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Brandon Webb, RHP (8-0, 2.18)

Pedro Martinez, RHP (5-1, 2.79)

Tonight is The Big One. Brandon Webb vs. Pedro Martinez in Shea Stadium. Webb returns to the scene of his first major-league start, where he burst onto the world in 2003. On April 27th, five days after his debut (pitching the ninth against the Expos at BOB), he faced Tom Glavine - and gave the future Hall of Famer a lesson. Webb pitched seven shutout innings, allowed three hits and fanned ten Mets, on his way to victory.

No question, Webb likes pitching in Shea. His second outing was almost as successful - seven innings, one earned run, giving him this career line in the Big Apple:
Webb: 14 IP, 10 H, 3 BB, 16 K, 1 ER
Webb has yet to taste defeat this season, and his ERA of 2.18 leads the National League. But his opponent is, arguably, the greatest pitcher of the modern era, with a career record of 202-85 - that’s over a .700 winning percentage, third-best all-time among pitchers with 100+ decisions. This is his 16th season, and he’s yet to post an ERA+ below 117 - it hasn’t been below 125 since 1996. So, we duly give Martinez the respect he deserves: it will not be easy for our hitters this afternoon.

And yet, Webb has been magnificent in 2006. Over at Sports Illustrated, Albert Chen drools over Webb, calling his sinker, “arguably the filthiest pitch in baseball.” He does point to the improved defense as helping, but also credits Webb with a much-improved curveball. Says Webb, “I’ve been able to throw it for strikes. To come out with a first-pitch curveball for a strike is huge for me because people know that the sinker is coming.” There’s no doubt that Webb, already a good pitcher, is a genuine ace thus far.

Yes, folks: this one promises to be a doozie, matching up two pitchers with a combined winning percentage this year of .929 - this is, basically, your irresistible force meeting your immovable object. I’m clearing the decks of all superfluous activities, so that I can sit down and appreciate this one fully. I’m sure you’re eagerly anticipating it as well, and I look forward to a top-notch pitching duel. It wouldn’t surprise me if the game is over in about 2:10 - don’t blink or you might miss an inning.

Record: 30-21. Change on last season: +1

Yesterday’s game was the equivalent of breathing deeply into a paper-bag for five minutes. A complete game from Miguel Batista - not to mention a six-run lead going into the ninth inning - was just the antidote needed to recent traumas. We led from the top of the first inning (albeit with the aid of a questionable umpire’s call), and a four-run fifth inning provide some much needed daylight between us and the Mets.

It certainly didn’t look like Batista would be pitching the ninth in the second inning. He gave up hits to two Mets, but got a lucky out when Lastings Milledge, in his first MLB at-bat, sent a laser shot, fortunately straight at Counsell. A sacrifice bunt then went horribly wrong, thanks to Tracy not covering third, and throwing wildly to first, bringing a run home and putting men on the corners with one out. But our old friend, the inning-ending double-play, came to visit the Mets, and danger was averted.

Oh, they had their chances. Lots of them: they were 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position. Batista had a nasty habit of allowing leadoff doubles, which meant a big inning was never far away. However, to his credit, he bore down when needed, and the Mets wouldn’t score again until the bottom of the ninth. It was Batista’s first complete game since June 2004: he threw 124 pitches, netting him some Pitcher Abuse Points, allowing nine hits and a walk, while striking out three. After the game, Batista was asked why there are so few complete games: “Because guys get $13 million to throw one inning,” he replied, bluntly.

On the hitting side, two hits for Tracy (and no K’s - at this rate, it’ll be the shortest watch ever!) and two for Estrada. But the big blow came from Conor Jackson: Byrnes homered to lead off the inning, Tracy singled and Gonzalez walked, before Conor sent the ball into the stands, not far from Byrnes’s shot. I mentioned this in the comments, but it’s worth bringing up here, and I think I’ll add a permanent link in the side-bar. Here are the NL Rookie of the Year candidates, sorted by OPS:
Jackson and his rivals
Jackson is now second for OPS, and tied with Fielder for the lead in RBIs. A couple more HR (as noted previously, voters weight that more heavily), and we’re talking every part the legitimate contender.

Eric Byrnes is another player having a fabulous season: his third homer of the series last night has moved him up to 8th in the National League for OPS, ahead of the likes of Adam Dunn and Lance Berkman. Among CF, only Carlos Beltran tops Byrnes - and it’s not even close, with the third-place man, Andruw Jones, 124 points behind Eric. Not that you’d know it from the All-Star game balloting, where Byrnes doesn’t even make the top fifteen - Jones leads all players there. Indeed, look in vain for any Diamondback to be mentioned. Like Rodney Dangerfield, we jus’ don’ get no respect.

Thanks to VIII, William K, Devin, johngordonma and Spencer for chipping in. I’m in two minds about leaving Batista in for the ninth: it does make a nice statement for your starter, but is hardly a mark of confidence in your bullpen. “Sorry, guys, a six-run lead? We’re sticking with a pitcher who has thrown 110 pitches already.” Bit of a double-edged sword, that. Might have been a nice spot to get Jarvis in, before his arm rusts entirely, but more on that topic after this squiggly message:

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Today: Batista Completes Us

Kevin Jarvis. Called up on May 20th; pitches thrown since: zero. It is, probably, inevitable that in the ten games since he arrived, our rotation has gone six or more innings every time; we’ve had three complete games and nine quality starts. No complaints here, of course, but it isn’t the sort of environment in which a player specifically called up as a long reliever will see an enormous amount of work. And the clock might be ticking on Jarvis’s time with us…

For in Fresno tonight, Ortiz and Mulholland will both make their latest rehab starts: the latter could well be deemed ready after that. Who would he replace in the bullpen? Does the minor-league contract Jarvis signed, mean we can simply send him back down? Or does he have to go through waivers, as any other veteran? The former would make him the obvious candidate, since Mulholland can also give us multiple innings in a crunch, but calling Jarvis up, simply to waive him without taking the mound, seems…well, wrong.

Polls have closed on the Closer Poll - as it were. Here is the final result:

1. Jorge Julio: 39%
2. Luiz Vizcaino: 18%
3. Brandon Medders: 15%
4. Brandon Lyon: 13%
   Jose Valverde: 13%

The tribe has spoken. Julio for closer. So we now return to our earlier, scheduled poll on the happier topic of which non-Webb D’back should go to the All-Star game.

And lo, closer-wise, it did appear Melvin is leaning the same way: “Melvin said right-hander Jorge Julio was his closer if needed on Tuesday night, but wouldn’t commit beyond that. But that Melvin wasn’t backing Valverde, who has allowed runs in five straight appearances with two blown saves, seems to say it all.” Certainly, Melvin’s support for Papa Grande was luke-warm at best: “We talked about where we think we’re going, but I’m not prepared to talk about that yet.”

Steve Gilbert and Bryan Price don’t think Valverde’s reliance on his fastball is the main issue:

I would imagine a decision has been made, given the likely scenario of a hardcore pitcher’s duel today, with one or other team’s closer very probably seeing action. Unless, of course, Webb throws his third straight complete game - and, y’know, I would certainly not rule that out. However, more on today’s game, a little later.

This week President Bush met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame to discuss refunding African Union peacekeeping countries who have sent troops into Darfur to help end the genocide there. Helping to end this genocide, exactly, is a great direction the U.S. can take to *really* tackle terrorism … the tension there between the extremeist Hutu […]

….for Finding Rhtyhm will not be mine. I’ll go ahead and place a moratorium on Da Vinci Code entries for this blog after this post. So with this being my last reference to the book/movie controversy, I’ll go ahead and pass the mic to Dean Kuest who is the lead pastor at Pathways […]

Miguel Batista, RHP (4-2, 4.60)

Alay Soler, RHP (0-0, 3.00)

“Your attention, please. This is your captain speaking. There is no need to be alarmed. The shaking and juddering that you feel is perfectly normal. Every voyage will have its share of rough water; we should be through it shortly, and continue sailing on in the manner to which we have become accustomed. However, to make up for any inconvenience, you are all welcome to join me for drinks in the Titanic ballroom at 7pm. I’ll bring the ice.”

Events of the last couple of days have left me with a sense of unease. Does Valverde’s struggles indicate that the over-achievement of our bullpen is about to come to a grinding halt? At least Melvin has made it clear that we won’t see him tonight - albeit for “fatigue” reasons, rather than Kurt Angle-esque “You Suck” reasons. Be interesting to see who goes out there if it is a save situation: early returns in our poll seem to indicate Jorge Julio is the fans’ pick as a replacement.

Don’t know much about Alay Soler - it sounds like his name is Pig Latin. This is only his second start in the big leagues, and last time out he walked the first three batters he faced (I’m assuming nerves) , but settled down thereafter and delivered a quality start. It’s probably an exaggeration to describe this as a “must-win” game, but with the outcome of tomorrow’s game uncertain, even with Webb on the mound, I’d far rather go into it, 3-2 on this roadtrip, rather than sporting a three-game losing streak.

Some advance warning: I’m off to Burbank on Friday for the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention: hanging out with my homies, Bruce Campbell and Lance Henriksen. Well, actually, Mrs. SnakePit is going, in her role as VP of Press + Marketing for local horror company Brain Damage Films [there was a bit in the Republic business section about them last week], and I’m tagging along. We drive out Friday morning, back Sunday afternoon; unsure how to handle this, AZSnakePit.com-wise. If anyone fancies taking over the helm for the weekend, let me know; if not, I’ll just post all the GameDay threads for Fri-Sun on Thursday night.

Record: 29-21. Change on last season: 0

I, very deliberately, did not post anything last night in the heat of the second consecutive loss delivered by Valverde. “Three minutes after the game isn’t the time to ask me if I’m going to change my closer,” said Melvin. I concur: it seemed like a time to pause, rather than react instinctively, and so, after a good night’s sleep and adequate time to reflect, I respond with appropriate calm consideration. Jose Valverde should be taken to the nearest zoo, staked out in the hyena enclosure and the inhabitants allowed to nibble on his kidneys.

Er, okay, perhaps not quite calm consideration there, but that’s because the sting of this one still lingers. As was pointed out in the comments, if Valverde had done his job over the past couple of days, we’d have been 4-0 on this roadtrip thus far. Let’s update his recent line to include yesterday’s performance:
Valverde: 3.2 IP, 14 H, 3 BB, 4 K, 9 ER
Really, is any part of that unclear? He has allowed the same number of earned runs in the past 48 hours, as he did in the first six weeks of the season.

Here are some choice quotes from an article on mlb.com, Valverde has short memory:

• “I move on like this,” Valverde said snapping his fingers. “Yesterday is yesterday. Today is a new day.” - Yes, but what if today sucks worse than yesterday? And then tomorrow brings another disaster? At what point do you say, “Er…maybe something is wrong”?

• Melvin believes that periodic struggles are inevitable for closers — it’s how they bounce back that separates the pretenders from the real thing. - Let’s see. Valverde almost loses a three-run lead. Bounces back from that, by doing exactly the same again. Bounces back from that, by blowing a game and taking a loss, allowing two runs while retiring one hitter. And finally, bounces back from that by a perfect repeat performance. Seems to be separating the pretenders pretty well, I’d say.

• “If you look at the rest of the closers in the league and how many guys have been beat up this year … you know he’s given up two blown saves,” said Melvin. Er, make that three - and, in fact, according to ESPN, only Weathers, Baez and Cordero in the majors have more [though I’m not sure why the Braves’ Reitsma isn’t listed], and only Cordero has a worse ERA. Plus, the manner in which Valverde has surrendered them, suggests that these are not isolated blips, but a real, serious problem.

This issue must be addressed, and it must be addressed now. In the hyper-competitive NL West - where 3.5 games separate the penthouse from the cellar - we can’t afford to pootle around, waiting for Valverde to solve whatever it is that ails him. Melvin has to take Papa Grande aside and explain that the team can not afford these meltdowns, and until the problem is identified, and fixed, someone else will be getting the ball in the ninth inning.

Even Melvin admitted it - at least for Tuesday night, saying “He’s not going to be available anyway.” Which is strange: twice, this month alone, we’ve seen Valverde roll out three games in a row - 1st-3rd and 14th-16th. And it’s not as if those games were less physically demanding: he threw 47 and 30 pitches respectively, the first two outings of those stretches, but only 28 on Sunday and Monday combined. If he had saved those first two games, think he’d be available tonight? Maybe that was the problem, because it was following that second streak that everything fell apart: is Valverde another arm blown out by Bob Melvin?

We’ll see how this pans out. As on Sunday, this overshadowed a credible performance: “But apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” Here, we came back twice against the Mets, from 4-1 and 6-4 down, to take a 7-6 lead on the back of a three-run homer from Tracy. The top of the order did well, Counsell, Byrnes and Tracy combining for six hits, four runs and five RBIs: Byrnes had two homers in a game for the first time since July 30th, 2004. Estrada and Hudson also had back-to-back sacrifice flies in the fourth, which helped to bring us back into the game.

Not a great performance by Vargas, who snapped the streak of quality starts before getting out of the second inning. Most of the damage was done in that four-run second, where he allowed four hits and a walk. Overall, his line was seven hits, three walks and six earned runs over six innings - but, despite that, he was in line for the win until that disastrous ninth. Medders pitched the seventh on eight pitches, while Vizcaino pitched a perfect eighth with two K’s. And then…and then…oh, I’ll let this picture replace a thousand words. Most of them with four letters.

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Today: Going Down in Flames II:
This time, it’s personal…

Which actually reminds me, I never got round to posting the (distressingly similar) graph for Sunday’s game. I’ll get right on that… Thanks to VIII, Spencer, azshadowwalker, William K, frienetic, johngordonma and IndyDBack for toasting marshmallows round the bonfire of our lead. After two devastating losses like this, the rest of the series has now suddenly become a test of the team’s resilience. Will they be able to put this behind them, or is it going to leave the pitchers gun-shy, and send us spiralling down in the same way we collapsed in 2005? We’ll see…

I haven't been this happy with a coffee house since I discovered Has Beans in Mount Shasta (this proclamation, of course, excludes the amazing dafful stands all over Israel, as well as the native coolness of Java Jungle in H.B.). The new place? Coffee Rush at Gilbert & Baseline, which sits nicely inside Coffee Planatation's […]

Claudio Vargas, RHP (5-2, 4.93)

Steve Trachsel, RHP (2-4, 4.99)

Let’s see if our rotation can keep going on this phenomenal streak of quality starts, now up to eight. Indeed “quality” seems an understatement in the case of the Reds series, where they averaged seven innings each, with an ERA of 0.43. I think we’d settle for that ERA, or even half a dozen times that, in this series against the Mets.

Vargas did well enough for the win last time out, pitching six frames and allowing only two first-inning runs; Trachsel got lit up by the Phillies, with a toasty six earned runs in five innings. His starts in May have seen steadily-increasing control issues, and steadily-decreasing strikeouts, so patience may prove particularly beneficial.

The Mets are only seventh in runs scored in the league, and have been doing it mostly with pitching - their 3.91 ERA trails only St. Louis and LA. However, outside of Pedro and Tom Glavine, their rotation has been a work in progress: El Duque, who won yesterday against Florida, is the tenth different starter they’ve used this year already. We won’t see him or Glavine this series though.

Infielder injury alert! But, before you rush out to buy your Drew shirts, I should mention Counsell feels fine - it’s Damion Easley, whose back has been playing him up. The Diamondbacks are hoping he’ll be able to avoid any DL time, but if he does, we’ll likely see more of Andy Green, with Alberto Callaspo called up to fill the pine-riding spot.

Results

AZ SnakePit 8, BBTNG 2
Not a match where pitchers covered themselves in glory: AZ’s 5.73 ERA was still good enough to win, with Maroth breaking Cruz’s record, posting a 162.00 ERA. Zito and Bush helped BBTNG take K’s; they also won HR behind 3 from Renteria.
Man of the Match: Taveras (AZ) - 7 R, 3 RBI, 4 SB, .323

DFA’ders 3, KarateMonkeyDeathCar 6
Davis (DFA) was the only arm on either side to earn a win, and Jones’ three saves won that category. Otherwise, Karate dominated, with a .314 average, and 39 RBIs behind Ramirez and Chavez. “EZ” does it, you could say…
Man of the Match: Ramirez (Karate) - 5 R, 4 HR, 10 RBI, .476

Uk Dbacks 2, The Fighting Amish 4
Jason Bay might had the most phemomenal week of any player this year, and led UK to ties in three hitting categories. Amish withstood Valverde’s 23.14 ERA to take that, and Crawford’s 8 SB were also crucial there.
Man of the Match: Bay (UK) - 11 R, 7 HR, 15 RBI, .500

JByrnesIsMyHomie 7, GregSchulteOverdrive 2
The TV game turned into a hitting exhibition, Byrnes sweeping all five points there, Soriano and Guerrero both batting above .400. Pitching was evenly split, Schilling’s two wins for Greg countering those of Verlander.
Man of the Match: Verlander (Byrnes) - 2 W, 12 K, 0.56 ERA, 0.88 WHIP

Browncoats 5, Random Fandom 3
Neither side could be bothered with saves, and in a low-scoring game, mustered only 44 RBIs between them. Mauer (Random) took batting honours, with a .467 week, while Martinez (Brown) and Santana (Random) each had 10 K’s.
Man of the Match: Johnson (Brown) - 8 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, ,375

7-2 Offsuiters 7, BigLebowski 1
7-2 had their best outing of the season, coming within a couple of RBIs of a clean sweep in hitting, and holding Big to ties in wins + saves in pitching. Hall had 3 HR for Big; the rest of the team only had one all week.
Man of the Match: Cabrera (7-2) - 7 R, 8 RBI, 2 SB, .500

The Loose Seals 6, ¡Chalino Sanchez! 4
Seals delivered a .317 average with 11 HR and 36 RBI, but Peavy’s 22 K’s for Chalino were almost as many as Seals entire total. However, Seals still took ERA, but three saves by Ray gave that to Chalino, despite Rivera matching him.
Man of the Match: Rodriguez (Seals) - 8 R, 4 HR, 11 RBI, .435

Standings

                           Record   GB   1.  JByrnesIsMyHomie     58-17-5    -   2.  The Fighting Amish   46-24-10   9.5   3.  The Loose Seals      45-25-10  10.5   4.  GregSchulteOverdrive 44-29-7   13   5.  AZ SnakePit          42-33-5   16   6.  Random Fandom        38-36-6   19.5   7.  BBTNG                36-40-4   22.5   8.  KarateMonkeyDeathCar 34-41-5   24   9.  ¡Chalino Sanchez!    33-42-5   25  10.  Uk Dbacks            27-39-14  26.5  11.  DFA'ders             32-44-4   26.5  12.  Browncoats           29-42-9   27  13.  BigLebowski          28-49-3   31  14.  7-2 Offsuiters       21-52-7   36 

Week 9 Matchups

AZ SnakePit vs. 7-2 Offsuiters
DFA’ders vs. BBTNG
Uk Dbacks vs. KarateMonkeyDeathCar
JByrnesIsMyHomie vs. The Fighting Amish
Browncoats vs. GregSchulteOverdrive
The Loose Seals vs. BigLebowski
¡Chalino Sanchez! vs. Random Fandom

Leaders Byrnes face their second tough contest in a row: after disposing of Schulte, how will they fare against Amish, now sitting second in the league? Their powerhouse outfield of Soriano and Guerrero helped them last week, while Papelbon’s 0.35 ERA is a force in the bullpen. Amish will hope Valverde finds himself; Konerko leads all players with 40 RBIs, and has already added a homer today, his 15th, to give him the team lead over Carlos Beltran.

Record: 29-20. Change on last season: +1

Well, that sucked. Woke up around 11:30am, turned the TV on, and was extremely pleased to see Arizona holding a 4-1 lead in the sixth inning, Enrique Gonzales having surpassed all expectations. He’d not only provided the hoped-for quality start, but our offense had scored three runs in the first, and were holding a 4-1 lead over Bronson Arroyo.

Exit Gonzalez, after the sixth, his job done, and we turn things over to the bullpen. Ah, yes: the bullpen. The bullpen which had lost only four games in 48. The bullpen: source of strength when all our starters fell in disarray. The bullpen, with a 3.46 ERA, the second best in the National League. The bullpen, which was about to implode, in a startling, unexpected and quite painful manner.

It started off fine. Jorge Julio, having passed his audition with a seven-run lead, came in for the seventh inning, and allowed a hit, but no runs, and Reds manager Jerry Narron was tossed for arguing balls and strikes with the home-plate umpire. Shawn Green got thrown out at home plate in our half of the eighth inning, but it didn’t matter, right? For we still had a three-run lead.

Not for long. Brandon Lyon relieved Julio, but was greeted with a bunt single, a homer and a double. The tying run now stood at second-base, with no outs; a bunt later, it was at third with one out. I blamed Mrs. SnakePit, who had abandoned the game for the shower; I forced her to watch the rest of the inning, and it did the trick, as Brandon Lyon kept the lead in the Diamondbacks hands, striking out Aurilia, and getting Dunn to fly out. We went down 1-2-3 in the ninth, but then disaster struck.

Mrs. SnakePit went to make breakfast.

“Put the TV on in the living-room,” I said as she left, but did she listen? Nooooo… And the inevitable happened without our good-luck charm. Though Valverde fanned the first Reds hitter, a squib off the end of the bat by Kearns got him aboard, and pinch-hitter Valentin took the first pitch he saw, a split-finger fastball offering from Papa Grande, and clobbered it into the bleachers, turning a sweep into a disturbing defeat.

It looks to me like it may be time for a rearrangement of the A- and B-bullpens. Here are the figures for the month of May

Player    ERA   IP  H R ER HR BB SO    ======== ==== ==== == = == == == ==  Vizcaino 3.65 12.1 11 5  5  3  5 17   Lyon     6.00 12.0 15 9  8  2  2  6   Medders  0.77 11.2 11 1  1  0  4  9   Valverde 6.35 11.1 14 8  8  2  7 11   Grimsley 2.61 10.1 10 3  3  1  3  6   Daigle   3.52  7.2  9 3  3  1  6  3   Aquino   1.42  6.1  5 1  1  1  3  2   Julio    0.00  2.0  1 0  0  0  0  3 

May not be long before Lyon is replaced by Medders as the setup man, and if Julio maintains his performance, he might become the seventh inning go-to guy, taking the spot of Vizcaino. However, this doesn’t address the issue of the continued woefulness of Valverde. He allowed more runs while getting one out today, than our entire starting rotation did in twenty-one innings this series. Melvin said all the right things afterward, but here’s Valverde’s line over the past ten days:
Valverde: 3.1 IP, 10 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 7 ER

Not good, to say the least. I’m wondering if there’s an injury issue here that’s limiting Valverde’s effectiveness, by stopping him from throwing breaking balls effectively. Given his history of arm injury, this might well explain why we opted to trade Hernandez for a former closer like Jorge Julio, in case we need someone to replace Valverde. Something certainly worth keeping an eye on for the next couple of weeks.

This overshadows the rest of the game: two hits each for Gonzalez, Jackson and Shawn Green, with Gonzo having 2 RBIs. Even Tracy managed to cut back on the strikeouts, only fanning once. But above all these was Enrique Gonzalez: in six innings, he allowed only three hits and a walk, with the only run a leadoff homer to the very first hitter he faced in his major-league career. Otherwise, this was a fine performance, and one which will pose an interesting decision with the Huge Manatee looming [Ortiz gave up eight hits and a walk over six innings pitching for Tucson on Friday]

[Morning Tuesday update]

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Today: Going Down in Flames

Thanks to VIII, William K, azshadowwalker and Spencer for taking care of things as I first snuggled in warm comfort, then cursed, and hurled pillows at the TV set. Not quite the way we wanted to end what was, overall, a pretty good series, with some great pitching from our rotation, and solid play from…well, 23 men on the roster, shall we say.

Heroes and Villains
Series 17: vs. Reds, on road

Webb: 9 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 5 K, 0 ER
Cruz: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 0 ER
S.Green: 5-for-12, HR, 3 RBI
—————————-
Lyon: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 K, 2 ER
Tracy: 1-for-13, 7 K
Valverde: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K, 2 ER

It’s kinda cool to realise that Gonzalez’s six innings of one-run ball was the worst performance by a starter this series. You’re gonna have to do better than that if you want to become a hero, Enrique: Cruz and Webb both did, and the results were an impeccable fifteen innings, with no earned runs. Excellent. Green gets the nod as the best hitter of the series, and is up to third in the National League, hitting .335 on the season.

Down at the other end, Lyon was fine on Saturday, but his performance on Sunday removed all of Valverde’s wiggle-room. Tracy’s issues have been well-documented during the series, and Valverde…well, the ninth inning of the game was like coming to the end of a fine meal, with exquisite cuisine and first-class wines - and getting an after-dinner mint with a worm in it. It kinda ruins the whole series, and is not the kind of note on which we really wanted to leave Cincinnati.

But as Bing Crosby once sang, let’s accentuate the positive (21 innings, one earned run for our starters), eliminate the negative (Valverde and Lyon blowing a three-run lead), latch on to the affirmative (four RBIs for Hudson, as many as in the first 45 games combined), and don’t mess with Mister In-Between (no, I’m not sure what Bing meant there either, at least from a baseball perspective). We win two of three on the road against a team that’s above .500, and are still 1.5 games clear at the top of the division.

Now, we head into the Big Apple, for what promised to be a mother of a series against the Mets, climaxing on Wednesday in the Pedro vs. Brandon battle. This will be perhaps the toughest test yet of our credentials as a team, and it’ll be interssting to see how we respond.

Finally, after ex-D’back Brad Halsey gave up Bonds homer 714, another ex-D’back gave up #715. And it was our old friend, provider of several dramatic homers in his time with us, Byung-Hung Kim. Nice story on mlb.com about Kim’s reaction to it: