Phoenix.BloggersPub

Record: 37-40. Change on last season: -2

I’m pretty glad I departed last night’s game when I did, after five innings. After falling behind 5-0 before we even got to bat - a huge hole, even by our recent standards of falling behind in the first inning - Arizona still clawed their way back into the game. Luis Gonzalez snapped his 200+ at-bat homerless streak, and another round-tripper by Shawn Green had made it a one-run game. I would, indeed, have preferred to settle for that as a final score, rather than the one that actually ensued.

For that was only half the scoring. While Mrs. Snakepit was on a call, I briefly tuned back in, in time to see Orlando Hudson fail again. On a high chopper hit to him with a runner at second, he threw wildly to third, for some reason. Really, for the reigning Gold Glover at his position, Hudson has not lived up to the hype - that was his sixth error of the season, matching his total from 2005, and only four players in the majors have more at the position. His range factor remains decent, but it seems for every good play, there’s another one which has been badly thought-out or poorly-executed. There’ll be no Gold Glove this year.

Despite falling back three runs behind again, we came back once more in the bottom half of the inning. Our offense does seem to be returning to life, which is a good sign, given that was the main problem in the recent streak. Byrnes hit a two-run double, and was then brought home by Tracy’s second hit of the day, to tie the game up. Shawn Green had three hits, including his eighth homer, but made a bad decision in that seventh, trying to go from second to third on a ball hit in front of him, and was thrown out. Conor Jackson reached base four times, on a hit, a plunking and a pair of walks.

Speaking of OBP, Counsell went 0-for-5 with two K’s in the leadoff spot. With the retiral of the Gonzo HR watch [until his next 100+ at-bat streak], the new sidebar feature is the OBP watch for the team. This will monitor how our leadoff hitter is doing at what he’s supposed to be doing: getting on base. The answer at the moment is, not very well, mostly because Counsell only has two more walks than Green. That’s Andy Green… This feature will continue until Craig either cracks the top three, or is moved from the leadoff spot.

However, just when we clawed our way back into the game, and after Medders pitched a scoreless eighth, Brandon Lyon couldn’t keep the game tied. The key blow came from former D’back, Richie Sexson, who made Melvin pay for an intentional walk to Ibañez, driving in the go-ahead run. Melvin’s excuse? “‘It’s a better matchup,’ you think at the time. One guy swinging a little better, numbers would indicate that it’s a better matchup.” And how many of those at-bats, pray tell, were against Medders? Would that be…none? Johjima’s second homer of the game, was merely a dollop of icing.

Nice to see Sexson received a warm, enthusiastic welcome from the Chase crowd. Well, it was enthusiastic (at least by our standards), but “warm” is perhaps slightly inaccurate, unless that’s really a euphemism for “from the bowels of hell”. Said Sexson, “I think I’ll get it as long as I come here. I’m not exactly sure why. Believe me, I wish I didn’t get hurt. It’s the last thing I wanted to have happen. But I guess they don’t see it that way.”

It’s amazing how ignorant millionaire athletes can be some time. Memo to Richie: it’s not the getting hurt that, ah, hurt. As noted yesterday, it was scurrying off back to Seattle afterwards, rather than being prepared to make up for the injury. What kind of response do you think you deserve, given you:

Jarrod Washburn, LHP (4-8, 4.84)

Brandon Webb, RHP (8-3, 2.48)

An off day is a weird thing. I actually did less at work yesterday, without having the game to listen to, comments to post, and reports to write, than on Sunday. And at time of writing today, it’s 2pm, and I have done…well, nothing. Got up; surfed aimlessly; had breakfast; watched a chunk of France vs. Spain in the World Cup; and half the day is now gone, without anything significant to show for it. Sure, there’s a bunch of stuff I could have done, and probably will wish that I had done later on. But I’ve done about as much since the last D’backs games, as the D’backs probably have.

So, Seattle comes to town and it’s the return of a (very brief) home-town favourite, in Richie Sexson. Be interesting to see what kind of reception he gets. On the one hand, he didn’t deliver anything like the value of his contract. It wasn’t his fault, true, but bolting for a Pacific payday, without even bothering to say, “It’s not you, it’s me”, wasn’t exactly the best way to apologize. On the other hand, that contract now seems like small beer, combined to the $20m we’re devoting to the Huge Manatee Preservation Society (HuMPS!) over the next few years.

Speaking of beer…interesting article in the Republic on Arte Moreno, the Phoenix-based owner of the Wherever Angels of This Space For Rent. It’s interesting to speculate on where the Diamondbacks might be, if he’d bought them, as he originally wanted to do, until Jerry Colangelo brushed him off:

Instead, he bought the Angels: the day he did, he cut the cost of beer, tickets and souvenirs. Anyone seen anything like that here? And the fans have responded appropriately, turning out in force. The season after they won the World Series, Anaheim had more than three million in attendance, like the D’backs did. But unlike Arizona, they built on that, increasing it to more than 3.4m last season, and are on course for that figure again this year. The Republic has no doubts why:

It’s an interesting contrast to the Chase experience, which all too often, feels like a polite mugging. They seem to forget that it’s better to sell a beer for four dollars, and make two, then not sell it for eight. In my case, the latter is exactly what happens - and believe me, selling beer to a Scotsman is not normally hard. This might also help alleviate the problem, brought up by suitsmetoATandT previously, of a lack of audience enthusiasm. Though given the recent performance by the D’backs, generating this would require dumping a truckload of E into the stadium water supply. [Where’s Jason Grimsley when you need him? He could have hooked us up]

We’ll be at tomorrow’s game, not purchasing alcohol, but we have the series opener tonight, with Webb going against Jarrod Washburn, and I’m optimistic, even though Webb hasn’t won in over a month. Washburn has allowes 5+ earned runs in three of his four starts in June, with 29 hits and 9 walks in 21.1 innings. He’s much less happy away from home: his road ERA is 5.66, compared to one at Angel Stadium below four. Right-handers hit him particularly hard: of 76 hits, 12 have gone yard, compared to one of 18 against southpaws.

Webb will have a little less pressure on him: keeping a winning streak going, is bound to be less stressful than trying to break a run of losses. His previous couple of starts have been nothing to write home about though - eighteen hits and eight earned runs in 11.2 innings. The season-high four walks last time were also a bit worrying, which matched his total for all six June starts. It’d be nice to see that Webb, with his 1.80 ERA, rather than the somewhat wobbly ace we’ve had on the mound recently.

But I do feel, like Miggy, that a corner has been, if not perhaps turned, at least peered around: it’s up to the D’backs to do the rest. And before I forget to plug the opposo-blog as usual, go check out Lookout Landing, where they describe us as “reeling”. No, that was last week.

“Nothing less than life in the steps of Christ is adequate to the human soul or the needs of our world. Any other offer fails to do justice to the drama of human redemption, deprives the hearer of life’s greatest opportunity, and abandons this present life to the evil powers of the age. […]

Results

AZ SnakePit 8, BigLebowski 2
Snakepit had their best week of the year, sweeping hitting in convincing style (41-19 in RBIs), batting .316. Pitching was more even, with Big taking K’s and wins, behind two vulture victories from Scott Linebrink and 10 K’s for Willis.
Man of the Match: Iguchi (AZ) - 7 R, 2 HR, 11 RBI, .333

DFA’ders 5, ¡Chalino Sanchez! 5
The first of four ties this week, saw Chalino gallop off to an early lead, taking four hitting categories - though only by two runs. Conversely, DFA took four pitching ones, again narrowly (one win, and .06 in ERA). Therefore, honours even
Man of the Match: Berkman (DFA) - 4 R, 4 HR, 8 RBI

Uk Dbacks 5, The Loose Seals 5
UK were solid against contenders Seals, blanking them in pitching - their Cards starter (Marquis) was slightly less awful than Seals’ (Mulder), and four saves from Ryan helped. Offensively, however, Seals swept the board, behind a .333 BA, winning runs 39-10.
Man of the Match: Reyes (Seals) - 10 R, 2 HR, 4 SB, .613

JByrnesIsMyHomie 4, 7-2 Offsuiters 4
Neither side could get the extra save or stolen base, that would have given them victory in a low-scoring match: no-one had more than five runs or one homer. Byrnes took wins, four to zero, but Oswalt’s 14 K’s gave that to 7-2.
Man of the Match: Mourneau (7-2) - 5 R, 3 HR, 6 RBI, .435

Browncoats 5, BBTNG 5
Despite a .238 average, BBTNG won all the other hitting points, with three HR from Ibañez [hey, I get to use that ñ again! ]. Browncoats posted a great 2.02 ERA, with no pitcher above 3.00, and took everything bar K’s.
Man of the Match: Sexson (Brown) - 5 R, 3 HR, 6 RBI, .423

GregSchulteOverdrive 4, KarateMonkeyDeathCar 5
None of the top three sides managed to win this week, Greg falling to Karate by nineteen points of BA. Karate took ERA, despite a figure north of five; Greg mustered no wins and only one save. Wright and Wells had three HR each for Greg.
Man of the Match: Ramirez (Karate) - 5 R, 3 HR, 9 RBI, .471

The Fighting Amish 8, Random Fandom 2
Amish narrowed the gap on the top three with an emphatic win. Fandom took BA and ERA, but couldn’t prevail elsewhere, despite Myers’ 16 K’s. Amish’s Hernández led all hitters with three HR, while Konerko had eight RBIs for them.
Man of the Match: Bonderman (Amish) - 1 W, 1.29 ERA, 20 K

Standings

                           Record  GB   1.  JByrnesIsMyHomie     77-31-12  -   2.  The Loose Seals      66-40-14 10   3.  GregSchulteOverdrive 66-43-11 11.5   4.  The Fighting Amish   65-43-12 12   5.  AZ SnakePit          63-50-7  16.5   6.  BBTNG                58-55-7  21.5   7.  KarateMonkeyDeathCar 55-57-8  24   8.  DFA'ders             51-61-8  28       Random Fandom        51-61-8  28  10.  Uk Dbacks            46-60-14 30  11.  ¡Chalino Sanchez!    50-65-5  30.5  12.  Browncoats           44-64-12 33  13.  BigLebowski          45-71-4  36  14.  7-2 Offsuiters       37-73-10 41 

Week 13 Matchups

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

JByrnes vs. Seals is the TV game, as the top two face off, both seeking to rebound after disappointing weeks. Byrnes will be hoping for better production from Soriano (.115, 2 RBI) and Guerrero (.172, 0 RBI) in the heart of their order. On the other hand, Seals’ pitching was blown away last week, and the injured Mulder has now been replaced in their rotation by Lilly, while Baez plays in place of Worrell. Who gets to come out on top? Stay tuned…

“As disciples of Jesus, we today are a part of God’s world project. But realization of that project, it must never be forgotten, is the effect, not the life itself. The mission naturally flows from the life. It is not an afterthought, or something we might overlook or omit as we live […]

Record: 37-39. Change on last season: -1

It’s sweet, yet savoury at the same time: crunchy, but chewy. Chocolatey, but with a hint of…is that vanilla? Ah, yet: I’d almost forgotten what it was like. [Let’s face it, a win over the Pirates, coming only after they’d loaded the bases with no outs and failed to score, is hardly a win at all] Today’s two-run margin of victory was our most emphatic win in exactly three weeks. But easy? Hardly.

No, this one was teetering on the edge, from the moment the Angels scored a run in the first inning, without a hit of any sort, right the way through to the ninth, when the Angels scored a run, without a hit of any sort. And you can add the second inning, where the same thing happened too. When we’re handing out freebies at a high rate, in the shape of six walks and five wild pitches, no lead is ever going to feel secure. And that’s true even as we had our biggest offensive eruption in the same three weeks.

It helped that the Angels were in almost as much a giving mood as the Diamondbacks, handing us seven bases on balls (three to Snyder), though they laid off the wild pitches. Conor Jackson and Orlando Hudson were the offensive stars: CoJack had four hits, while Hudson had four RBIs, including a three-run homer in the fifth which restored our lead after the Angels had tied it at four. Craig Counsell also had two hits and a pair of RBIs.

And we needed it. Miguel Batista took one for the team, sticking it out for seven innings, much needed given the drain on the bullpen caused by Saturday’s 14-inning marathon. He was rewarded with his seventh win, even though he allowed six earned runs in the process, on seven hits and three walks - it was those, all of which came around to score, that really hurt him. Batista passed one hundred pitches for the first time this month, reaching 110, but is now tied for the NL lead in hits allowed.

Immediately he left, however, things became even more of an adventure. Vizcaino once again had problems, putting two men on, including the tying run, with only one out, and was rapidly yanked for Lyon. He coaxed Morales to line into a double-play to Jackson at first. The ninth was also, ah, “interesting”, with Julio in - I must confess, I was very surprised to see this, given he’d thrown thirty-one pitches the night before. I perhaps shouldn’t have been too worried: on April 23rd, playing for the Mets, he came back in, the day after hurling 37.

But at first it looked like these fears were going to be justified. Julio got the first out before walking Figgins - who promptly stole second, then came home on two wild pitches. Our closer then also walked Napoli (he of the long bomb), but got the next two Angels to fly out to left. Albeit in Anderson’s case, only after fouling off six straight two-strike pitches. Julio said, “He went foul, foul, foul. That’s OK. I throw fastball, fastball, fastball.”

Oddly, according to Batista, he thinks the Angels’ four-run seventh on Saturday may prove the turning point of the season:

You can tell Miggy’s a literary type, though Luis Gonzalez didn’t notice: “If you guys find out what the heck he’s talking about let me know because I’d really like to write that in a chapter somewhere.” Mind you, he was probably too busy shaving off his goatee - I believe it is the first time Gonzo’s been clean-shaven since he came to Arizona.

Thanks to unnamedDBacksfan, Keith, Englishdback, VIII and azdb7 for stopping by in the series finale. I guess we’ll have to wait and see whether this does mark any kind of a turnaround. But at least, with a day off tomorrow, it does give the possibility of an uptick at least, rather than the slide continuing. The series against Seattle will prove interesting.

Heroes and Zeroes
Series 25: vs. Angels, at home

Jackson: 6-for-11, 3 BB, 0 K
Vargas: 6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Hudson: 4-for-13, 6 RBI. 2 HR
—————————–
Tracy: 2-for-12, 4 K
Byrnes: 0-for-7, 4 K
Vizcaino: 0.2 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 ER

Part of me wants to bend the rules and make Melvin the biggest zero, for his actions in Saturday’s game, that cost us victory. However, he’s lucky we don’t include coaching staff here, otherwise, he’d certainly be mentioned. Instead, Eric Byrnes has fallen off the wagon, and it’d be no surprise were DaVanon to replace him for a bit. Poor at-bats and defense in the middle game were all Eric had to offer us this series. Vizcaino’s failure to stop inherited runners from scoring was the main problem, even though only one run went on his ERA - and he was just as bad today, with the bases empty. And Tracy’s old, hacktastic ways have returned, with a K per game now his average.

Jackson’s return to form is a huge relief: his slump has, by and large, coincided with the team’s. While I can cope with those who won’t be around next year (and you know who I mean there) playing poorly, I’m more worried when it’s the franchise future. Hudson had a sudden rush of power, with homeruns in back-to-back games, for the first time in more than three years [June 10/11, 2003. Obscure fact: his middle name is “Thill”. Not sure what that means], while Vargas deserved better than to be pushed too far by his manager.

I just realised that I never got round to doing a Heroes and Villains for the Tampa Bay series. Part of me thinks “Who cares?”, but part of me - presumably the part that has arranged our DVDs in alphabetical order - feels this indicates unacceptable slackness, and must be addressed. However, even said part is willing to concede that 3am is probably not the best time to do it, so the required catching-up will perhaps take place as far of the off-day tomorrow. I’ll likely be casting around randomly for stuff to talk about anyway: all suggestions welcome!

Kelvim Escobar, RHP (5-8, 3.54)

Miguel Batista, RHP (6-5, 5.02)

D’you think Melvin could maybe do us all a favour, and get himself ejected, this time, in the first inning? Perhaps Jay Bell would be less prone to boneheaded decisions like we saw from BoMel last night, which basically cost us the game. When we’ve lost seventeen out of nineteen games, the last thing we need is the manager playing for the opposition. [I’m still awaiting the Fangraph for that one, but imagine that when Vargas went up to bat in the sixth, we had a 90%+ chance of victory. Where did that go?]

Today doesn’t exactly look promising, with Batista having been horrible over his last three starts, posting this line:
Batista: 15.1 IP, 29 H, 8 BB, 7 K, 16 ER
Yep, almost two hits an inning, plus the walks. No wonder he’s lost all three, and his ERA is north of five. Not that Escobar has been doing any better in the W column, being 0-6 over his last seven outings. However, only once in that time (and twice this season) has he allowed more than three earned runs. His defense has let him down, with more than half his runs given up this month being unearned.

After last night’s game, I’m afraid I’m basically spent, as far as enthusiasm for today goes. We seem capable of pulling out a loss, regardless of the circumstances - a sad reversal of earlier in the year, when we mounted some stirring comebacks. Now, it appears that no lead is too large to be squandered, given the right mix of managerial incompetence and bullpen ineptness. Thus, part of me wonders if I should even bother watching this. However, I’m a fan, and this is what we do… So see you in the comments, save a 40-minute “driving to work” chunk.

Record: 36-39. Change on last season: -2

“Interesting…Looks like they’re sending up Vargas? Frankly, I’d have traded a run for an inning. I wonder if not pinch-hitting for Vargas will come back and haunt us? It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest…”
    – Me, 8:30-8:37pm last night

Never let it be claimed that I engage in second-guessing. When Bob Melvin sent Vargas up to hit for himself, with men at second and third, and only one out, I was immediately first-guessing this decision. Vargas was, at that point, already up to about 90 pitches, and with a season high of only 107, getting through the seventh was a questionable proposition. With a full bench, and a bloop single away from a six-run lead, I would have thanked Vargas warmly for his six shutout innings, and sent him to the shower. Not Bob: “He had a four-hit shutout going,” Melvin said.

But not for long. Instead, I feel like Nostradamus: Vargas grounded out, Counsell fanned, and the score stayed 4-0 to us. Vargas got the lead-off man, but then a single, a wild-pitch, an error (by Jackson), and a hit batter, loaded them up with one out, before he was replaced by Vizcaino. The “relief” - oh, the irony - allowed all three inherited runners to score, as well as one of his own, and the precious, rare sparkling jewel which was a Diamondbacks’ lead, had been stolen away, never to be seen again.

It’s not often that there’s such a stark, clear example of managerial bungling costing a team a game. If Vargas had been pulled, then we might have been more than four runs ahead - and Vizcaino would also have come in with the bases empty, rather than loaded. Either way, the whole course of the game would certainly have been altered, though, of course, we might still have found a way to lose anyway. But when our players have been struggling so much, the last thing we need is managerial incompetence, making it harder.

However, it would be unfair solely to blame Melvin. Vizcaino must take his share of criticism too, and all our hitters, who managed just one hit, two walks and nine K’s during 7.2 innings of relief from the Angels’ bullpen. Gonzalez, Jackson, Tracy and Byrnes - the starting hitters in the 3-6 slots - were a combined 1-for-17, highlighted by Byrnes 0-for-6 night, with 4 strikeouts, and his dive also led to a triple for Salmon in the 11th. Gonzalez did, at least, get on base through three free passes: the rest of the line-up managed just one walk, in 46 plate-appearances.

The offensive highlights were homers by the two lightest-hitting men on the roster, Counsell and Hudson. Though having said that, Hudson is now just one behind Luis Gonzalez in home-runs this year - Gonzo is equal one-hundred-and-seventieth in the majors for four-baggers, behind such powerful hitters as Tadahito Iguchi, Julio Lugo and, of course, Damion Easley.

Some credit to Vargas, for giving us six quality innings: shame about the seventh. He ended up allowing two earned runs in 6.1 innings, on five hits and two walks, while fanning a credible seven, and deserved a much better fate, than to be cast onto the rocks of a no-decision. After Vizcaino, Choate, Lyon and Julio took care of the next 4.1 innings, and Medders pitched a scoreless thirteenth…and a not-so-scoreless fourteenth, for the loss.

Bob Melvin got himself ejected in the ninth, immediately after Shawn Green got tossed, for arguing balls and strikes. I’d like to think it was an embarrassed falling on his sword, for the earlier screwup. That brings our record to 0-2 in games after Melvin gets ejected: it doesn’t quite seem to be having the desired “setting a fire under his team” effect now, does it? Maybe he should try setting a real fire, under certain members of the team, and see what that does?

Thanks to all those who commented - in particular, suitsmetoATnT, whose politely-restrained sarcasm (appreciated!) helped power a discussion which ranged from the Playboy appearance of 80’s pop icons, to a Burger King marquee. Thanks also to Devin, William K, Keith, VIII, unnamedDBacksfan and Spencer for stopping by. The campaign to get a decent manager for the team starts today.

"It is not something I really want to do; most of me could give a damn what Big Red has to say about my father, but I am an actor, a performer, a slummer of life stories and tragic and funny events, a character actor. I want to have a different script to play out […]

Bartolo Colon, RHP (0-3, 5.57)

Claudio Vargas, RHP (6-4, 5.02)

Here we go again. Perhaps if we all close our eyes until we get past the first inning, and pretend it doesn’t happen, we just might stand a chance. Not that Colon has exactly been a force to be reckoned with thus far, but he’s only made four starts. Last time wasn’t bad - nine hits and a walk over seven innings, with two earned runs.

Vargas was the last starter to pitch in a win - not that he got the win, of course. However, two runs in six innings against Pittsburgh was good enough to keep us in the game. So hopefully, he’ll be able to do the same again, and we can build on last night’s hit-parade, by actually driving in some runs today. Though “hope” is basically all we’ve got to cling onto, rather than, say, “realistic expectations of victory”.