AZ Snake Pit - Game #118: 8/18, Arizona Diamondbacks 8, Pittsburgh Pirates 9An unofficial Arizona Diamondbacks community and bloghttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/47033/azsnakepit_f.png2015-08-19T01:21:01-04:00http://www.azsnakepit.com/rss/stream/89381902015-08-19T01:21:01-04:002015-08-19T01:21:01-04:00Anderson bailed out, bullpen can't hold forever
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ybnQny0m0f59uccx_C3j1lEao-s=/0x37:3000x2037/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46988900/GettyImages-484437676.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Jared Wickerham/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Wheel of Chase Anderson (mis)fortune was spun once again today, and it came up with... "Not good; in fact, rather terrible"</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.azsnakepit.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Diamondbacks</a> gave him a chance though. They jumped out to an early lead, putting up a crooked number in the top of the first inning, much like last night. Three straight singles for A. J. Pollock, <span>Aaron Hill</span>, and <span>Paul Goldschmidt</span> put two runners on, and one in before the first out was recorded. Wellington Castillo walked. Bases loaded, still no one out. <span>Yasmany Tomas</span> grounded into an RBI double play with the next at bat, scoring Hill and sending Goldy to third. Peralta made the third out with a fly ball to right, but not before the Dbacks got an early two run lead.</p>
<p>It wouldn't last long. <span>Chase Anderson</span> just didn't have it tonight, and that was clear early on. He gave up two singles to lead off the first, and a throwing error on a pick off attempt let those runners go to second and third. <span>Andrew McCutchen</span> brought <span>Gregory Polanco</span> home from third on a sac fly, and <span>Starling Marte</span> went to third. Another sac fly, this time by <span>Aramis Ramirez</span>, brought home Marte and tied the game. <span>Jung Ho Kang</span> made the third out, but not before the <a href="https://www.bucsdugout.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Pirates</a> tied the game at 2 a piece.</p>
<p>Both teams added single tallies to maintain the tie in the second inning. <span>Nick Ahmed</span> got a one out triple and Anderson brought him home with a bunt single. The Pirates got theirs thanks to an RBI double that brought home <span>Pedro Alvarez</span>. They also added a run in the third, thanks to a Starling Marte solo home run.</p>
<p>Everyone was quiet in the fourth, but the fifth is where everything got out of hand for Anderson. With two outs, he gave up a single to Ramirez, a single to Kang, and a walk to <span>Neil Walker</span> to load the bases. The final blow for him came in the next at bat, when Pedro Alvarez hit a 2-RBI single to give Pittsburgh a 6-3 lead. That was the end of the road for Anderson, and Chip Hale pulled him for <span>Josh Collmenter</span>, who gave up an RBI single to the first batter he faced to make it 7-3 Pirates.</p>
<p>Pittsburgh added another run in the seventh, but the Diamondbacks weren't going to take it lying down. They loaded the bases in the eighth inning, and a walk to Goldschmidt, a sac fly to Castillo, and a Tomas single let them put up a three spot of their own. That was all for that inning, but they weren't done in the ninth. The Pirates committed two pretty basic errors, the first allowing <span>Ender Inciarte</span> to reach and the second allowing Goldschmidt not to just get on base, but go to third, scoring both Inciarte and Aaron Hill to tie the game. <span>David Hernandez</span> came in for the bottom of the ninth, and thanks to a replay assisted double play, sent the game to extra innings.</p>
<p>They would battle on for six more innings, finally culminating in the bottom of the fifteenth inning. <span>Keith Hessler</span> was pitching his second inning, and got two strikeouts to start things off. However, a single to <span>Francisco Cervelli</span> was followed by a double off the bat of <span>Pedro Florimon</span> to bring the run home and end the game. 9-8 Pirates is your final in a buttload of innings.</p>
<p align="center"><iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2015-08-18&team=Pirates&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2015-08-18&team=Pirates&dh=0&season=2015">FanGraphs</a></span></p>
<p>When you look at WPA, it becomes clear how we lost this game. <i>Seven different players</i> had a WPA lower than -19%, with one of them, Chase Anderson, being at -45%. Big kudos to Paul Goldschmidt though, who had a 67.3% WPA and tried to single handedly win the game, despite the epic levels of suck from some of his teammates. Not bad for a guy mired in the worst slump of his career.</p>
<p align="center">***</p>
<p>Comment of the night goes to noblevillian for his comment that I am blaming for jinxing us later on in the game...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I know Oscar cant hit the bright side of the barn, but it could be worse, we could have had florimon! lol <br>by noblevillain on Aug 18, 2015 | 8:45 PM ↩reply ⋆ rec ⚑ flag ⚙actions</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In addition to that comment, there were an addition 855 in the GDT, largely due to the excess number of innings we played tonight. Leading the way with 202 comments all by himself was freeland1787, followed very distantly by GuruB and myself 69 and 65 respectively. Same teams and same time tomorrow, though I feel safe saying that there will be less innings played. See you then!</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2015/8/19/9174811/offense-bails-out-andersonImstillhungry952015-08-19T00:20:55-04:002015-08-19T00:20:55-04:00Diamondbacks 8, Pirates 9
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WVNU6_NsT72t6O6G8d5IGgJn_j8=/0x26:400x293/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47827675/large_azsnakepit.com.minimal.0.png" />
</figure>
<p>Poor pitching from <span>Chase Anderson</span> put the <a href="https://www.azsnakepit.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Diamondbacks</a> in a deep hole, though offense hung in there. The Dbacks scored two in the first, and one in the second, but both times, Anderson failed to have a shut down inning and allowed the <a href="https://www.bucsdugout.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Pirates</a> to tie things back up. Then in the fifth inning, he and <span>Josh Collmenter</span> allowed Pittsburgh to put up a three spot, and that ended the line on Anderson with seven runs allowed. Not good enough</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <span>Francisco Liriano</span> made the offense work. Sure, he gave up three runs early, and was at least responsible for three runs late, but in between he sat down thirteen batters in a row, and gave his team the chance to build a large lead throughout the night, and when he was done for the night, he had a two run lead. The offense battled back, though, and tied things up in the top of the ninth.</p>
<p>And it would stay tied at eight until inning number 15, when Keith Hessler gave up an RBI double. Pirates win, 8-9</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2015/8/19/9175003/diamondbacks-pirates-8Imstillhungry952015-08-18T18:00:01-04:002015-08-18T18:00:01-04:00Game #118 Preview: 8/18, Diamondbacks @ Pirates
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sIcj9gQkTFUrU-kiAtdUk0gjj8U=/0x262:2554x1965/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46987236/usa-today-8754486.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This preview is brought to you in brief, intermittent spurts. Oscar keeps circling the monitor, and I have to keep switching to a non-volatile browser tab when he nears the keyboard....</p> <div class="pane sports_data_widget lineup clearfix">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="middle" width="10%"><img src="https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/assets/2572695/ari.png"></td>
<td valign="middle" width="40%">
<h5>
<span>Chase Anderson</span><br>RHP, 5-5, 4.31<br>
</h5>
</td>
<td valign="middle" width="10%"><img src="https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/3066601/pit.png"></td>
<td valign="middle" width="40%">
<h5>
<span>Francisco Liriano</span><br>LHP, 8-6, 3.19<span></span>
</h5>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name" width="50%">
<span>A.J. Pollock</span> - CF</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">
<span>Gregory Polanco</span> - RF</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">
<span>Aaron Hill</span> - 3B</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">
<span>Starling Marte</span> - LF</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">
<span>Paul Goldschmidt</span> - 1B</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">
<span>Andrew McCutchen</span> - CF</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">
<span>Welington Castillo</span> - C</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">
<span>Aramis Ramirez</span> - 3B</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">
<span>Yasmany Tomas</span> - RF</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Jung-Ho Kang - SS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">
<span>David Peralta</span> - LF</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">
<span>Neil Walker</span> - 2B</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">
<span>Chris Owings</span> - 2B</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">
<span>Pedro Alvarez</span> - 1B</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">
<span>Nick Ahmed</span> - SS</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">
<span>Francisco Cervelli</span> - C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td-last td-name">Chase Anderson - RHP</td>
<td class="td-first td-name">Francisco Liriano - LHP</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>Remember when Chase Anderson was good? And then he wasn't? And then he went on the DL, and he came back and threw seven shutout innings against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.redreporter.com/">Reds</a>, and we thought he was back? And then he lasted only five innings against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.thegoodphight.com/">Phillies</a>? Yeah, it's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride for Anderson, to the point that his ERA is now almost indistinguishable from Rubby De La Rosa (4.31 vs. 4.40), and the results when he pitches are about as unpredictable. Anderson's season ERA is higher than last year, but his FIP is 12 points lower. Be interesting to see what happens as his innings rack up (153.1 total in 2014, 117 so far this season).</p>
<p>Peralta moves back to left-field today, after a late switch in yesterday's line-up moved him to right, apparently as better able to handle the quirks of PNC Park. He did seem to be kept fairly busy there, so be interesting to see how Yasmany handles it. Peralta appears to be getting more press of late: Jeff Passan <a target="_blank" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees--baseball-s-best-seasons-no-one-is-noticing-155745161.html">wrote about him</a> the other day, highlighting him (as well as Pollock and <span>Brad Ziegler</span>) as among "baseball's best seasons no one is noticing." Certainly, he has been insanely productive: over the past three weeks, his line is .453/.493/.703. It's utterly unsustainable (BABIP of <u>.531</u>!), but those hits are in the books and not going anywhere.</p>
<p>David currently has an OPS+ of 143 for the season. Know how many outfielders in team history have posted a figure that high? One. Luis Gonzalez in 2001. It's even higher than the 141 put up by <span>Justin Upton</span> in 2011, when he finished fourth in MVP voting. While the talk about a contract extension for Pollock is certainly fully justified, it might not be a bad idea to think about buying out some of Peralta's upcoming years too. It'd be nice not to have to worry about the outfield for the foreseeable future.</p>
https://www.azsnakepit.com/2015/8/18/9173945/arizona-diamondbacks-pittsburgh-pirates-previewJim McLennan