was wild early on, giving up a double to <span>Yunel Escobar</span>, back to back walks to <span>Anthony Rendon</span> and <span>Bryce Harper</span>, and then back to back sacrifice flies from <span>Ryan Zimmerman</span> and Jayson Werth. With his 29th pitch of the inning, <span>Danny Espinosa</span> would fly out to left for the 3rd out.</p>
<p>But for how much Rubby struggled in the 1st, he settled down and was solid afterwards. Giving up just a bloop single to Rendon in the 3rd inning, and a walk to Escobar in the 5th. Despite the lack of threat from the <a href="https://www.federalbaseball.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Nationals</a>, Rubby ran his pitch count up and left after 5 innings. His final line was 5 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 3BB's and 3K's over 101 pitches.</p>
<p>With an early lead, <span>Gio Gonzalez</span> went to work and scooted around trouble in every inning. A 2-out single for <span>Paul Goldschmidt</span> ended his 0 for 15 skid, and he stole 2nd immediately to put a runner in scoring position. But it was for naught as <span>Welington Castillo</span> struck out.</p>
<p>The 2nd again had the Dbacks threatening, with a leadoff walk from <span>Aaron Hill</span> and a sharp single off the bat of Yasmany Tomas. But Gio bore down and lit the back end of the Dbacks lineup up, getting strikeouts from <span>Chris Owings</span>, <span>Nick Ahmed</span> and Rubby de la Rosa to end the threat.</p>
<p>The 3rd had the Dbacks again finding early success against Gio but unable to finish the job. <span>Ender Inciarte</span> singled but A.J Pollock switched places with him after a groundout for the 1st out. But Goldy and Castillo singled with 1 out to load the bases and Aaron Hill finally delivered, hitting a flyball to center to score Pollock and make things 2-1. Although that would be the end of things, as Tomas struck out.</p>
<p>The 4th for the Dbacks was a quick one, as the went down in order but the 5th was eventful. Pollock singled with 1-out and Goldy followed that up with a single of his own. Chip Hale called for a beautiful double steal that was executed perfectly as Pollock beat the throw at 3rd. With runners on 2nd and 3rd, we were sure to get the lead right? Wrong. Castillo and Hill both struck out to end things.</p>
<p>The 6th saw the end of Gio Gonzalez after he allowed a leadoff single to Tomas and the flood gates for the offense exploded. <span>Aaron Barrett</span> entered and Owings greeted him to the game with a single up the middle. Nick Ahmed bunted beautifully to 3rd and with Escobar covering 3rd, Barrett overthrew Zimmerman at 1st and allowed Tomas and Owings to score with Ahmed reaching 3rd and giving the Dbacks a 3-2 lead they would never relinquish. <span>Jarrod Saltalamacchia</span> came on as a pinch hitter and hit a broken bat single to score Ahmed and make things 4-2 with still 0 outs. Inciarte popped out to 3rd for the 1st out but Pollock singled and that was it for Barrett as he was pulled for Tanner Roark. Goldy lined out to right for the 2nd out but Roark lost control as he walked both Castillo and Hill to gift the Dbacks a run 5-2. Tomas would strike out to end the inning.</p>
<p>Things were silent for both teams as the Nationals and Dbacks bullpens did a solid job limiting things until the 8th, when Nationals lefty reliever <span>Matt Thornton</span> allowed a leadoff triple to Inciarte. A Pollock line out followed, but Goldy would unintentionally intentionally walk to put runners on the corners with Welington Castillo up. He decided to bring the beef with a 3-run blast to centerfield and make things 8-2.</p>
<p>The 9th followed the same plan for the offense against hard throwing Felipe Rivero. Owings was HBP, Pennington singled, and Inciarte had an 8 pitch at-bat before singling. A balk would score the Dbacks 9th run of the game. Pollock beat out a grounder to 3rd for the 10th run and after <span>Tyler Moore</span> replaced Rivero, Goldy grounded out for the 11th run.</p>
<p>The bullpen was solid in relief of de la Rosa, going 4 innings and only allowing a rogue 2 run homer to Michael A. Taylor in the 9th with the game already out of reach. Those that pitched included, <span>David Hernandez</span>, <span>Addison Reed</span>, <span>Oliver Perez</span> and the suddenly struggling <span>Daniel Hudson</span>.</p>
<p>Definitely a weird game. Struggles early for both the pitchers and hitters but things righted themselves later on as the <span>Matt Williams</span> bumbled his bullpen management. Aren't we glad we let him go?</p>
<p><iframe style="border:1px solid black;" scrolling="no" src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=1089474&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2015-08-05&team=Nationals&dh=0" frameborder="0" height="450" width="450"></iframe><br><span>Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2015-08-05&team=Nationals&dh=0&season=2015">FanGraphs</a></span></p>
<h5>The Good - Nick Ahmed (+23.5%), Literally everyone</h5>
<h5>The Bad - Rubby de la Rosa (-5.5% batting, -1.4% pitching)</h5>
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<th colspan="2">Roll Call Info</th>
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<td width="150">Total comments</td>
<td>703</td>
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<td>Total commenters</td>
<td>29</td>
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<td>Commenter list</td>
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<a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/AzDbackfanInDc">AzDbackfanInDc</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/AzRattler">AzRattler</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/BrokeNBattleX">BrokeNBattleX</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/DeadmanG">DeadmanG</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/GuruB">GuruB</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/James%20Attwood">James Attwood</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Jets%20Mets%20Devils%20Nets%2015">Jets Mets Devils Nets 15</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Jim%20McLennan">Jim McLennan</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/JoeCB1991">JoeCB1991</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/LetsgoMEX">LetsgoMEX</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Makakilo">Makakilo</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/MrMrrbi">MrMrrbi</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Oldenschoole">Oldenschoole</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/PhxSunsFan4Life">PhxSunsFan4Life</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Re%20Tired">Re Tired</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/SongBird">SongBird</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Steven%20Burt">Steven Burt</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Zavada's%20Moustache">Zavada's Moustache</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/freeland1787">freeland1787</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/gamepass">gamepass</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/hotclaws">hotclaws</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/hventure">hventure</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/noblevillain">noblevillain</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/onedotfive">onedotfive</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/piratedan7">piratedan7</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/rd33">rd33</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/serg_guillen">serg_guillen</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/since_98">since_98</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/thunderpumpkin87">thunderpumpkin87</a>
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<p>Early game on a Wednesday usually mean trouble for attendance but I think the length of this game inflated some of the numbers. AzDbackFaninDC was our comment of the thread with his awful prediction skills. Skip on the lottery ticket this week.<br><br> <figure class="e-image">
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<p>Come back tomorrow for the series finale.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2015/8/5/9105751/dbacks-destroy-nationals-game-recap-august-5Steven Burt2015-08-05T23:06:11-04:002015-08-05T23:06:11-04:00Diamondbacks 11, Nationals 4
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<p>Boy that was fun.</p> <p>The Dbacks combined for 17 hits and 4 BB's as things went downhill in a hurry after <span>Gio Gonzalez</span> left the game in the 5th. Leading the charge for the good guys was the top 4 batters as they went 11 for 19. <span>Paul Goldschmidt</span> finally broke out of his 0 for 15 slump with 3 hits, with A.J Pollock and <span>Ender Inciarte</span> joining him in the 3 hit club. <span>Welington Castillo</span> homered, and <span>Aaron Hill</span> added 2 RBI's.</p>
<p>Rubby de la Rosa struggled early on, giving up 2 runs in the 1st but settled down after that and went 5 innings to pick up the lucky win. The bullpen followed that up with 4 innings of their own, only blemished by a late 2 run given up by <span>Daniel Hudson</span>.</p>
<p>With the win tonight, they guaranteed themselves at least a series split and also a winning road trip after taking their 6th win in 9 games. Come back tomorrow for an early one as <span>Jeremy Hellickson</span> faces <span>Joe Ross</span> to decide the series.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2015/8/5/9106321/diamondbacks-11-nationals-4Steven Burt2015-08-05T18:00:01-04:002015-08-05T18:00:01-04:00Game #106 Preview: 8/5, Diamondbacks @ Nationals
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<figcaption>Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Once again, it's time for that popular game we play every five days! Wheel! Of! De La Rosa!</p> <div class="pane sports_data_widget lineup clearfix">
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<h5>Rubby De La Rosa<br>RHP, 8-5, 4.59<span></span><span></span>
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<span>Gio Gonzalez</span><br>LHP, <span>8-4, 3.75</span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span>
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<span>Ender Inciarte</span> - LF</td>
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<span>Yunel Escobar</span> - 3B</td>
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<span>A.J. Pollock</span> - CF</td>
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<span>Anthony Rendon</span> - 2B</td>
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<span>Paul Goldschmidt</span> - 1B</td>
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<span>Bryce Harper</span> - RF</td>
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<span>Welington Castillo</span> - C</td>
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<span>Ryan Zimmerman</span> - 1B</td>
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<span>Aaron Hill</span> - 3B</td>
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<span>Jayson Werth</span> - LF</td>
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<span>Yasmany Tomas</span> - RF</td>
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<span>Danny Espinosa</span> - SS</td>
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<span>Chris Owings</span> - 2B</td>
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<span>Jose Lobaton</span> - C</td>
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<span>Nick Ahmed</span> - SS</td>
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<span>Michael Taylor</span> - CF</td>
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<td class="td-last td-name">Rubby De La Rosa - RHP</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Gio Gonzalez - LHP</td>
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<p>You can get some idea of just how random De La Rosa's appearances have been, by looking at the <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_score">Game Scores</a> he has posted over his 21 starts to date. Not only do they run the range from 14 to 78, they are also almost evenly spread across the range of outcomes, rather than the more-expected bell-curve, with most results in the middle. Vague delimiters are vague, but see this:</p>
<ul>
<li>Less than thirty: five</li>
<li>Thirties and forties: five</li>
<li>Fifties and sixties: six</li>
<li>Seventy or better: five</li>
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<p>He has allowed a total of 67 earned runs, but almost half of those have come in just five of those 21 appearances, in which he worked 25.1 innings, allowing 38 hits, nine walks and ten home-runs, leading to 33 earned runs, and an ERA of 11.72. Over the other 16 outings, so more than three-quarters of the time, De La Rosa has a 2.89 ERA. Now, obviously, filtering out any pitcher's worst five starts is going to help them, but to a 4:1 ratio in ERA? If we do the same for <span>Jeremy Hellickson</span>, say, our other pitcher to have 20+ starts, we get 28 ER in 23.2 innings in his worst five, a 10.65 ERA, with the others a 3.40 ERA, so around a 3:1 ratio. Perhaps this is a metric of pitcher volatility.</p>
<p>For today, I guess we'll see what happens. It's going to be interesting to see what the team decides to do with De La Rosa as far as the 2016 staff goes. There have been flashes - even multiple, consecutive starts - where he has shown the stuff to be front of the rotation guy. However, the overall numbers have been distinctly underwhelming, and if he can't become more consistent, you have to ask if it's worth taking the really good, if it also comes with a large helping of extremely bad.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2015/8/5/9103731/game-106-preview-8-5-arizona-diamondbacks-washington-nationalsJim McLennan