SB Nation User Blog: Wactivist

Diamondbacks 5, Mets 2 - Delayed Domination

Wactivist — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:18:16 -0000

Record: 46-59. Pace: 71-91. Change on last season: -7.

On a day when Citi Field ticket takers distributed promotional orange t-shirts to an optimistic crowd gathering for an early game, fans headed home hours later seeing red, due to a brilliantly efficient complete game victory by Jon Garland. The righty's 106 pitches, 76 strikes, and just two runs on six hits gave the Diamondbacks their 46th win while pushing the Mets 7.5 games behind the Rockies as their bid for a postseason wildcard berth continues its brisk march toward improbability.

If this is how two and a half hour rain delays impact Jon Garland, then let's do what we can to ensure his next several starts are all in the Pacific Northwest. Garland, who didn't need to strike out a batter until the sixth (he managed only two Ks the entire game) was aided by two double plays (courtesy of David Wright each time), started 67 percent of batters facing him with a strike, and into the sixth (when I stopped counting) had only allowed more than 2 balls on any single batter four times. In short, absolutely efficient domination.

More after the jump.

With the game set to begin, more than rain dampened the optimism of many a Diamondbacks fan. During the delay we learned that not only would Brandon Webb go under the knife potentially ending his time as a Diamondback, but that the red-hot Mark Reynolds had earned himself a day off. Surely, we thought, this Sunday game was going to be forgettable.

Our first three batters didn't do anything to prop up our spirits as Mike Pelfrey , a man who doesn't do so very often at all - and game footage shows was pitching with an untied shoe - was able to easily strike out the side.

Pelfrey's uncharacteristic start was soon forgotten however as he creatively allowed the bases to fill in the second inning despite not giving up a single hit. After Montero popped out to short and Tracy was sent back to the bench with a foul out, Pelfrey walked Roberts, then struck both Romero and Ojeda with pitches. The baseball Gods were merely toying with our fragile emotions however as Garland approached the plate for the first of his five at bats of the day. His weak fly out left the game, much like Pelfrey's now fixed shoe apparently, knotted up with zero runs scored.

No hit was managed by the boys in Sonoran Red until Montero's opposite field double in the top of the fourth set up an Alex Romero RBI double. Romero's conversion of a 3-2 pitch down gave us a lead the Diamondbacks would never surrender as Garland continued to dazzle the Metropolitans.

While the game progressed rather quickly, the fifth inning proved to be the most exciting of the game for both squads.

Stephen Drew, who had not yet mustered a hit against the Met's this series lead off the fifth with a single to right and was promptly moved to second when J-Upton coaxed a walk out of Pelfrey. Montero then earned his second hit of the game with a single to load the bases for Tracy. Tracy took the second pitch he saw and struck it deep into right, over Francoeur's head, scoring two runs as Monter was held up at third. This set up the most intriguing play of the game.

Determined to minimize the damage, Pelfrey coaxed a weak hit out of Roberts. The pitcher scooped up the ball and threw it home as Montero rushed home plate. Met's catcher Brian Schneider caught Pelfrey's throw but missed tagging a feet first sliding Montero. The umpire remained silent, thinking Montero himself missed the plate while sliding, until a confused Schneider tagged his counterpart out. Many replays on the large screen TV I was watching the game from seemed to clearly show Montero's foot barely touch the plate, but the umpire, and apparently our Manager were not as sure as I was. As Miguel slowly walked back to the dugout, you may have expected our former catcher manager to jump from his perch, stride out onto the field, and give the officiating crew a little lesson on what happens behind a plate in a situation like this. Hinch instead, seemed content to remain in the dugout.

Of course, the big screen TV which so clearly showed Montero safe to this new recapper could probably better be described as ... well ... an iPhone. So maybe our guys knew what was going on, but I will let the commenters be the judge of that.

The scoring fun of the fifth inning wasn't only for the Diamondbacks though. Garland's 38th pitch was happily deposited into the seats in left center by Francoeur. The dinger was the first of three straight extra base hits. Next up was a triple by Sullivan, then a double by Cora. Two runs were in with no outs and the lead, and Garland's luck, looked like they had reached their end.

A Schneider ground out advanced Cora to third and a seemingly pressing Garland climbed back atop the mound to face a pinch-hitting Gary Sheffield. The Diamondback defense, worried how hard the Sheff hits even infield balls, was aligned fairly deep by Hinch. This move, dismissed at the time by the Mets announcers helped the Diamondbacks escape with the lead. Sheffield sharply struck a 1-0 hanging slider only to be robbed by a leaping Chad Tracy. This spectacular stab at first reclaimed any remaining momentum the Mets had collected. One batter later, Garland was out of the inning and the score was 3-2.

The Tracy grab provided Garland enough of an emotional boost to get him through the next four innings on 53 pitches and a spectacular defensive play set up by another managerial maneuver. An inning after the Diamondbacks extend their lead to 4-2 via a Parra RBI single that scored Ojeda, Hinch moved Parra over to left as Chris Young took his place in center. The defensive upgrade proved eventful in the eighth when Sheffield was robbed of his second straight hit by an amazing diving catch by Parra.

If Garland, Tracy, and Parra proved to be clutch defensive heroes, Montero (3 for 5 with a run), Ojeda (2 for 2 with 2 walks and 2 runs) and Tracy (2 for 5 with 2 RBI) got it done on the offensive side.

An interesting side note. While Garland waking into the batter's box five times itself is notable, the fact that there were runners on the bases each time is even more interesting. Of course Garland didn't earn a hit and only was able to move the runners once due to a sacrifice, but considering the rest of his performance - I think we can let this slide.

The Diamondbacks return to Citi Field tomorrow for the final game of the series. Dan Haren takes the mound against spot starter Nelson Figueroa who only today was recalled from AAA Buffalo. Figueroa has seven wins for Buffalo with a 2.25 ERA.

[Usual trimmings now added!]

[Click to enlarge, at Fangraphs.com]
Master of his domain: Jon Garland, +33.8%
Honorable mentions: Ojeda, +14.0%; Montero, +11.2%
God-emperor of suck: Ryan Roberts -17.0%

Thanks to Wactivist for his guest recap: I was stunned when he mentioned he was writing the recap off his "notes." I'm looking into this intriguing and novel concept... Just shy of 400 comments in the Gameday Thread, helped a little by the lengthy delay before first pitch. Normal service was resumed, 'Skins having twice as many as anyone else. Also present: Giannaros, sayheyupton, unnamedDBacksfan, pygalgia, hotclaws, kishi, Counsellmember, TwinnerA, snakecharmer, IHateSouthBend, AJforAZ, katers, gasgarza, marionette, piratedan7, njjohn and Clefo.

A good win, guaranteeing us at least a split on the road, always a credible result. The victory also moved us above the Reds, so we have the twelfth best record in the NL now. Next in our sights, these same Mets. They're currently 4.5 games ahead, but we can get one of those back tomorrow, with Dan facing a career journeyman in Nelson Figueroa, so hopefully that'll give us the series win.

Road Trippers for D-Backs

Wactivist — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:38:53 -0000

One thing is clear about the Snakepit, we have a scary willingness to threaten the livlihood of adorable animals in order to get our offense going. Sadly due to our offense having no soul, many furry creatures have died as a result.

A second thing is clear though as well - and this is the reason I am writing. A huge chunk of the readers here live outside of Arizona and follow our team largely through this blog.

I think it goes without saying, the D-Backs aren't one of those teams that has huge chunks of fans all over the country. We aren't the Yankees, or the Cubs, or the Red Sox where you could roll into any ball park in the country and find a few supporters of your team in attendance. In fact, since moving to Nashville I have not seen a single D-back fan ... and I even went to a Reno Aces game!

My point: We can probably fix this - sorta.

I want to travel to see our boys. Drive up to Cincinnati for a game. Head up to St. Louis. But, and no disrespect to my friends who live in those areas (or even here) ... I want a freaking D-Backs fan to be there to enjoy it with me! Especially since this year the prospects for a win are slim anyway!

I'm sure I'm not the only person in this boat. Right?

So - an experiment. Let's use this thread to post road games (or even series) people are interested in going to. One comment per game or series, and allow people to have a bunch of mini discussions to see if we can't put together a few road trip snake pit games in random places. Heck, I'll bring the giant poster of St. Penelope of the Cross in case of emergency.

UPDATE: If you want to go see any of our minor affiliates, you shoudl list them here too.

In case you were wondering what that bizarre feeling was.

Wactivist — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:13:08 -0000

In case you were wondering what that bizarre feeling was.

A Night with the Aces in Nashville, a AAA Recap

Wactivist — Wed, 13 May 2009 05:05:17 -0000

This is my first attempt at a recap, it is hard work. Please forgive any errors, poor writing, or cynicism. Hope you find it enjoyable nonetheless - Wactivist

Reno Aces - 0
(13-19)
L, Billy Buckner,
4.91, 1-2

Nashville Sounds - 5
(18-15)
W, Mike Burns,
2.27, 5-0

Let me just start by saying that I think I now know why we keep pulling people up from AA instead of from AAA. Our boys in Reno just aren't that good. Or, well maybe since we keep pulling all our talent up from Mobile nobody gets a chance in Reno. Chicken or egg, this is the impression I got after watching nine horrible innings against my current hometown Nashville Sounds. I left glad to have seen some baseball, but demoralized that the diamond(back) in the rough I was looking for with my amateur snakepit eyes ... just wasn't there.

I don't want to be so negative though, not yet. So before I go into the game recap, I want to start off with some game highlights!

Despite ferocious heckling from some drunk "rednecks" (as my friend at the game described them), Starter Billy Buckner had a pretty decent outing. In addition to only allowing 1 run over five innings (and more on that run later) he floated a soft fly ball into short left field to raise his batting average to (according to the scoreboard) .400. A scoreboard error I think, but still it shut the hecklers up right quick.
SP Travis Blakley, from Australia, is hilarious. He gave a "g'day" to the Buckner hecklers by the dugout and they went nuts because of his accent. Many started mock playing didgeridoo (yeah, they weren't very good at heckling, just loud .. plus they called it an auzzie stick horn when they couldn't recall the proper name) and Blakley couldn't stop laughing at them. Now, I love the guy, 4.91 ERA or not.
After it all ended, the public announcer let us know that a gentleman from England celebrated his birthday by watching his first American baseball game with us today! Walking toward the cheering crowd sitting with the gentleman at the time, I was half hoping to see Jim taking the piss out of a bunch of Tennesseans, but instead I saw a confused old man trying to understand exactly why the game ended after only 8.5 innings, and not nine. Either way, let's try this trick at some point Jim - could have some fall league fun that is for sure.
I got to shake Brett Butler's hand after the game. I told him I'd rather see him as our skipper in Phoenix and was pulling for him last week (sort of a lie, I just know I didn't want AJ). He smiled politely and thanked me for coming out to cheer on the team.

A manager with some experience in our system. Imagine that. (and yes he is walking up to me because of my dbacks hat and shirt)
--

On to the recap.

Our favorite son of an infamous Red Sox first basemen didn't start off with much luck.

After a scorelss Aces top of the first another son of fame, lead off man Tony Gwynn, hit a grounder down the first base line just beyond the reach of the slow to react 1B Bryan Byrne, right in front of my excellent third row first base seat. Thanks Bryan. Alex Romero instead had to pick up Byrne's garbage as the speedy Gwynn did his part to turn it into a triple. Gwynn didn't have to stand around long as the Sounds' Escobar poked a line drive to left resulting in a 1-0 deficit for the good guys.

Buckley got out of the inning though with no further damage, save a swipe of 2nd by Escobar that was later erased when C Carlin caught him trying to steal third.

For the next four innings the teams each hung zeros on the scoreboard with both pitchers looking strong. Of note to the readers of this blog was the lackluster performance of our infield. While the THREE errors awarded to our guys didn't come until after Buckner sat down for the night, there were a number of slowly hit grounders that our slow reacting boys were not able to grab. A problem that didn't result in any scoring until best name of the year lefty Jon Countalngus (the hecklers enjoyed it when my companion exclaimed "make him change his name" the minute she saw his jersey) took the mound in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Yup, Buckner got one of our three hits.
--

Inheriting a walk from Buckner who was clearly starting to tire, Countlangus was able to retire the next two batters he faced with successive line outs. Then the wheels came off the thing as I had flashes of another Jon fill my pained mind. Yes, I'm talking about Mr. Rauch.

A two out single moved the man on first over to second to give the next better, Jason Bourgeois, two RBI when he delivered a powerful two out triple in the gap. Our first error of the night was planted on 2b Ruben Gotay allowing Bourgeous to hit home. A pinch hitter came in to replace the excellent Sounds starter Burns with a fly out and -..boom. Unless our offense had a miraculous uptick in their production - this game was over. And it was.

Which of these guys in the Aces bullpen do you want replacing Mr. Rauch.
--

The rest of the night saw our final nine batters retired in order. But the pain on the defensive side wasn't as quick.

Reliever Jose Marte escaped the seventh despite a SS Guillermo Reyes error that plated Gwynn who then proceeded to steal second and advance to third on a throwing error by C John Hester. Marte's luck ran out in the eighth though when he coughed up a walk, allowed the man to advance to second on a steal and then to score after a Gillespie double to left. After Gwynn walked and threatened to steal yet again, Butler had enough and pulled Marte for also hilariously named Billy Spottiswood who got us out of the inning.

As our guys walked up for what was to be a routine 1-2-3 embarrassment, I wasn't as upset as I should have been. After enduring eight innings of obnoxious, vulgar, and rarely funny heckling a man with a small child near our section stood up and told the rablerousers to watch their language. The shock and shame among the hecklers was priceless. It was the first time I laughed at any of their hijinks, but their shame at least proved to me they weren't Dodger fans.

When the game was over we saw the bad guys steal three bags from us, our not so good in the field guys committed three errors, our hitters collected only three hits, and left the crowd begging for a ninth K so we could get a (single?) free White Castle slider (disgusting, I don't care what Harold and Kumar told you). At least it was a familiar sight to this die hard D-Backs fan. Sigh.

I suffered through nine painful strikeouts, and all I got was the satisfaction of not having to eat a White Castle slider due to my inability to turn down free food (even terrible free food)
--

The guitar scoreboard showed it all. And no, the light being out in the 7th isn't an act of mercy.
--

Despite the suck-town performance of our Aces, I had a great time at the game. Baseball is baseball right? Weather permitting I will try to get to at least a few more of the games during this (my)home stand.

I took a bunch of pictures and uploaded them to my flickr page. Here is the full slide show. It is a new camera and I was mainly playing around with it -- so take them for what they are. Me playing with my camera. In case the slide show below doesn't load - here is a link to the flickr photos - link.

As more time passes, I'm starting to agree with this fan. Great photo from the AZ Republic.

Wactivist — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:45:47 -0000

As more time passes, I'm starting to agree with this fan. Great photo from the AZ Republic.

Great Reilly Article on ESPN about D-Backs Season Tix Scholarships

Wactivist — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:27:26 -0000

Great Reilly Article on ESPN about D-Backs Season Tix Scholarships

It's an idea D-backs CEO Derrick Hall came up with at one game when a season ticket-holder who'd lost everything, even her car, introduced herself. She told him a fan in her section had bought her two season tickets for the rest of the year, even picked her up every game and took her home. And Hall thought, Why don't we do this for our fans? So he asked fans to send in "applications" for scholarships. Soon, his e-mail in-box was swamped.

From Spring Training 2008 ... just booked my flight out for 2009 and am EXTREMELY excited. Anyone...

Wactivist — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:26:30 -0000

From Spring Training 2008 ... just booked my flight out for 2009 and am EXTREMELY excited. Anyone planning on going to games the week of the 14th of March?

Game Day Threads Just Got Insane: Snakepit now has a mobile browser version.

Wactivist — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:47:29 -0000

I was late to work when I saw the interview Jim did with Brynes and figured what the hell, I'll see if I can't pull it up on my phone and deal with the weird formatting ... better than waiting.

Turns out, at some point in the recent past, SB Nation added a mobile version!

Maybe this is old news - and if it is, I apologize. But for the rest of you - check it out!

Diamondbacks Decide to Postpone Penant Race

Wactivist — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:11:30 -0000

Diamondbacks Decide to Postpone Penant Race

... okay, maybe not. But the way things are looking for us right now - might not be the worst idea out there to follow our Senator's lead and just take our ball and bat and go home.

From Nick Piecoro's blog today: D-Backs dynamite PR man Mike McNally says his club has the...

Wactivist — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:32:27 -0000

From Nick Piecoro's blog today:

D-Backs dynamite PR man Mike McNally says his club has the youngest Opening Day roster in the majors with an average age of 27.84 years.

Here’s the five youngest:

Diamondbacks: 27.84

A’s 28.14

Twins 28.101

Marlins 28.175

Braves 28.192

Nic Piecoro's Blog