SB Nation User Blog: Azreous

Autopsy released for Gabrielle Schoeneweis

Azreous — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:32:19 -0000

Autopsy released for Gabrielle Schoeneweis

We are reporting the information for anyone who wants it, but out of respect to the family, that is all we will be doing.

2009 Diamondbacks Pop Quiz Answers/Results

Azreous — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:21:21 -0000

I know, you've been chomping at the bit to know what the answers were. What's that? Some of you didn't take the quiz yet? Well, you're in luck; the link is still active and the answer key is after the jump. Quick, click here before you peek at the results. For the rest of the class, your grades are in red ink at the top of the next page...

First, we'll go through the questions and talk about the solutions and whatnot. After that, your results. Don't worry, only a few of you are going to have to be held back, and the quiz doesn't tell me who you are.

ANSWERS

Most people know Clay Zavada's middle name (Pflibson). Whose middle name is Carl?
Chris Snyder
John Hester
Trent Oeltjen
Josh Whitesell

Yes, Mr. Dreamy's middle name is Carl. All you ladies who missed this question should be ashamed. I couldn't even find more than a middle initial for Whitesell or Hester, and Snyder's middle name is John.

Which Diamondback has the team's highest OPS?
Mark Reynolds
Justin Upton
Miguel Montero
Rusty Ryal

Okay, I admit: this was a little misleading. After all, it didn't talk about qualifying at-bats or anything like that. But Upton (.899), Reynolds (.892) and Montero (.832) all fell short of matching Ryal's .946. All 59 ABs of it.

Our final home attendance for the season was:
2,059,412
2,128,765
2,193,044
2,235,820

We snuck over the 2.1 million mark, which was the third-lowest total in franchise history. Only 2005 and 2006 were worse. Even the abysmal 2004 team pulled in 400,000 more fans.

Unsurprisingly, Mark Reynolds leads the D-backs in errors. Who has the second-most?
Felipe Lopez
Stephen Drew
Justin Upton
Miguel Montero

Lopez likely would've finished second on the team if he'd stuck around -- he had 9 in just 83 games. Drew was third with 11, but as a middle infielder that's not too bad either. Montero had a surprising nine behind the plate. But topping them all was Justin Upton, who had 12 in 137 games. Certainly, the cries for Upton to improve on his fundamentals might have some validity, because we know he has the athleticism to play a good right field.

Stephen Drew is just three triples away from becoming the Diamondbacks' career leader. Name the player ahead of him.
Craig Counsell
Steve Finley
Tony Womack
Luis Gonzalez

Did you guess the speedster? It does make sense, after all. Tony Womack is the franchise leader with 37. Surprisingly, Drew already has 34 in his time with the Diamondbacks. Finley also tallied 34 in an Arizona uniform, which isn't too bad for the twilight of his career. Gonzo had 27.

One can argue the merits of the DH in baseball. Who slotted in as the designated hitter the most times in interleague play this year?
Miguel Montero
Justin Upton
Chris Snyder
Eric Byrnes

Byrnes was the DH three times. No, I don't know why either.

Who was the youngest player to wear a Diamondback uniform this season?
Justin Upton
Gerardo Parra
Bryan Augenstein
Daniel Schlereth

Were you tricked? Upton was the only 21-year-old on the roster this season. Parra and Augenstein are both 22, and Schlereth clocks in at a senile 23. Granted, I'm 24, so...

This season was full of losses. How long was the team's longest losing streak?
Five games
Seven games
Eight games
Nine games

The D-backs lost seven straight from Aug. 16-22. If you remember, that was the stretch of games where we just got destroyed by opposing pitchers, although to be fair those pitchers included Cliff Lee, Tommy Hanson, Joe Blanton, Roy Oswalt, and...Randy Wolf. Well, they weren't ALL aces. Meanwhile, we won five straight three different times -- and every time, I'm pretty sure we talked about turning the corner. Whoops.

Mark Reynolds is sixth in team history with 260 RBIs. Only one current Diamondback has more RBIs than Special K. Name him.
Chad Tracy
Conor Jackson
Stephen Drew
Eric Byrnes

The list goes like this: Gonzalez (774), Finley (479), Williams (381), Tracy (318), Bell (304), Reynolds (261). Surprising to see Tracy that high, even knowing he's been with the team so long and did have that good year in 2005. Of course, with Tracy all but gone from next year's roster, those targets should all be static for Reynolds to eclipse in the future.

Sure, it's been a miserable year offensively. But the Diamondbacks are leading the National League in one hitting stat. Which is it?
Most doubles
Fewest GIDPs
Most triples
Fewest HBPs

At the time, we were tied with the Mets for fewest hit-by-pitches. Like everything else this season, though, we screwed that up: the Mets "beat" us by one. Go team.

Not counting a card with Felipe Lopez, the Diamondbacks' most-used lineup has appeared in five games this season -- and no, Bob Melvin isn't still the manager. Name that lineup.
Young, Drew, Upton, Montero, Reynolds, Parra, Roberts, Allen, Pitcher
Drew, Parra, Upton, Reynolds, Montero, Young, Allen, Ojeda, Pitcher
Byrnes, Drew, Upton, Montero, Reynolds, Parra, Roberts, Whitesell, Pitcher
Drew, Oeltjen, Parra, Reynolds, Montero, Tracy, Romero, Ojeda, Pitcher

You could kinda put this one together if you took a close look. Ojeda was a decoy, although he was a regular in that spot when he did play. The Oeltjen-Parra-Romero outfield did get some play while Upton was on the DL, but not enough. And Byrnes in the leadoff spot...ha ha no. That was one horror we were not forced to watch much, fortunately. Is the correct answer for this question going to be our lineup for opening day next year? Time will tell.

Which Diamondback leads the team in sacrifice flies?
Stephen Drew
Gerardo Parra
Mark Reynolds
Chad Tracy

I'm not sure how you would know this off the top of your head. I didn't. And it's surprising, considering the time Drew missed and his lower numbers this year. Parra was one sac fly behind Drew with six, and the others were further back.

How many days (not counting before the season started) did the Diamondbacks hold or share the NL West lead this season?
None
One
Two
Three

Remember the first game of the season? We beat the Rockies 9-8 at home, Brandon Webb started the game and we were on pace to go 162-0. And then some other things happened.

Only 16 Arizona pitchers have recorded a complete game in team history. Three of them pitched for the D-backs this season: Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, and...
Doug Davis
Max Scherzer
Jon Garland
Yusmeiro Petit

If you picked Petit, you should probably become a Dodgers fan immediately. Anyway, Garland's complete game was on Aug. 2 against the Mets (7 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K). Five starts later, he was gone.

Which player hit eighth in the lineup most frequently (40 times)?
Chris Snyder
Chris Young
Augie Ojeda
Ryan Roberts

This one makes sense, particularly when you consider how much time Snyder missed with his injuries. Roberts was frequently in the top third of the lineup, and CY got the benefit of the doubt for far too long before finally ending up in the 8-hole (and his play the last month and a half pulled him out of that spot as well).

Only one Diamondback with at least five stolen bases was thrown out more times than he was successful stealing a base. Name him.
Felipe Lopez
Gerardo Parra
Conor Jackson
Chris Young

Parra was 5-for-11 at the time, and was caught once more in the last five games to bring him to a final total of 5 SB, 7 CS. With above average speed, you have to figure he's either picking bad spots or getting bad jumps. Yes, CoJack did swipe five bags before going on the DL with the plague, and was never thrown out. CY was 11-for-15.

The Diamondbacks watched a lot of awful pitching this year. Which pitcher had the worst WHIP of anyone to toe the rubber?
Bobby Korecky
Tom Gordon
Daniel Cabrera
Brandon Webb

Cabrera's last start made his numbers respectable, but even at the time of this poll, he was far from the worse. That honor belongs to Tom Gordon, who gave us these wonderful numbers: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 0 K. That's an ERA of 21.60 and a WHIP of 3.6, for those of you scoring at home or hoping to get this question right. Korecky was awful over a longer time period (6 IP, 11 H, 9 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 13.50 ERA, 2.5 WHIP), and it's sad to see Webb's numbers from his one start, but Gordon takes the cake. Thank goodness his contract was so incentive-laden.

Which team did Arizona have the best winning percentage against?
Padres
Mets
Pirates
Marlins

The Diamondbacks went 6-1 against the hapless Pirates this year (.857), which probably helped get us to 70 wins. It wasn't quite the beating we put on the Rockies in 2008, but it certainly didn't hurt. We did post winning records against all of these teams (Mets: 5-2, .714; Marlins 5-3, .625; Padres 11-7, .611), so wrong answers here were not too bad.

On June 7, the Diamondbacks won an 18-inning game against the Padres 9-6. How long did the game last?
Four hours, 45 minutes
Five hours, 15 minutes
Five hours, 45 minutes
Six hours, 15 minutes

Ah yes, the classic. A five-run kick in the junk by the Padres in the bottom of the ninth to turn a 6-1 lead into a tie game. The shaky bullpen (at that time) somehow throwing nine innings of no-hit ball. The traitor, Josh Wilson, who had pitched so well for the Diamondbacks, serving up a three-run shot to Mark Reynolds in the 18th. And all of that wrapped up in just under six hours.

Chad Qualls led the team in saves, and Juan Gutierrez is second. Who has the third-most saves for the Diamondbacks?
Jon Rauch
Tony Pena
Daniel Schlereth
Esmerling Vasquez

Surprisingly, there weren't that many save opportunities out there for people not named C. Qualls or J. Gutierrez, even with the injuries Qualls battled. Rauch picked up a pair of saves in his time with the Diamondbacks, and Pena had one. That's it. I tried to pick two other options that might make you go "huh, did they have a couple?" but I don't know how successful that was.

RESULTS

Now, no peeking at your neighbor's results, kids. That's why the top part of the page is folded over slightly. Listed below are the groups you may have fallen into, along with how many right answers that was and what percentage of people got that number right.

Tom Gordon (0 right, 4.3 percent)

"You were useless in this quiz and you were useless in your 1 2/3 innings for the team this season." Yeah, the words are harsh, but you had to screw up pretty bad to get none right. That's what you get.

Brandon Webb (1-5 right, 21.5 percent)

"Look, you're not a bad person, but your effort was subpar this year. Maybe you'll bounce back, but it might be on a different quiz." I'm hoping the team picks up his option. I really don't see why you wouldn't. But that's a debate for another time. Meanwhile, getting five or fewer correct was a below-average performance.

Doug Davis (6-10 right, 66.7 percent)

"You had your moments, some good, some bad. You're a likable guy, but your performance isn't the best out there." If you felt like everyone was getting this result, you were right. Two-thirds of the class did. But since 43 percent or better was the goal, that sounds about right. On a quiz this hard, this is actually a pretty good score.

Dan Haren (11-15 right, 6.4 percent)

"If getting half right was the requirement for a good quiz or season, you would be tops. But this quiz didn't stop at the all-star break, and neither should you." Poor Dan. Maybe we should trick him into missing those three days next year, and he can pitch through July like nothing happened.

Mark Reynolds (16-19 right, 1.1 percent)

"Look, it wasn't perfect, but you shouldn't focus on the blemishes (like strikeouts) when the overall product is so good." That 1.1 percent is actually one person. Whomever you are, you got the best score of anyone. You should be proud.

Justin Upton (20 right, 0 percent)

"Perfection. Sure, Upton himself isn't perfect, but he's the future. The savior. The 21-year-old phenom with nowhere to go but up, we hope. Well done." Nobody got them all right, but to be fair, this wasn't easy. I probably would have been lucky to squeak into the Dan Haren group myself. But like the 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks, it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game -- unless, like the 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks, you play the game poorly. Then...well, it's awkward to talk about.

Hopefully you folks enjoyed this. I've always been a big fan of trivia-related stuff, so maybe this'll show up again sometime in the future.

Diamondbacks 1, Giants 4: Penny For Your Naughts

Azreous — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:36:54 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

San Francisco Giants 1B Travis Ishikawa is unsure if his run counts, since it's against the Diamondbacks. The home plate umpire nodded his head sadly, and the game continued on.

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Record: 68-90. Pace. 69-93. Change on last season: -12.

For my final recap of the season, I had high hopes that the Diamondbacks would do something interesting that also qualified as "good." You know, scoring more than three runs, not having any baserunning gaffes, getting a dominating performance from the starting pitcher...that kind of stuff. Instead, I got another abysmal offensive performance, the pitcher caught in a rundown, and Kevin Mulvey on the mound. Thank you, baseball gods. Thanks a lot.

Meanwhile, a Diamondback from the days of yore (Brad Penny) licked his chops about the prospects of facing the mighty Arizona lineup, and the only positive that could be gleaned from this game was that its completion moved us one game closer to the end of the season. Good times.

Still, I hedged my bets that this game would be uninteresting and did something else on the side for the season finale. There's a trivia contest inside, although I'm unable to offer any prizes other than compliments about how smart you are. Maybe that'll take the edge off more than reading about another boring loss.

An actual recap, and details about the quiz, after the jump...

The Diamondbacks had opportunities in the early going, but wasted just about all of them. Stephen Drew singled on a deep grounder to start the game, but two outs quickly followed. Miguel Montero slapped a base hit opposite field to move Drew into scoring position, but Mark Reynolds struck out (take a drink!) and the inning was over.

The worst inning was probably the third. Mulvey actually helped his own cause with a base hit up the middle to lead things off. Drew followed with his second hit to put two on with nobody out, but things unraveled from there. Roberts grounded into a fielder's choice, but the Giants were unable to turn two on it. With runners on the corners and one out, Justin Upton struck out. Montero had a chance to deliver a timely hit, but after the first pitch, Mulvey was caught leaning too far off the bag at third, and was tagged out after a brief rundown. Nothing like pitchers killing offensive rallies to make you want to change the channel.

The exception was in the fourth, when Penny essentially ruined his own shutout. Reynolds hit a line drive to left for a base hit with one out, and Parra followed with a fielder's choice. With two outs, Eric Byrnes hit a comebacker that Penny threw away so badly, both runners were able to advance three bases -- Parra scored from first, and Byrnes ended up on third. Brandon Allen followed with a walk, but that brought up Kevin Mulvey, and unsurprisingly the inning ended shortly thereafter.

That was it for the Diamondbacks' offense. They went down in order four of the last five innings, the blip being a Byrnes single to lead off the seventh (which, of course, was entirely wasted). Penny faced just that one batter over the minimum on his way to a complete game. He needed just 109 pitches to go the distance, and ended with the following line: 9 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. There's a good chance that his fourth-inning error was the only thing between him and a shutout.

On the other side, Mulvey really didn't pitch that badly, but one disjointed inning ruined an otherwise decent line. After working around a leadoff single in the first, Mulvey gave up a three spot in the second, facing six batters in a row without a positive result (even the two outs were sacrifices). Two singles, a HBP, a two-run single, a sac bunt and a sac fly left Mulvey staring at a 3-0 deficit before he could finally get out of the inning. He also gave up a solo shot off the foul pole to Eli Whiteside in the fourth inning, but outside of the second frame, he gave up just two hits, a run and a walk in the other five. His final numbers aren't too bad -- 6 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 82 pitches -- but we're going to need something better than a 7.04 ERA from him if he's going to crack the rotation next season.

The bullpen gave us a couple innings of solid work in an otherwise meaningless cause. Boyer and Schlereth each pitched a scoreless frame; Boyer only surrendered a hit and worked through on an efficient 10 pitches, and Schlereth worked around a walk while striking out a pair. Moral victories don't mean much in September, but I guess it was nice to see.

Master of his Domain (I guess): Eric Byrnes, +11.1%
God-Emperor of Suck: Kevin Mulvey, -17.2%
Dishonorable Mention: Ryan Roberts, -15.1%; Justin Upton, -11.3%

Mulvey's hiccup inning pretty much reserved him a place as the GEoS. Roberts and Upton both put up 0-fers and were punished accordingly. Byrnes was one of only four players in the positive, although his involvement in that success is arguable, since Penny did most of the work.

For the Diamondbacks, Drew had a pair of hits and was the only Arizona player to reach twice. Montero's average dipped below .300 again, and Upton's bad day is bringing him perilously close as well (.304). The pitching has already been covered, so that's about all that's worth mentioning for the D-backs tonight. For the Giants, Pablo Sandoval had a pair of walks, but Whiteside did all the damage -- three hits in three at-bats, including the home run.

Quiet GameDay Thread tonight, which I'm sure Jim wishes he could trade for last night's chaos. Roll Call: Wailord, AJforAZ, katers, ol Pete, hotclaws, jazzbo13, kishi, pygalgia, piratedan7, Azreous, 4 Corners Fan, IHateSouthBend, venomfan, soco. Total Users: 14. Total Posts: 144.

The loss gives the Diamondbacks 90 on the season, and they've got just four games left to pick up a couple more victories and get to 70 in the win column. They'll conclude this series against the Giants tomorrow in a 12:45 start, with Dan Haren on the mound against Tim Lincecum -- but as documented before, the game doesn't have any local TV coverage, so good luck watching the two aces in action in their final starts.

Hey, enough downtrodden stuff. As an added bonus before the end of the "interesting" game recaps this season, I've put together a quiz to test your knowledge of the Arizona Diamondbacks this season. After all, you should be expected to get a test at the end of a term, right? Keep in mind, there's a reason you can't spell trivial without "trivia," as some of the questions will be more obscure than others. Sure, you could go to baseball-reference.com or Google or something and get 100 percent, but that's not really the point. If you're into this kind of stuff, hopefully you get a few minutes of enjoyment out of it. If not, you can pretend it never happened. Either way, here's the quiz. Good luck...

Diamondbacks 5, Padres 6: J-Up in Smoke

Azreous — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:01:59 -0000

More photos » by Chris Park - AP

Arizona Diamondbacks 2B Augie Ojeda looks confused after his fifth inning triple, his first career hit in 35 at-bats at Petco Park. Yes, Augie. You get to run the bases now.

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Record: 64-83. Pace: 71-91. Change on last season: -9

As a baseball fan, aren't these the kind of September games you root for? Afternoon baseball between two teams fighting for superiority in their division, with the road team going for a series sweep against the team with a one-game lead on them.

All right, all right. By superiority I mean "worst superiority," as the Diamondbacks and Padres battled each other in their race for the cellar. Today's matchup featured Doug Davis against little-known Edward Mujica. Davis was looking to overcome a terrible start his last time out, and Mujica was looking to maybe make it into the fifth inning or something. But it was a certain young outfielder who stole the show, at least until an epic collapse in the ninth inning when the D-backs were just two strikes from a victory. And then...some things happened. But those and other descriptions...

...are after the jump.

From the start, this looked like standard D-backs fare. They spent the better part of the first four innings against a young, unheralded pitcher getting slapped around. Any significant threats the offense managed to mount were erased quickly: a two-out Justin Upton double in the first, a leadoff single by Upton in the fourth (popout, strikeout, caught stealing), etc. The Diamondbacks (and the Padres, for that matter) weren't helped much by a strike zone that could be described as sporadic at best, or spasmodic at worst.

Meanwhile, Doug Davis was pulling his usual vanishing act, continuing his quest to replace Houdini (or Criss Angel for you damn youngsters) as the world's top illusionist. He worked around a leadoff single in the first by striking out a couple of batters. He danced around danger in the second, when his own error put runners on second and third with two out. The slew of baserunners caught up to him in the third, though, when Everth Cabrera and Tony Gwynn reached on consecutive hits. After a flyout advanced Cabrera to third, he scored on a routine grounder by Chase Headley to make it 1-0 Padres.

The Diamondbacks finally broke through against Mujica in the fifth to take the lead. Brandon Allen slapped a base hit to right with one out, and scored on an Augie Ojeda triple (it should be noted that it was Augie's first-ever career hit at Petco Park; he'd been 0-for-34 to that point) that probably raised his slugging about 900 points. With one out and a runner at third, Davis did what he usually does when I recap his starts and he's up with RISP -- fail miserably. But Chris Young stepped up and delivered a huge two-out double to plate Ojeda and give the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead. That chased Mujica after just 73 pitches, right about where he was supposed to be. Arizona tacked on one more run in the sixth after Upton (notice a trend?) tripled to start off the inning, and scored on Miguel Montero's little groundout that Webb -- no, not that one -- threw away.

Davis continued his roller coaster ride by walking the leadoff man in each of his next three innings. The first two times he got away unscathed (a bunt moved the runner over in the fourth, but he got two quick outs to get out of it, and a double play erased the leadoff man in the fifth), but again he got caught trying to get through the sixth. After a free pass to Henry Blanco, Davis plunked Macias with a pitch, and Durango reached on what appeared to be an attempt at a sac bunt. Just like that, bases loaded and nobody out. This time, Davis gave up a base knock to left that was hit sharply enough to only score one run, and though he got Cabrera to groundout into a force at home, Gwynn slapped a sac fly into right that even Upton couldn't do enough with to keep the tying run from scoring.

With a fresh start for both teams and just three innings to go, the Diamondbacks answered back in a hurry, starting with the top of the order. Young reached on an error by Cabrera, and Stephen Drew followed him with a base on balls. Justin "F'in" Upton drove in the go-ahead run with an opposite-field base hit, his fourth of the game. After Montero reached on a little base hit up the middle, Reynolds grounded out deep enough to score Drew from third, and it was 5-3 Arizona just like that.

Of course, the problem with insurance runs is that sometimes you can't afford enough insurance (insert health care debate joke here). After a couple of uneventful frames, Esmerling Vasquez came in to close things out in the ninth with a two-run lead. Nerves were frayed a bit after a leadoff single, but he got two pretty quick outs from the 3-4 hitters (granted, the Padres' 3-4 hitters) and it looked like things were under control. And then Adrian Gonzalez happened. He roped an 0-1 fastball down the opposite-field line for a two-run shot that tied up the game and gave the Fangraph a small heart attack.

From there, it seemed like our fate was inevitable. The D-backs went down in order in the top of the 10th, and Yusmeiro Petit was brought in for the bottom half -- no, I don't understand it either. Petit labored through just three hitters -- a leadoff single, a 50-pitch at-bat by David Eckstein that ended in a flyout, a stolen base, and a base hit that finally ended it. And yet, I felt nothing. Such are the doldrums of 20-games-under-.500 September baseball.

Master of his Domain: Justin Upton, +29.3%
Honorable Mention: Chris Young, +17.8%
God-Emperor of Suck: Esmerling Vasquez, -46.9%
God-Co-Emperor of Suck: Yusmeiro Petit, -35.7%
Dishonorable Mention: Doug Davis (hitting), -15.2%; Gerardo Parra, -11.4%

This is one of the cases where the Fangraph (and the contributions of those involved) makes perfect sense. Upton was a perfect 5-5 on the day, just a homer short of the cycle. Young .drove in the go-ahead run at the time and had another solid game. Meanwhile, Vasquez's spot should come as a surprise to no one, and Petit -- well, he's Petit. End of story.

For the Diamondbacks, Upton's success has already been well documented. Young had a couple of hits and a walk; Allen added a couple of walks and a hit. Ojeda finally broke out of his slump at Petco and added a free pass of his own. It should also be noted that although Reynolds was 0-for-5 with 4 Ks (reaching the 200 strikeout plateau), he did manage to drive in a run and steal his 24th bag of the year. He's on the cusp of the 45-25 club, which is pretty exclusive territory. Zavada and Rosales each picked up holds for solid work in the innings before Vasquez's meltdown, and Schoeneweis lowered his ERA 11 points for retiring the one batter he faced.

A happenin' GameDay Thread for an afternoon game, although it didn't start out looking that way (and with no local TV coverage, who can blame people?). Skins led the way with just short of a brazillion jinxing comments (259); no one else reached triple digits. Roll Call: soco, sayheyupton, snakecharmer, DbacksSkins, emilylovesthedbacks, kishi, Jim McLennan, mrssoco, pygalgia, txzona, katers, SaveUsY2J, hotclaws, AJforAZ, Wailord, IHateSouthBend, Azreous, venomfan, dima1109, Muu, jazzbo13. Total Users: 21. Total Posts: 742.

It's an off day tomorrow, which should give ample time to drink away this loss. Or at least forget about through other more natural means (like head trauma?). Next up, it's a three-game set at home against the Colorado Rockies; maybe this awful loss is just to make us winning the weekend series that much more heart-breaking for them. Yeah, that's it.

Diamondbacks 4, Dodgers 3: Walk Like a Man

Azreous — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:03:00 -0000

Record: 62-79. Pace: 70-92. Change on last season: -9.

The Diamondbacks headed into tonight's matchup with the Dodgers looking for something, anything to take as a positive. Six straight losses (including a particularly bad one last night, with a three-run lead in the eighth) had the D-backs in sole possession of last place. Just to add to the confusion, their old buddy Jon Garland toed the rubber against Dan Haren in tonight's series finale. Neither starter ended up being a factor in the decision, and a closely contested game ended with perhaps the most anticlimactic way possible (unless you like waiting two seconds to see if an overweight guy raises his arm or not).

Dreadlocks and base knocks after the jump...

Haren got into trouble in the first inning, and paid the price. Rafael Furcal slapped a leadoff triple to right to put the pressure on from the start. Haren came back to strike out Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, but couldn't get around Manny Ramirez, who drove Furcal in with a base hit (really, more of a grounder that took a bad bounce). It seemed like one of those hard-luck runs that Haren eats sometimes -- he stopped the Dodgers from getting a runner on third in with less than two outs (twice), but ended up getting charged with a run.

The Diamondbacks didn't waste much time erasing that small deficit. After a Justin Upton walk was the lone highlight of the first, Miguel Montero and Chris Young started the second by smacking homers into the right-field seats. Montero's was a no-doubter, and Young continued his recent power surge with an opposite-field bomb of his own. Of course, this was business as usual for Garland at Chase Field, but this time he was wearing somebody else's uniform instead.

Haren settled in for the next two frames, setting down the side in order both times and striking out three in the process. But the Dodgers answered with back-to-back jacks of their own in the fourth. Manny crushed a ball to opposite field, and James Loney followed with a no-doubter into right center that quickly gave L.A. a 3-2 lead. The solo shot has been a bit of an anathema for Haren this year:

Arizona tied the game up in the fifth thanks to back-to-back singles and a rare success getting a runner in from scoring position. Ryan Roberts and Stephen Drew used those consecutive hits to put runners on the corners with nobody out, and Justin Upton grounded out deep enough to let Roberts score from third and make it a 3-3 game.

Meanwhile, Haren went right back to work. He set down the side in order in the fifth (striking out two), worked around a Manny walk in the sixth (striking out two more), and an Orlando Hudson bloop single was his only blemish in the seventh. Sitting at 105 pitches, Haren came back out for the eighth and got a Ronnie Belliard groundout to start the inning, but back-to-back base hits by Kemp and Ethier chased Haren at the 119 mark. Juan Gutierrez came in faced with a bit of a situation: two on, one out, and the wrecking crew of Manny and Loney due up. But it didn't faze him -- he gave Manny four heaters, then threw three nasty breaking pitches to Loney to strike them both out and get Haren off the hook. The two starters ended up with lines that looked like this:

Haren: 7.1 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 9 K
Garland: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K

Seems like what we've come to expect from the two of them, right?

Heading into the ninth, the stage was set for a Diamondbacks walkoff, but the inning didn't look like it was going to start that way. Gerardo Parra hit a weak little grounder up the middle that pitcher Ramon Troncoso fielded, but threw away, allowing Parra to make it into second. Trent Oeltjen (pause for the ladies to sigh dreamily) came in to pinch run, and moved over to third on a sac bunt by Ryan Roberts. Because Joe Torre is weird, he intentionally walked both Drew and Upton to load the bases for Mark Reynolds (yes, this sets up the force at home as well as other double play options, but still). After having his pitcher throw eight straight BP fastballs outside, Troncoso labored through eight for-real-real fastballs in his battle with Reynolds. Reynolds laid off a 1-2 pitch that was just off the plate, and might've gotten lucky on the second 2-2 pitch (it was close, and he might've gone around checking his swing). Still, Special K fouled off one pitch with a full count, then watched one last fastball miss outside to get the infamous walkoff walk. Oeltjen trotted home, the losing streak was over, and a sweep at the hands of the dreaded Dodgers was averted.

Master of his Domain: Miguel Montero, +34.3%
Honorable Mention: Juan Gutierrez, +32.1%; Mark Reynolds, +20.5%; Gerardo Parra, +17.2%
God-Emperor of Suck: Eric Byrnes, -23.7%
Dishonorable Mention: Dan Haren (batting), -12.5%; Chris Young, -11.5%

Montero set the pace again offensively, raising his average to .304 in the process. Gutierrez deserves solid marks for his work in the eighth, and Reynolds' positive ranking should come as no surprise given the outcome. On the flip side, Byrnes was terrible again (and was booed after his last at-bat), and Chris Young's at-bats where he didn't homer were largely unsuccessful.

For the Diamondbacks, Montero had a huge game: a triple short of the cycle, and he reached base all four times. Upton and Reynolds had a pair of walks, and Mark added a hit as well. Drew reached twice on a base knock and a base on balls. For the Dodgers, some douchebag in dreadlocks was the only batter to get on base more than once.

More than 1,000 comments in the GameDay Thread for the third game in a row, although this one wasn't quite as hectic as last night's. Skins and skoormit reached double digits, but everyone in the top ten had a solid showing. The bucket list: NASCARbernet, snakecharmer, DbacksSkins, Azreous, pierzynskirules, soco, SaveUsY2J, katers, IHateSouthBend, Jim McLennan, hotclaws, kishi, skoormit, RdRnnr, jrockies, pygalgia, 4 Corners Fan, sayheyupton, mrssoco, Scrbl, befizzle, coolopotamous, Wailord, SDcat09, ZonaBacks10, GuruB and txzona.

It's always fun getting a win against a divisional rival with a ninth-inning walkoff where you don't even get a hit. Error, walk, walk, walk -- maybe it's not how you dream it up in your backyard when you're a kid, but the win counts in the standings just the same.

Being the thorough journalist that I am, ~~sources close to the team~~ a couple of my friends who went to the game reported that a fight broke out between some Dodgers fans a few rows behind them -- a pair of couples who apparently couldn't get along. At one point, the females went after each other, and one got hit with a mini bat and bled so bad she had to be taken out of the section. Unfortunately, Dave and Andy wasn't able to get any pictures, but the mental image is good enough for me.

Off day tomorrow (get used to that line in these Wednesday recaps from this point on) before a three-game set at home against the Brewers, who still have an outside shot at the playoffs. The quest for .500 is still very much alive; sure, we have to finish 19-2, but if the Rockies can do something like that, anybody can.

[Edit: audio clippage from Dan on his outing and facing Manny, while Mark talks about what might be his most patient non-AB of the year]

Audio courtesy of KTAR 620

Diamondbacks 4, Dodgers 1: ...And Then, the Deluge

Azreous — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:11:58 -0000

More photos » by Matt Sayles - AP

Arizona Diamondbacks 2B Augie Ojeda shows Los Angeles Dodgers OF Andre Ethier his California Gold Prospecter dance. Not pictured: the heel-click that followed.

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Max Scherzer took the mound against the Dodgers tonight, and the word of the day was consistency. In his past six starts, Max had a 6.47 ERA and only made it through the sixth inning once. Facing a potent offense on a team fighting for a postseason spot and the Dodgers' ace in Chad Billingsley, this had all the makings of a pitchers' duel...or a disaster. In a way, it ended up being both; the offense was missing for about eight innings, and the usual warning signs of a no decision for our starter were lit up in all their neon glory.

Sounds like the rest of the season, right? Except this one actually worked out in the Diamondbacks' favor. Stunning, I know.

Ten minutes of offense and another promising start from our young fireballer after the jump.

First, let's talk about Scherzer's outing today. Simply put, he was rock solid. He matched the longest outing of his career (Jun 11 against the Giants) by going 7 2/3 innings, finally getting chased by a ManRam RBI single. He was efficient, needing just five pitches to get through one frame and sitting at 102 total when he got the hook. Part of that was helped by a greater reliance on his defense -- Scherzer only struck out four, but was still dominant.

You wanna talk about dichotomy? I'll show you a dichotomy. The Diamondbacks looked dazed and confused against Billingsley in the first four innings. In fact, nobody reached base at all -- Billingsley racked up three strikeouts and a slew of poorly-hit balls and the D-backs found themselves with nothing in the hit or walk column through four. A Reynolds groundout to start the fifth seemed like more of the same, but baseball has a way of taking funny, abrupt turns.

Miguel Montero started things off by slicing an opposite-field double, and Brandon Allen promptly followed that by pulling a no-doubter to right to make it 2-0. Shutout, no-hitter, perfect game -- all gone in the span of about a minute. But the offensive faucet hadn't been turned off yet. Alex Romero laced a single up the middle to keep things going. After an Augie Ojeda strikeout, the Diamondbacks got three consecutive hits with two outs to bring in a couple more runs. Scherzer helped his cause with a knock that put runners on the corners; Stephen Drew hit a grounder deep enough for an infield hit, scoring Scherzer and Furcal threw the ball away to allow both runners to move into scoring position. That gaffe allowed another run to score, as Drew came home on another infield hit by Gerardo Parra.

After the shellacking in the fifth, Arizona racked up four walks, a hit, and had a runner reach on an error by the pitcher, but that was it. Usually this season, when the Diamondbacks have piled all their runs into one inning and then rested on their laurels, they've lost miserably. Tonight was not the case.

Credit for preserving the lead goes mostly to Scherzer, with an assist from Esmerling Vasquez (who got the final out in the eighth after Manny's single chased Mad Max) and Juan Gutierrez getting his first save in his new role as closer, however long that lasts. He last had a save on May 26.

Outside of the fifth, the Diamondbacks had just one hit, and still won this game. Maybe this is the baseball gods making things even from the night before when it seemed like we gave a game away. Or maybe this season is just really freaking strange.

Master of his Domain: Max Scherzer, +29.6%
Honorable Mention: Brandon Allen, +18.1%
God-Emperor of Suck: Mark Reynolds, -5.8%

Since the offense was so sporadic, only three Diamondbacks reached base more than once. Scherzer and Allen both had a hit and a walk (Allen's hit, of course, being particularly important), and Reynolds got a hit and reached on an error -- but still got stuck with GEoS "honors." For the Dodgers, only Ethier got on base multiple times (three hits). Elbert, McDonald and Haeger all turned in solid innings out of the pen.

Busy, lively and plentiful GameDay Thread tonight, with lots of posts and users. You know, of the non-drug variety. kishi led the way and Wailord also reached triple digits (at certain cutoff points, Wailord would've come out on top of comments, but I couldn't wait forever for the posts to die down). The full roll call: IHateSouthBend, Jim McLennan, snakecharmer, sayheyupton, kishi, katers, BattleMoses, Wailord, Diamondhacks, pygalgia, Azreous, hotclaws, AJforAZ, pierzynskirules, emilylovesthedbacks, 4 Corners Fan, NASCARbernet, mrssoco, Muu, PinchHitLancePainter, DbacksSkins, soco, dbacks27, txzona and GuruB.

Tomorrow's pitching matchup would've been very confusing a few days ago. It's Billy Buckner against Jon Garland in the series finale, with the Diamondbacks guaranteed at least a split against the division leaders. Considering the past few days, there's no telling what will happen.

Diamondbacks 3, Giants 4: Dir...er, Filthy Sanchez

Azreous — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:39:49 -0000

More photos » by Ben Margot - AP

There he is. The master of the universe. We should be so lucky as to witness our destruction at his hands.

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Record 55-72. Pace: 70-90. Change on last season: -12.

Tonight, the Diamondbacks faced a lofty task: finding a way to beat the best pitcher in major-league history. That's right, the D-backs were up against Jonathan Sanchez, a first-ballot hall-of-famer with a heart of gold, and had to rely on lowly Doug Davis to get the job done.

The word for the games I recap is usually "interesting." Granted, interesting is such a generic adjective that it's hard not to find a way for every game to fit it somehow, but this was a prime example of legitimate "interesting." As in, it's interesting how we managed to blow a three-run lead late and lose another one-run decision.

An attempt to differentiate this loss from all the others after the jump...

This was one of those games that the 2007 team would have won somehow. Maybe this team isn't that much worse than that one, and luck played a bigger factor than we'll ever know. It doesn't really matter, though, because the bottom line is Doug Davis came up short of a victory (despite a quality start) for what seems like the 40th time this season. And he doesn't even have that many starts.

To think, it started so well. Sanchez started the game off against Ryan Roberts, and threw him two fastballs to get ahead 0-2 quickly. He got a little bit too cute with the third delivery though, and Roberts yanked a home run to left that put Arizona up 1-0 early. The rest of the inning was a series of misadventures on both sides -- Eli Whiteside had two errors, the Diamondbacks got four outs, etc. -- but nothing came of it.

The D-backs threatened again early in the second. Rusty Ryal and Gerardo Parra opened the inning with back-to-back singles. Alex Romero beat out a grounder to avoid the double play, leaving a runner at third and only one out...but Davis was up next. Roberts ended the inning with a groundout of his own. In the third, Justin Upton (making his first start back with the big league club) cranked a two-out double, but was left stranded.

From there, Sanchez locked in for the next couple innings, setting down the side in order in the fourth and fifth. In the sixth, though, the Diamondbacks must've appealed to the correct baseball gods, because they were permitted to score a couple more runs against the San Francisco great. Upton drew a one-out walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. After a Miguel Montero strikeout, Sanchez intentionally walked Ryal to get to Parra, who faced a conundrum: he's been great with runners in scoring position, but struggled mightily against lefties. For the second time, though, he was successful against Sanchez, lining an opposite-field single to make it 2-0. Romero followed with a base hit of his own to drive in Ryal, and both runners moved over on the throw in. But that left two men in scoring position for Doug Davis, and...well.

Unfortunately, that was the end of the offense for the night, as the Diamondbacks once again seemed pacified by a decent-sized lead. Only one Arizona player reached base in the final three innings (a single by Montero in the eighth), and as we'll get to in a moment, that simply wasn't getting the job done.

One has to wonder if Doug Davis is reconsidering his potential future in Arizona. Once again, he pitched a great game, working around his usual handful of baserunners and lulling viewers to sleep with his slow pace, yet came away with a no-decision. Going into the eighth, Davis was working on a four-hitter (along with three walks), but somewhere between the second and third out of the inning, things went horribly wrong.

Davis started out very strong, setting down the side in order in the first and getting a quick double play after a walk in the second. He left runners on the corners in the third, but cruised through the middle frames (just one batter over the minimum on a walk). In the seventh, Davis lost hold of the shutout thanks to the second home run of the series by Juan Uribe (yes, he of the .682 OPS in 2008), a solo shot that made it 3-1. But then that dastardly eighth inning struck again, and we were all very sad.

Davis started the eighth by getting two pretty quick groundouts, and at 90 pitches on the nose, he seemed poised to easily finish off the inning and maybe go the distance. Instead, he danced around Edgar Renteria and gave up a seven-pitch walk, then watched as Randy Winn lined a cut fastball to right for a base hit. Suddenly the go-ahead run was up next, and Davis was pulled in favor of Chad Qualls. Qualls isn't exactly known for going beyond his assigned inning -- he's done it just four other times in 49 appearances, although each was relatively successful. Instead of having to get four outs, though, Qualls needed just one, for after a three-run jack by pinch-hitter Bengie Molina, his services weren't even required for the ninth.

Master of his Domain: Doug Davis (pitching), +36.7%
Honorable Mention: Gerardo Parra, +13.9%
God-Emperor of Suck: Chad Qualls, -66.8%
Dishonorable Mention: Doug Davis (hitting), -11.2%

Let me just go ahead and put that in perspective: Chad Qualls had a negative sixty-six point eight percent impact on our chances of winning. Sure, Davis put the first two runners on base, but his pitching up to that point gets him off the hook for most of that blame. Parra had a good game against a lefty for once, and Davis struggled with runners in scoring position like he does every time I recap one of his starts. Seriously, it's baffling.

The Diamondbacks had just seven hits and two walks, and that's not going to get the job done very often (case in point: even with a good outing from the starter, we still lost). Upton and Ryal each reached base twice on a hit and a walk, and Parra added a couple of hits. For the Giants, Renteria walked twice, and Uribe added a base on balls to his home run.

A...robust GameDay Thread tonight, with almost 500 posts. Unsurprisingly, Skins led the way with three times as many posts as anybody else. The attendance sheet is as follows: BattleMoses, kishi, DbacksSkins, Clefo, IHateSouthBend, Jim McLennan, pygalgia, katers, victor frankenstein, pierzynskirules, Wailord, hotclaws, 4 Corners Fan, Diamondhacks, soco, Muu, piratedan7 and Azreous. Whoever that is.

After a couple of one-run losses, the Diamondbacks will try to avoid being swept tomorrow night by sending out Yusmeiro Peti--oh dear.

Steve Nash on the B.S. Report

Azreous — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:06:54 -0000

Steve Nash on the B.S. Report

Nash talks to Bill Simmons for 50+ minutes of goodness, including some interesting tidbits about playing under Porter's system, the importance of PnR defense with all the good young PGs in the league, and which team from his tenure in Phoenix had the best chance to win a title. Good stuff. I think the link is correct, but if not, hopefully somebody can fix it.

Diamondbacks 1, Phillies 8: Phil Your Hand

Azreous — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:36:38 -0000

More photos » by Matt Slocum - AP

If this is what the Diamondback hitters saw every time Indians SP Cliff Lee made a delivery, maybe dizziness is to blame for their awful performance tonight.

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Record: 54-67. Pace: 72-90. Change on last season: -8.

This was a dreadful performance. Sure, it was against the reigning AL Cy Young winner, who has been almost untouchable since switching to the NL last month (4-0, 0.82 ERA, 0.73 WHIP). And yes, it was after three other awful games this week -- getting shelled by the Dodgers, getting destroyed by six unearned runs against the Braves (although some of them certainly should have been earned), and then being rocked to sleep by a 95-year-old lefty out of the bullpen in the series opener. So maybe we shouldn't have been surprised. Maybe we should have seen this coming.

Still, after a pretty successful road trip (albeit against a pretty bad set of teams), there were a few reasons to be optimistic about this team. Those reasons are tough to remember now.

There may be more depressed writing and obscure John Wayne references after the jump.

Cliff Lee strolled into his relatively new home this evening and shut down the Arizona Diamondbacks. Straight up. Couple that with the usually stout Phillies offense, and you have all the makings for a good ol' fashioned romp. Lee gave up just two hits and no walks in notching his second complete game as a member of Philadelphia, and his fourth in his past seven starts. He won his seventh straight decision, which finally has his overall record for the year (11-9) looking like it should for a pitcher of his quality. On July 15, Lee was 4-9 with a respectable 3.47 ERA; since then, his line looks something like this:

58 IP, 40 H, 7 ER, 6 BB, 48 K, 1.09 ERA, 0.79 WHIP

Lee is quickly proving that perhaps the start of this season (and not last year, where he went from AAA call-up to best pitcher in the league) was the fluke.

Anyway, enough tidbits from the Cliff Lee Fan Club. Let's talk about what little the Diamondbacks did right in today's contest, so that we can move on to the other nine innings. Thank you. Tip your waitress. Technically Lee should have given up three hits; he was carrying a no-hitter into the fourth when Ryan Roberts hit what seemed to be a double down the left-field line, but it was ruled an error even though Pedro Feliz never even got a glove on it. Apparently they got their official scorer on loan from Coors Field. As a result, Lee took the no-no into the sixth, when Chad Tracy (he of the .140 average against lefties) pinch-hit for the ineffective Dan Haren and lined a base hit up the middle. Lee plunked Rusty Ryal with a pitch in the seventh and surrendered a base hit to Alex Romero in the eighth, but that was it.

Meanwhile, the Phillies took Dan Haren to task, knocking him around for six runs in just five innings. As usual, Haren was hitting the strike zone pretty effectively (6 K, 1 BB), but his pitches didn't seem to have enough movement to them, and he got hit hard. All of Philly's runs off Haren were scored via the long ball -- a two-run jack by Chase Utley, a three-run bomb by Ryan Howard on a fastball at his eyes, and a solo shot by Jayson Werth. Coming into today's game, Haren had only given up three HRs that weren't solo jobst, but he nearly equaled that total in just this one start.

The Phillies also tacked on a run in the sixth and seventh. Clay Zavada was hurt by (who else?) Cliff Lee, who reached on a one-out single, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a Shane Victorino double. Zavada started the seventh and struck out Howard; Juan Gutierrez replaced him and promptly gave up another solo home run to Werth. Blaine Boyer pitched a scoreless eighth to tidy things up.

Master (hah!) of his Domain: Ryan Roberts, +3.1%
God-Emperor of Suck: Dan Haren, -26.5%

The Fangraph is actually not as terrible as I thought it would be, compared to Sunday and Monday's drubbings. Still, Roberts' placement should be awfully telling, as is this: only one other Diamondback (Tracy, +1.0%) was in the positive. Really a team effort out there tonight.

As you'd imagine, no Arizona player reached base more than once. Amazing how that happens when you reach just three times as a team. For the Phillies, Victorino, Utley, Werth and, yes, Lee had multi-hit games.

Our GameDay Thread was about the same as the Fangraph, but in reverse -- interest petered off significantly as this horrific game continued. Less than 200 comments, and Skins was a third of them. Present: Wailord, Zephon, NewJackCity, 4 Corners Fan, Jim McLennan, snakecharmer, Turambar, hotclaws, DbacksSkins, katers, emilylovesthedbacks, older fart, Sprankton, luckycc, TwinnerA, BattleMoses, kishi and Azreous. Which is me.

Series finale tomorrow. Doug Davis and Joe Blanton. Go team.

Diamondbacks 4, Dodgers 1: Red Haren

Azreous — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 04:18:26 -0000

Record: 53-63. Pace: 74-88. Change on last season: -6.

Before the season started, it would have been hard to believe that the Diamondbacks would be 17 games behind the Dodgers in the middle of August, but that's exactly where Arizona stood heading into this three-game set against L.A. So maybe this series doesn't have quite the impact we might have expected -- taking out the boys in blue (no, not Jerry Crawford) is always a worthy endeavor.

Dan Haren toed the rubber for the D-backs tonight against young phenom Clayton Kershaw, and it seemed an appropriate time for Haren to get rid of his usual second-half demons and put together a good start. In his last four outings, Haren wasn't quite up to his usual standards: a 6.26 ERA, less than six innings per start, and a K:BB ratio just over three. Meanwhile, Kershaw had been pulling a Jekyll/Hyde routine lately -- 15 shutout innings against the Cardinals and Braves, but a disastrous four-inning start (4 H, 3 ER, 6 BB against the Brewers) in between. Fortunately for the Diamondbacks, he was more mortal than monster on this night.

Haren's great outing and some shady shenanigans after the jump...

[Update] Andre Ethier calls Haren "afraid to pitch." Could be a couple of interesting games the rest of the series.

Audio courtesy of KTAR 620

Both pitchers set the side down in order for their first frame. In the second, Kershaw had one of those innings that seems like it just won't end. Mark Reynolds started things off by drawing a walk. Miguel Montero continued his hot hitting by looping a double to opposite field, driving in Reynolds. Rusty Ryal walked, and Trent Oeltjen roped a single into left that Manny was able to stumble over and get quickly enough to hold Montero at third. Augie Ojeda hit a grounder that forced out Oeltjen at second, but beat it out to avoid the double play (just barely). Haren came up to help his own cause with a base knock up the middle, scoring Ryal. With Stephen Drew at the plate, the wheels fell off for Kershaw. He fell behind with a breaking ball and a fastball that missed; Drew took two good cuts at fastballs but fouled them off. On 2-2, Kershaw bounced a breaking ball that only got about three feet away from Russell Martin, but it bounced high enough that Ojeda and Haren advanced before he could get to it. And with a full count, Kershaw threw the old 58-foot fastball, which rolled all the way over to the Dodgers dugout and let Ojeda, Haren and Drew all job to their respective next base. Four runs, three hits, three walks, two wild pitches, and a lot of early support for Dan Haren.

The two starters were fine in the early innings besides that blip for Clayton. Haren faced only two batters over the minimum through four, and both of them were Manny Ramirez (two singles). Kershaw worked around a couple more hits and walks to post zeroes in the other frames, and each pitcher was rocking the strikeout (Haren 7, Kershaw 8).

In the fifth, Haren got a little too cute on a first-pitch fastball, and Matt Kemp promptly smacked it into the left-field stands to make it a 4-1 game. The rest of the inning was a bit of an adventure -- Orlando Hudson singled, was sac'd over to second and went to third on a wild pitch, and Rafael Furcal walked, but Haren punched out Martin to get out of the jam.

Meanwhile, Kershaw couldn't make it through the fifth inning, even though his stuff and his control were about the same as they'd been all game (great and awful, respectively). Reynolds singled, Montero struck out, and that was that. Kershaw's line (4.1 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 9 K) certainly wasn't terrible, but considering the raw stuff he had, it probably should have been better.

Haren escaped trouble in the sixth as well, after Manny doubled with one out. Blake hit a base hit to left, but Manny had to hold up to make sure his helmet wouldn't fall off the ball was going to drop, so he had to stop at third. But Haren got Loney to ground to Ryal, who flipped it to Drew at second, and they got Loney at first for an inning-ending double play. It should be noted that Blake's slide took him about 50 feet out of the basepaths, which earned him a glare from the usually mild-mannered Drew. In the seventh, the defense stepped up -- Montero (with help from a great tag by Drew) gunned down Kemp at second, and Haren made a kick save and a beaut on a ball up the middle that Ryal got to in time to retire the side.

The Diamondbacks continued to waste opportunities in innings not named "the second." They had runners in scoring position in the third (2nd base, two out) and fourth (2nd, one out). They had the leadoff man aboard in the fifth. Still, in the first six innings, they had just two hits and one walk outside of their explosion in the second. But in the seventh, Reynolds got a pitch high and tight that hit him right in the shoulder -- a second aggressive play in about a 10-minute span (whether they were intentional or not is a different issue; as Matty pointed out on the broadcast, when two in a row happen, the intent doesn't matter anymore). Still, Arizona couldn't manage to get any more runs across.

Sitting on 99 pitches, Haren came back out for the eighth inning, and it seemed only a matter of time until somebody got some retaliation. He retired Furcal and Martin quickly, then threw a fastball right between Andre Ethier's shoulder blades (for which Ethier had some choice words for Haren while he trotted over to first). Considering Manny was on deck, I got an extra kick out of the choice to wait until that spot, and I'm not entirely sure why the Dodgers seemed surprised by getting some recompense. Haren's final line: 8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 109 pitches, which is more like the Dan Haren we've got to expect and enjoy.

After all the madness, Kemp made a fantastic catch to rob Oeltjen of a hit in the eighth, and Chad Qualls came out for a three-run save opportunity in the ninth. That cushion certainly became necessary when Blake led off with a walk and Kemp smacked a one-out double to put runners on second and third. But Qualls pounded the strike zone on O-Dawg, finally striking him out on a nasty slider, and got Loretta to hit a cue shot off the end of the bat, and the ballgame was over.

Master of his Domain: Dan Haren, +30.7% (+34.2 w/hitting)
God-Emperor of Suck: Gerardo Parra, -3.3%

Since the Diamondbacks got a pretty big lead early and there wasn't much offense for either team after that point, there's not much fluctuation on the Fangraphs. The only other player who had even a 5% impact in either direction was Montero (+8.9%).

For the Diamondbacks, every starter got on base at least once. Reynolds had a hit, a walk and a HBP; Ryal had a hit and a walk (lowering his average to .571 -- DFA!). ESPN can call off its Trent Oeltjen .400 Watch, as he's hitting .394 after going 1-for-4 tonight. Kemp had a great game for the Dodgers with a pair of hits, a homer and a walk, and some jackass named Manny had three hits but couldn't come through when challenged directly.

Slot machine (444) comments for a Friday night game, at least as of press time. Pretty good turnout. Unsurprisingly, Skins led the way with triple digits, with snakecharmer not far behind him -- and there were no riots! Those waiting eagerly to start fires included: snakecharmer, DbacksSkins, hotclaws, kishi, emilylovesthedbacks, mrssoco, katers, ZonaBacks10, Muu, UAwildcats, SeanMillerSavior, luckycc, Clefo, pygalgia, Azreous, Zephon, victor frankenstein, njjohn, raygu, Wailord and piratedan7.

It's Hiroki Kuroda against Doug Davis in tomorrow night's 5:10 start. Should be interesting to see if there's any additional fallout from today's shenanigans. For a pair of division rivals in the dog days of summer, it's certainly a possibility. Meanwhile, regular recaps resume from Jim for tomorrow's game, as I've done two straight and am in desperate need of ice cream. The Giants and Rockies also lost, and a win tomorrow puts us back to single digits under .500. Wild card, here we come!