Phoenix.BloggersPub

Record: 55-52. Pace: 83-79. Change on last season -3.

Dan Haren did not have his A-stuff tonight. Indeed, early on, B-stuff would likely have been an improvement, as he gave up a homer to the first batter he faced, and the Padres jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening inning. Yet, despite that, and a nasty moment on the base-paths, where it looked like he turned his ankle, our co-ace worked around three hits in the first and three more in the fourth to take the win. He has now pitched seven innings or more in eight straight starts, the second-best streak in the NL since 2005, when Chris Carpenter had eighteen such games in a row [Cole Hamels had nine earlier this season for the Phillies].

Tonight, Haren allowed three runs - a little high by his standards - on seven hits, walking none and striking out six. The outing improves his K:BB ratio to 134:24. That leads the league: to put it into context, the best figure for the last few years were:
   2008 - Dan Haren, 5.58
   2007 - John Smoltz, 4.19
   2006 - Roy Oswalt, 4.37
   2005 - Pedro Martinez, 4.43
Haren is blowing the recent champions away - you have to go back to 2004, with Ben Sheets (8.25) and Randy Johnson (6.59) to find a better figure. The next best behind Dan this year (min 60 IP) is Sheets, but he’s all the way down at 3.72.

It helped that the offense continues to click on all cylinders pounding out thirteen more hits, with ever starter - including Haren - getting at least one. Hudson had two hits and a walk; Young, Tracy and Reynolds all added two each, with Special K slamming his 22nd homer in the eighth. That was immediately followed by Chris Snyder’s ninth, and our catcher also reached on a walk. The turning point was a four-run fifth, where the Diamondbacks turned a two-run deficit into a two-run lead, helped by some shoddy defense by the Padres.

Romero doubled to lead off the frame, and was able to take third as the result of an error by Headley in left. Haren then hit a chopper to Kouzmanoff at third, whose not-very good throw was handled tentatively at home by Bard, as Romero charged home. That’s probably understandable, since Bard missed two months with an ankle injury after a collision at home - in the same game against the Cardinals, where evil Chris Young took a liner to the nose. The ball skittered away, Romero was safe, and Haren advanced to second. Young smacked an RBI double off the outfield wall; Hudson walked; Jackson loaded the bases on an infield hit; but it was Chad Tracy who had the big knock, floating a two-run single to right-field. He has 29 RBI in only 46 games.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Chris Young, +18.7%
Honorable mentions: Tracy, +17.3%; Haren (bat), +13.6%; Haren (pitch), +11.2%
God-emperor of suck: Stephen Drew, -11.5%

Present in the thread were kishi, AZWILDCATS, Turambar, AF DBacks Fanatic, Scrbl, dahlian, Azreous, Muu, hotclaws, TwinnerA, foulpole, AJforAZ, snakecharmer, luckycc, srdmad, soco, mrssoco, unnamedDBacksfan, Zephon, Shums (welcome!), singaporedbacksfan and emilylovesthedbacks. Thanks to them for their participation, as the team took their third straight series, and improved to a very credible 5-1 on this road-trip. It takes the Diamondbacks three games over .500, for the first time since we won the opener of the series in Boston, back on June 23. We’re 7-3 in the past ten games, our best record over such a stretch since we also went 7-3 from April 21-30, exactly three months ago.

It was yet another crucial win, as the Dodgers were blanking the Giants for the second consecutive day - for the seventh consecutive game, Arizona and Los Angeles had the same result, either both winning or both losing. Obviously, the streak stops here, since the two teams play each other for the next four days. Each side will miss the other’s “ace” - in terms of the starter with the lowest ERA, being Haren for us and Billingsley for the Dodgers. There are still some intriguing matchups: a sinkerballer rematch between Webb and Lowe tomorrow, and then Randy Johnson, at age 44 years 10 months, versus fellow lefty Clayton Kershaw, age 20 years 4 months. Kershaw wasn’t even six months old when the Big Unit made his major-league debut. Now, they face off on Friday. And that’s just the first couple of games…

Onwards to LA!

Dan Haren wasn’t the unhittable pitcher we’ve seen over the last 6 weeks or so, but he was good enough to pitch the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 7-3 win over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.
Haren was greeted rather rudely actually, as San Diego center fielder Jody Gerut led off the game with a […]

So much for not wanting to make a move.
According to SI.com the Diamondbacks have offered Chad Tracy to the Reds for power hitting outfielder Adam Dunn.
The Diamondbacks made a play for Adam Dunn, offering first baseman Chad Tracy. Another National League team also is said to have called about Dunn, a slugger who’s […]

With Oregon starting to play under George Horton in 2009, there will be no excuse for the Pac-10 not to at least entertain the idea of holding an annual baseball tournament. Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com outlines some of the possible benefits of such a…

Dan Haren RHP, 10-5, 2.56

Cha Seung Baek RHP, 3-5, 5.06

Baseball-Reference.com preview [opens in new window]

Can anything quite compare with last night? Davis flirts with perfection - well, “takes perfection out on a date, but refuses to enter a committed relationship,” might be closer to the truth - and Romero saves the day with a play of the year candidate, as well as driving in two-thirds of our runs.

I’m curious to see if the stirring victory has any kind of impact going forward: my instinct is, probably not, and we have an interesting control to look at. The same two pitchers met each other on July 4th, in a game that followed perhaps our most stirring win of the season - the Matinee Miracle against the Brewers. But the Diamondbacks came out flat, being no-hit by Baek until two outs in the sixth inning - a combination of inept defense with lackluster offense and poor bullpen work sent us to a 5-1 defeat.

That was the only loss Dan Haren has suffered since the end of May. He has given the Diamondbacks ten quality starts in a row - allowing one or zero earned runs in six of those - with a K:BB ratio of 68:13 and an ERA of 1.39. He now leads the league in both WHIP and ERA. Little wonder the team are attempting to extend his contract beyond the current 2010 - the trade with Oakland looks like one of those rare ones where both sides are going to be very happy with the outcome.

As noted, we struggled against Baek previously, and that was in a more hitter-friendly park. However, that was part of a five-game streak where we scored only eight runs in total and hit .179. We seem to have got that out of our system, batting .292 over the last five, and I am more optimistic about our chances tonight, as we are playing significantly better in the games leading up to it. A win, particularly coupled with a Dodgers loss, would be a nice way to set things up for the upcoming, crucial series in LA.

After a couple of games where I’ve been conspicuous in the Gameday Thread by my absence, I should have my technological ducks in a row this evening, and look forward to commenting a bit more. May be slightly late in arriving, as after work, I first need to go make some purchases for Mrs. SnakePit’s birthday tomorrow [yes, I am a Last-minute Larry! I find desperation works wonders for my powers of inspiration in the present-buying arena…]. I will thus be coming homer poorer but, hopefully, laden with gifts…

*Bobblehead is actual size.Bring a kid with you to the Pawtucket Red Sox game, because they are given out to the first 4,000 entrants 14 and under.

This is far to important to Sun’s fans and the general sporting world not to share as widely as possible…

H/T to Rosewood on this one…

Mike Tulumello of the East Valley Tribune had an interesting blog post today. He quotes Matt Leinart saying
“I know at this point last year, I had no clue. A little bit, but really had no clue what was going on. This year, I feel like I do. I have a command of the offense.” […]

About a week ago mysterious pictures of Steve Nash and Baron Davis on a tandem bicycle appeared on the internet. I wrote them off as some extremly weird celebration Davis had after signing his new contract or an NBA point guard convention gone wrong (although there were no pictures of Jason Kidd and Tony Parker […]

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There’s been a lot […]