Record: 64-60. Pace: 84-78. Change on last season: -7

Just our luck to meet Roy Oswalt on the day he decides to revert back to being among the most dominant pitchers of the past five years; today was his 80th win since the start of 2004, which ties him with Johan Santana [Webb, in case you're wondering, is fourth on 73, three back of Carlos Zambrano]. He one-hit the Diamondbacks over eight thoroughly dominant innings, and while he could likely have completed the shutout himself, then gave way to former Arizona closer, Jose Valverde, whom came in for the ninth and got the save.

I can't really complain about this one: it was one of those days where you simply meet an irresistible force - it's not as if we can expect to score eleven or twelve runs every game. All the offensive outpouring that we had on Friday and Saturday seemed a very long way ago, with Oswalt painting the corners like Rembrandt, flummoxing the Diamondbacks with everything from low-90's heat, to mid-60's curveballs. He faced just one batter over the minimum, and averaged four balls per inning out of the strike-zone. Looking at him today, you had to wonder how the hell this was only his eleventh win in 24 starts.

Only Stephen Drew and Chris Snyder reached base all afternoon. Snyder was the first base-runner, walking to lead off the third inning. Johnson sacrificed him to second with one out, and Drew [who'd walked to lead off the game, before being lined off first by Tracy] then squeezed a single through the infield. Chip Hale enthusiastically waved Snyder around third, despite the shallowness of the ball and a bad jump off second. Even a crap throw from Pence, which sailed some way up the line, proved more than good enough to get Snyder gunned down at the plate, with relative ease. I've lost count of how many outs we've made on the base-paths this year, and how many runners have been gunned down at home, courtesy of Hale and the much-vaunted "aggressive base-running."

Mark Grace was going on afterwards, about how it was a good decision. Er, no. In a tied game, perhaps - but we were already three runs behind at that point, and base-runners were clearly a precious commodity. Sending the slowest runner on the roster home was a suicidal move: even in the best possible scenario, if he'd made it, we'd still only have had the tying run at the plate - exactly the same as if Snyder had been held at third. Instead of having the red-hot Chris Young up [10-for-23 with eight RBI in the past week], representing that tying run, the rally was snuffed out and AZ was still three down. The next seventeen Diamondbacks' hitters were retired in order, and the only other time we got a runner into scoring position was on fielders' indifference in the ninth, after Drew singled off Valverde.

Randy Johnson pitched well, outside of one mistake to Wigginton, who promptly took advantage of that, along with the short distance to the left-field bleachers. Unfortunately, there were two men on base at that point, courtesy of the Big Unit's only free pass of the afternoon, and a seeing-eye squib from Tejada, that made it through the left side of the infield. It soon became clear that those three runs were going to prove monumentally tough for the visitors to pull back. Even though Johnson righted the ship and posted six zeroes after that, win #295 eluded him - he now needs to get the victory in five of seven remaining starts if he's going to make it to three hundred this season. He scattered eight hits and that solitary walk over seven innings, striking out five. Qualls pitched a scoreless eighth.

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Master of his domain: Chris Snyder, +1.7%
God-emperor of suck: Chris Young, -9.3%

Not much positive to come out of the Fangraph today, as you can tell from the huge plus value posted by Snyder - Qualls and Drew, at +0.7% each, were the only other Diamondbacks to reach anything above zero. Young just pipped Johnson (-9.2%) for the title at the other end of the scale. The first inning deficit pretty much took all the steam out of the Gameday Thread too, with it struggling to pass two hundred, as just about everyone found better things to do. Present were Azreous, soco, britdback, hotclaws, Wimb, kishi, srdmad, snakecharmer, TwinnerA, 4 Corners Fan, foulpole, njjohn, emilylovesthedbacks, Diamondhacks and AZWILDCATS.

All told, a 4-2 road trip is not bad, but the Dodgers have kept right in step with us - they managed to stave off a furious, four-run, ninth-inning comeback by the Brewers, so we are back to being tied with them ONCE again. After the off-day on Monday, the Diamondbacks now head back home to face San Diego for three games at Chase, and then the Marlins come to town over the weekend. Los Angeles hit the road, also after an off-day Monday, to take on the Rockies and the Phillies. While it'd be nice for these teams to give Arizona some help, the most important thing is for the Diamondbacks to keep winning their own games. Do that, and we'll be fine.

Record: 62-59. Pace: 83-79. Change on last season: -7

How long ago it all seems now. Six months ago, to the very day, Rox Girl paid us a visit and said, "I propose a straight up season series challenge. Win more games against us - including any potential playoff games - and Snakepit Day will return to the Row next year." Technically, I suppose, the playoff games clause means this bet is still on: but with Arizona now 10-2 up, with six to play, and Colorado now nine games back in the standings, it seems all over bar the shouting. On the same date last year, they were only five back, - and still had to win fourteen of the last fifteen regular season games to squeak in to the post-season.

It's kinda interesting to look back on that piece and see the comments from both sidea, such as, "Runs such as the Rockies'... almost always happen when a team is in a multiple season success cycle. It's incredibly rare for mediocre teams to put together such streaks." But I'll save the "O RLYs?" and "Told you sos" for another time. What matters right here, right now, is that this victory means the pressure shifts on to the Dodgers as they try to beat the Phlailing Phillies once again - no doubt, after falling behind early. And I also get to spend the rest of the night relaxing, rather than clicking frantically on the 'Refresh' button every couple of minutes. Works for me, even if I feel bad for Mrs. SnakePit, who set up our dinner in the living-room, in front of the game. I hadn't the heart to tell her it was a replay - she finally worked it out when she realized it was still daylight at Coors!

The early innings of today's game were not exactly plain sailing. The Rockies scored first, a one-out single in the second being misplayed by Dunn into a double, for his first error in an Arizona uniform, and another two-bagger gave Colorado the lead. While that was the only damage Haren suffered, our offense was still apparently enjoying a nice continental breakfast, back at the hotel. Glendon Rusch was throwing the ball very effectively; after four innings, he'd retired 12 of 13 batters face, allowing only a single to Chris Young. There were stirrings of discontent clearly visible in the Gameday Thread.

Fortunately, the five-run fifth inning took care of that. Reynolds doubled to lead things off, and advanced to third on a groundout from Tracy. All we were hoping for was to get the game back to being level, having failed miserably in the ninth last night in the same situation: tying run on third, one out. Chris Snyder, however, wasn't going to settle for a measly sacrifice fly, instead hammering his eleventh homer of the season out of Coors, to give Arizona a 2-1 lead, his 49th and 50th RBI. Weirder was to follow, as Chris Burke went back-to-back after Snyder, with his first homer in 166 at-bats, and almost eleven months. That also got his average up to .200, tying the season high, though - no doubt scared by the altitude - he ended the day at .197.

After Haren struck out, Stephen Drew then extended his hitting streak to sixteen games with a single. That's tied for seventh in franchise history, and is the best by a Diamondback since Danny Bautista had a 21-game run, back in April 2004. Walks to Young and Jackson loaded the bases for Dunn, who somewhat redeemed himself for not coming through last night with the bags juiced, by delivering a two-run single to right, his first runs driven in for Arizona. An RBI double by Young in the seventh scored Haren - who had two hits, as did Young and Drew, and that completed the scoring for the Diamondbacks.

Dan Haren went eight innings, and threw 118 pitches, tying a season high. He allowed seven hits and two walks, striking out nine - also matching his top figure of the season. I was really surprised to see him go out there for the eighth, given he'd already thrown 103 pitches to get to that point, and the Diamondbacks were sitting on a five-run lead. The bullpen had hardly been taxed, with three innings in the previous two games, and we had both Rosales, unused since the 8th, and Cruz [since the 9th], fully available. Haren allowed a lead-off homer but got through - and Melvin instead turned to Rauch, for the third consecutive day. While I guess this was a 'confidence-building exercise', he took 18 pitches to retire his first batter, and almost turned the lead into a save situation for Lyon, with a double-play proved very, very convenient in closing out the win.

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Master of his domain: Dan Haren, +19.7%
Honorable mention: Chris Snyder, +15.0%
God-emperor of suck: Chad Tracy, -3.9%

The thread cruised past 500 comments, basically before we noticed - I think day games are probably less taxing on the SB Nation servers, which likely helped. Present were GaryTheGaucho [welcome!], kishi, Wimb, Azreous, DbacksSkins, utahdbacksfan, Muu, bcloirao, unnamedDBacksfan, emilylovesthedbacks, srdmad, ZonaBacks10, Scrbl, J Up, AJforAZ, TwinnerA, snakecharmer, 4 Corners Fan, TuLoRocks2008, pepperdinedevil and soco. No problems or real unpleasantness today, I'm pleased to report, so credit to everyone for keeping it civil.

Dodgers are three outs from completing a four-game sweep of the reeling Phillies, so looks likely that they will tie us up again. They will be facing Milwaukee this weekend, while we're in Houston - don't look now, but the Astros have just put together an eight-game winning streak, in time for our arrival. Still, with our Cy Young front-runner on the mound tomorrow, we have to feel optimistic. It looks like the rotation is being aligned so we can throw both Webb and Haren at the Dodgers towards the end of the month, which makes sense.

Oh, and if anyone has a late interest in going to SnakePitFest on August 23rd, we have three spare tickets since shoe will not be able to make it [albeit for reasons that are actually pretty damn cool]. Email me - address in the sidebar - if you, or anyone you know is interested. First-come, first-served, obviously.

Record: 60-58. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season: -7

Brandon Webb did what was expected of him, picking up his seventeenth win of the season, with six innings of one-run ball against a Braves offense who had scored 28 runs in the previous three games. Meanwhile, the offense pounced early, scoring three times during the opening frame, and sending the opposing starter to the showers after scoring six runs in four innings.

Drew and Ojeda singled to get the bottom of the first off to a good start. Though Jackson fouled out, Reynolds drove them both in with a double. He then stole third, and came home on a squibber up the first-base line by Young. However, his strikeout in the fifth was his 146th of the year, passing Troy Glaus's total from 2005 to set a new franchise record - with 44 games still to go. He's currently on pace for 202 K's, which would surpass all previous hitters in the majors - though Ryan Howard is still a couple ahead of him this season. 

Chris Snyder homered to lead off the second inning. That's his tenth homer of the year, and makes him the sixth Arizona player to reach double-figures this season. The others are Reynolds (24), Young (15), Drew (14), Jackson (12) and Upton (11). Two more runs followed in the fourth, from an unlikely source: the Braves walked Burke intentionally to get to Webb - artificially inflating Burke's OBP further - but he smacked one to right-center over the head of the shallow-playing CF, scoring two runs with a double. He now driven in the same number of runs as Burke: with runners in scoring position, Webb is 5-for-20; Burke [who, thanks to hotclaws, will henceforth be referred to as The Chocolate Teapot] is 3-for-31...

That was largely it as far as the offense went, with all the damage being done against Hampton. In four innings from the Braves' relievers, we managed one hit and one walk, while striking out six times. Jamie D'Antona - making his first start ever in the majors - was the only player to reach twice, with a pair of walks. Drew's knock in the first did extend his hitting streak to thirteen games, tying his career high. One more game, and he'll also tie the best one of this season for the Diamondbacks, set between April 4-19, by Eric Byrnes.

Quick shout-out to the bullpen too, who closed out the game with three scoreless innings. Chad Qualls went two frames, allowing a single, and Jon Rauch came in for the ninth and struck out the side. That came after six innings by Webb, who allowed six hits and two walks, with five strikeouts. The only trouble for him was the sixth, where he loaded the bases with no outs: however, he got out of the jam with just one run scoring on a sacrifice fly, thanks to a nice 1-2-3 double-play off the bat of Francoeur, right back to Webb. His ERA is now down to 2.88, and he's 5-0 in his last seven outings and 51 innings, with seven quality starts and an ERA of 1.59.

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Master of his domain: Brandon Webb, +18.3%
Honorable mention: Mark Reynolds, +15.9%
God-emperor of suck: Conor Jackson, -4.4%

A relatively small, but still very entertaining Gameday Thread, as we got a very much-needed win, to avoid the sweep by Atlanta, ending our four-game losing streak. Present alongside me were: unnamedDBacksfan, soco, kishi, emilylovesthedbacks, njjohn, snakecharmer, TwinnerA, dbacksbj, hotclaws, AZWILDCATS, Scrbl and Wimb. Almost as entertaining was the fact that the Los Angeles Chokers did it again: they came into the ninth inning with a lead against the Giants, but for the second straight game, couldn't get the final three outs to close it out. San Francisco scored twice, and boom, Los Angeles lose. That drops them 1.5 games back behind Arizona.

That's a huge boost, on the day we got news that Orlando Hudson will miss the rest of the season: he had surgery late Saturday night to repair a dislocated bone in his left wrist. The team called up Jeff Salazar to replace him, which seems like an odd move - replacing an infielder with an outfielder? No game for Arizona tomorrow, so a random off-day thread will be posted for your general amusement. Thinking of going to see Iron Man tonight, as we've got to head down to Chandler and hang posters at the cinema for the Phoenix Fear Film Festival.

We reconvene for baseball purposes on Tuesday in Colorado. Two wins in the series would be fine, and would also seal and deliver victory in our season's bet with Purple Row, so we could look forward to SnakePit Day over there again during the off-season. Though they get to dodge Webb and Haren - and we, unfortunately, won't get to face Livan Hernandez, who gave up seven earned runs in 2.2 innings, during his debut for the Rockies, as they got hammered, 16-7, by San Diego. Here's to more of that from them in the next few days.

Record: 57-54. Pace: 83-79. Change on last season: -4.

It's official. The Dodgers have suddenly vaulted their way towards the top, and are now located among my three most hated teams. I'm still working on the exact specific position, but if they continue to - and I'm sorry, but there's not really another word for it - fellate Ramirez in the manner seen this afternoon, then the Yankees could end up with a run for their money.

A meaningless home-run this afternoon was apparently deemed worthy of a curtain-call; I don't know who is worse, the fans for demanding it, or Mandy for giving them one. I've seen it attributed to various coaches [Landry, Lombardi, etc.], but the appropriate phrase for Ramirez is, "Act like you've been there before." You didn't win the World Series. You didn't clinch a playoff spot. It was a solo homer, in the fifth inning, and you were already leading. Billy Buckner still qualifies as a rookie pitcher, f'heavens sake. So whoop-de-doo. You're on a second-place team, traded there because you made such a complete ass of yourself, that Boston was willing to pay LA $7m for you to leave. Go out there, put your head down and play.

Give the Dodgers credit though: their offense showed up. Ours - outside of Stephen Drew - didn't. Doug Davis didn't show up either, or at least, not the one who took a perfect game into the seventh inning last time out. He went from the best outing of his time with Arizona, to the worst, being unceremoniously yanked off the mound before completing two innings for the first time ever in his career. Six hits, two walks and five earned runs was the final line, with only 25 strikes in the 47 pitches that he threw, as eight out of thirteen batters faced reached safely.

Initially, it looked like this one was going to be a slugfest. After the Dodgers scored twice in the first, we came back to tie the game on RBI singles by Davis [yep, we were surprised by that too!] and Drew. But Los Angeles scored three more in the bottom of the second, chasing Davis, and Johnson settled down, retiring the next eight Diamondbacks' batters, before Drew homered and Hudson walked, to bring the tying run to the plate. That ended Johnson's day, and the Dodgers bullpen shut out Arizona for the remaining 4.2 innings, with only three singles and a walk to show for our efforts.

The bullpen was forced into mop-up duty, with mixed results. Buckner and Rosales performed admirably, combining for 4.1 innings of one-run ball. However, Qualls and Rauch were less effective: Each allowed three hits in their inning of work, with Qualls allowing one run and Rauch his first two in an Arizona jersey. Pretty much an irrelevance at that stage, though it leaves our relief corps somewhat thin for the upcoming series against the Pirates: I'm hopeful we won't need to use them quite as much in the next couple of days, what with Haren and Webb starting tomorrow and Tuesday.

The only real bright point was Stephen Drew having a three-hit game, including his 13th homer. After Mark Reynolds, our birthday boy, struck out for the third time in a row, as well as having a poor day with the glove, it was decided that a swift alteration of the birthday cake was necessary. The word "Mark" was therefore stricken from the record [or dessert, at least], and ingeniously replaced with the word "Drew." For those who missed the Gameday Thread, this was the result. You may need to squint a bit. :-)

Romero did have two hits, raising an interesting question. When Justin Upton comes back, should we move Romero to center-field and bench Young for a bit? Since returning to the roster on July 5 - basically a month ago - Romero has a line of .295/.318/.429, with seven K's in 63 at-bats. In comparison, over the same time, Chris Young is hitting .211/.269/.368, with 34 strikeouts in 95 at-bats. Romero simply puts together better at-bats, and is capable of fouling off good pitches in the hope of getting a mistake. The Dodgers exposed Young's frailties ruthlessly, and the results this series showed it. Sixteen times he came to the plate: no hits, seven strikeouts and one solitary ball that left the infield.

A particularly weird play in the bottom of the third. With Loney at first, Berroa popped the ball up on the infield. Going up the line, he collided with Tracy who was coming down from first, knocking Chad's glove clean off his hand. He tried to catch the ball bare-handed, but dropped it; then threw to second, where it appeared Loney was signaled out. However, the official ruling was that Berroa was out on batter's interference, and Loney had to return to first. This appears to have been the correct call. According to the Baseball Field Guide, the fielder has the right of way when attempting to make a play on a batted ball, whether the interference is intentional or not, and the ball is dead at that moment, with other runners having to go back to the last base they touched prior to it.

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Master of his domain: Stephen Drew, +17.0%
God-emperor of suck: Doug Davis, -40.4%
Dishonorable mention: Conor Jackson, -10.6%

Big thanks to soco and mrssoco for opening their house to us this afternoon, where Mrs. SnakePit and I were joined by kishi, mrskishi and Azreous. There was a tense moment after the TV decided to commit suicide, lemming-style - the mount falling off the wall, with the whole assembly coming close to crushing mrssoco. Miraculously, it suffered only superficial damage: Vizio TV's are clearly capable of taking a good pounding. But it was a lot of fun, and we're contemplating a repeat for the penultimate game of the season at the end of September, this time at SnakePit Towers.

Apart from the above, present in the online version of the Gameday Thread [that'd be the one without cake and plummeting domestic appliances] were unnamedDBacksfan, hotclaws, Wimb, AF DBacks Fanatic, 4 Corners Fan, hotchixsnake27, luckycc, snakecharmer, foulpole, TwinnerA, Snakebitten, Scrbl, AZWILDCATS, Turambar, britdback, Shums, srdmad, emilylovesthedbacks and AJforAZ.

You can never be too unhappy with a road-trip where you win seven out of ten. However, having gone 7-1 up until yesterday, I think most fans will be somewhat disappointed. Much as we hate to admit it, it's clear that the Dodgers made the move of the season in acquiring Ramirez - not least because, somehow, they're paying him less we are to Tony "4-for-26" Clark. We still possess the lead as we head into the final 51 games, and the next couple of weeks have the schedule definitely easing up: our next five series are all against sub-.500 teams. We face the Dodgers again at the end of the month: will we still be in first then? Fasten your seat-belts, people: it's going to be a bumpy ride...

Record: 48-50. Pace: 79-83. Change on last season: -2

Way to ruin our wedding anniversary, Diamondbacks. I should have realized this was going to go pear-shaped when we got to the cinema and due to an apparent scheduling change, were not able to see Wall-E. We saw Wanted instead which, while more than adequate, is hardly the kind of romantic, snuggly movie you want to go and see on your anniversary. Things were not improved subsequently by a) the tilapia at Outback not being very tasty at all, and b) the manager of The Sets not being present to give Mrs. SnakePit the cash she was due. The highpoint of the day was one of our burlesque dancers [who were rehearsing for their show next weekend] admitting she has had a crush on Mark Grace since eighth-grade. All told, the day pretty much went downhill from there.

At that point, Brandon Webb had just finished off the Dodgers in the seventh, and we had a three-run lead with six outs to get. At that point, our Win Probability was 94%, and it would get as high as 97.2% after Webb got a nice ground-ball double-play to end the eighth inning, with the score still 4-1 to Arizona. Then came Lyon. I had been wondering what would happen if the ninth was a save situation. While he has pitched three days in a row before, it's never been after having thrown forty pitches over the first two appearances, as he did Friday and Saturday. Now, obviously, the main alternative candidate, Tony Peña, was little better off, having thrown 37 pitches in those two games. But it was painfully obvious that Lyon was far from sharp yesterday, when he came within 90 feet of blowing all of a three-run lead. Sending him out again today seemed as suicidal as ordering Angelina Jolie's Wanted character, to get back into the kitchen and cook you dinner.

At the very least, someone else should have been ready to go in case of trouble. Instead, it took Bob Melvin seven batters, five hits, four runs and the lead being turned over to LA, before he decided our closer didn't quite have what it took. In mitigation, Lyon wasn't helped by Stephen Drew's inability to turn a double-play in the middle, instead getting only the force at second. However, it was still our fourteenth defeat when leading after six innings - in contrast, we have only five victories, when trailing at the same point. The bullpen, such a strength last year, is now on the verge of absolute implosion: in eleven innings this series, they allowed ten runs. Seven of those came off our closer, on eight hits over just 2.2 innings. That Valverde trade looks like a frickin' disaster about now, doesn't it? Qualls is unable to pitch, Burke is an offensive black-hole and Gutierrez has a 7.18 ERA with Tucson.

Another great start by Brandon Webb, yet the result was another no-decision - he's had four this season, and only in one of them has he allowed more than two earned runs. He wasn't perhaps at his very sharpest, allowing six hits and three walks, with four strikeouts, but he proved very capable of bearing down when necessary, getting the big double-plays almost on command. "I worked out of some jams, made some pitches when I had to and came out pretty much unscathed," said our ace afterwards. He threw 109 pitches and only three of the 24 outs he recorded came in the air, which is always a sign that his sinker is working at a high level.

Offensively, Stephen Drew was the star for Arizona, getting four hits for the second time in his career. Since June 30th, he is batting .333 (22-for-66) and is even hotter during his current seven-game hitting streak, having gone 15-for-35. His season average is up to .270, and it's good to see - hopefully it can continue to climb, up towards the .280-.290 range, last seen at the end of May. He almost managed to complete an inside-the-park home-run in the fourth, but was thrown out at home - it wasn't even that close a play, and we have to put the blame for that one at the feet of third-base coach, Chip 'The Windmill' Hale.

Mark Reynolds went 2-for-4, while Chris Young reached safely twice, on a hit and a walk. Tony Clark got the start at first-base, which raised some eyebrows, given his poor track record against Lowe (4-for-27 before today), and the great success currently being enjoyed by Chad Tracy: his July line is merely .404/.415/.577. It certainly didn't work too well today, Clark going hitless in four at-bats, striking out twice and also making an error at first. Still, can't put a value on all that veteran presence, eh? Chris Snyder was duly activated before the game, with Hammock going back to Tucson - he walked in his first at-bat, and also drove in our fourth run with a successful squeeze play in the sixth, as well as nailing Nomah when he tried to steal second. Welcome back, Chris.

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Master of his domain: Brandon Webb, +33.2%
Honorable mention: Mark Reynolds, +10.4%
God-emperor of suck: Brandon Lyon, -78.9%

I think the above graph is pretty self-explanatory. Present in the Gameday Thread were kishi, hotclaws, Jim McLennan, 4 Corners Fan, TwinnerA, DbacksSkins, njjohn, unnamedDBacksfan, srdmad, DiamondbacksWIn, Scrbl, mrssoco, emilylovesthedbacks, soco, seton hall snake pit, Wimb, Silverblood, nargel and new poster "BS,L"yon - welcome to him. srdmad was nominally present, but his only comment was duly hidden under the new profanity policy, so he's excluded from the roll. Ditto visiting troll hollywood55, who has duly been warned. A little spikiness towards silverblood, which may not have been entirely justified, but is certainly understandable. Her visit was certainly unfortunate timing, at the very least.

A very disappointing series: we had chances to win all three games, and certainly should have taken at least a couple of them. Oddly, the one we did is where we scored least runs, and we lost both the contests where we scored five or more - totally the reverse of the standard pattern this season. Regardless, instead of being four up on the Dodgers - or even two ahead - we find ourselves level with them. And now we just have to face the NL Central-leading Cubs, with the back end of our rotation, in Johnson, Owings and Davis. Anyone feel comfortable about taking two out of three there, which now becomes almost a necessity? No, me neither. About the only plus is the Dodgers have to go to Colorado, where the Rockies have suddenly re-discovered how to win, albeit only by sweeping Pittsburgh.

I think I am gradually coming to terms with the fact that this team is not actually very good. Oh, there are some components of it which can shine on any given day, but the odds appear to be in favor of another component countering this competence by sucking so badly, that we still manage to lose. When we hit [Friday], our starter blows chunks; when our starter is great [Saturday], we get no offense; when our starter is great and we get some offense [Sunday], our closer decides he will spend the day redefining the term, Gurgling Vortex of Suck (TM), with a career-worst appearance. If all three components ever aligned some day, the defense would, no doubt, step up their efforts in the service of a loss.

Still, what can you do? See you tomorrow for the Cubs game...

Record: 38-34. Pace: 86-76. Change on last season: -3

"It is more blessed to give than receive..." -- Acts 20:35.
"...particularly where routs are concerned." -- the Apocrypha of Melvin.

[Thanks to Kishi for the image]

For the first time in franchise history, the Diamondbacks went from losing a game by ten runs, to winning their next contest by double-digits. The overall turnaround of 24 runs [from -14 to +10] smashed the previous best of 21, set May 13-14, 2005 in Colorado, where we went from a 15-4 defeat to a 10-4 win in consecutive games. I take back all the horrid things I muttered to Mrs. SnakePit about this team in the past 24 hours: while at The Sets last night, on the journey home, reading the paper this morning and before this evening's game. Yeah, I was, at least, busily upset by the wretched performances of the previous three nights.

Games like tonight, however, are a reminder of how ephemeral both success and failure are in baseball. There can't be many other sports where a team can go from being a Gurgling Vortex of Suck [TM] to an Irresistible Force of Good so quickly, or with such startling results. After Haren got out of having a man on third with one out in the top of the first, the offense took over: Drew, Jackson [out of the cleanup spot for the first time this year - I think we'll see him there again tomorrow!], Hudson and Tracy all got hits, and Chris Young followed with a three-run homer, his thirteenth of the season, to get our Win Probability up to 89% at the end of the first inning.

After taking a breather in the second, we loaded the bases for Haren in the third thanks to an intentional walk from Blanton to get to our pitcher. After a nine-pitch plate appearance his previous at-bat, Dan took this affront from his former team-mate very seriously. He smacked a bases-clearing double to deep right-center, that ran our lead to eight runs, and effectively ended this game as a meaningful contest before the end of the third inning. But you want more? Oh, alright - how about an RBI double from Salazar, and then a two-run homer by Drew, his tenth? That made the score 11-0 in the fifth.

This did mark the end of our scoring for the night. However, the fifteen hits and eleven runs for the home team, each tied season highs for the Diamondbacks; it's the first time we've reached double-figures for both, in the same game, since the 10-4, 15-hit victory on May 3 over the Mets. The total haul of 26 bases [two homers, five doubles and eight singles] was also the best total since we had 27 [four homers, a triple, a double and six singles] against the Dodgers on April 7. Drew, Hudson and Tracy each enjoyed themselves, with a trio of knocks; Young had two hits; and Jackson and Salazar each reached safely twice, with a hit and a walk.

Equally as good was Dan Haren on the mound, who allowed four hits and one walk over seven innings of work, while striking out eight. He was exquisitely in control, painting the corners of the strike-zone with a devastating repertoire of quality pitches - there was barely a single ball hit hard until ex-Diamondback Carlos Gonzalez got hold of one in the seventh, as Haren finally began to tire. The shutout ended there, but that just allowed Cruz to come in and strike out the A's in the eighth - around a hit by pitch [and if I had to pick a guy to get plunked by, Famine would be very low on the list]. That's 41 strikeouts in 27 innings for our skinny flamethrower now. And Qualls got another K in the ninth, ensuring everyone at Chase went home with a coupon for a free Thirstbuster.

Damn, we were good, and the most heartening thing was being reminded that this team is capably of playing really, really high-quality baseball. Whether this will have any significant effect on the team as a whole, I'm less certain: there have been false dawns before, such as the 11-1 clubbing of the Braves - which was immediately followed by six losses in the next seven games. Or even the two late victories over the Mets, that foreshadowed only the cringeworthy performances of Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. But if there was a time that we needed a big win, this was certainly it: I love the fact that the team came right back after having their asses seriously kicked, and opened their own can of Austin 3:16 on the opposition. Which is just about where I came in, I think. :-)

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Master of his domain: Chris Young, +14.8%
Honorary mentions: Tracy, +13.0; Haren, +12.1%
God-emperor of suck: Miguel Montero, -6.6%

Okay, I'm going to get this up here, as we have to go and watch Sweeney Todd - no, not the Tim Burton one, but a BBC version with Ray Winstone in the title role. Should be fun. Needless to say, this was a very upbeat and cheerful Gameday Thread - as it should be - so thanks to everyone who joined me there: emilylovesthedbacks, DbacksSkins, Wimb, kishi, luckycc, LucaMaz3, dahlian, hotclaws, TwinnerA, seton hall snake pit, Craig from Az, frienetic, snakecharmer, mrssoco and Zephon. Look forward to an eye-witness report from emily on her return. I think we'll all sleep a great deal better tonight than we did yesterday - and I am pretty sure, so will the Diamondbacks. Here's to more of the same in tomorrow's matinée finale.

Record: 26-15. Pace: 103-59. Change on last season: +5.

Brandon Webb got his ninth win of the season tonight: no-one else in the National League has more than six. It was also his eleventh consecutive victory, a streak only seen once in the National League since they lowered the pitching mound before the 1969 season. This was, however, not a laugher. The ninth inning, in particular, was a masterpiece of tension worthy of Hitchcock himself, even though the Diamondbacks had a five-run lead as they started on the final trio of outs. Courtesy of Brandon Medders, the Rockies loaded the bases on three hits and forced Melvin to turn to closer Brandon Lyon. A chopper off home-plate and everyone was safe, meaning the Rockies had three chances with the tying run at the plate. However, Lyon yanked his belt up another notch, and retired Spilborghs, Barnes and Holliday to complete the sweep over Colorado.

Webb started off in phenomenal form, facing one batter over the minimum through the first five innings, brutalizing the opposing hitters with his usual mix of sinkers and changeups. He did tire somewhat towards the end, and Melvin admitted in his post-game comments that Webb was probably left out there a little too long. He ended up needing to be rescued in the eighth, and allowed three runs on six hits and a walk, with eight strikeouts, in 7.1 innings. It's the longest winning streak in the majors at the start of a season since Andy Hawkins took care of his first ten games for the 1985 Padres. The way Webb pitched early on, it is difficult to see Webb's streak ending anytime soon. His next start will be Wednesday in Florida.

The offense did a good job of responding whenever the Rockies threatened, doing just enough to ensure that the Diamondbacks were never headed. Early on, Cook's sinker was causing almost as many problems for Arizona, as Webb's was for Colorado. But we still took the lead in the first, Orlando Hudson continuing to be red-hot with runners in scoring position, singling home Chris Young, the third of three consecutive hits for the D-backs to start the game. We couldn't quite capitalize any more there, and over the next three innings, we had further chances that went begging: Drew at third with one down in the third, or getting the first two men on base in the fourth. I did start to wonder if we'd end up rueing all these wasted opportunities.

The fifth inning ended these doubts. Back-to-back doubles from Young and Drew made it a 2-0 game, and after a walk to Hudson, Chris Snyder took an 0-2 pitch, and slammed a three-run homer into the left-field bleachers. It was his third long-ball of the week, and he ended the day with two hits, raising his season average to .284. It was good to see him back in the #5 spot in the lineup: while that was probably because of his excellent record against Cook previously, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets to stay there. Over the past month, Snyder is hitting .333/.400/.600, which are the best figures from any of the eight regular starters. Jackson is next, at .330/.406/.532, and Drew third, with a line of .304/.366/.565.

Speaking of Drew, he went 4-for-5, finishing a homer short of the cycle. You could argue a case that he deserved a five-hit night - he reached in the eighth, but it was called an error on the Rockies' second-baseman. That was his second four-hit game against Colorado this season, and he really seems to enjoy facing them, batting a cool .457 versus them this year [16-for-35]. Young, Hudson and Burke also had two hits each, and it didn't seem that the offense missed Byrnes or Jackson, both of whom were given the night off. The Rockies came back in the eighth, getting the tying man to the plate there, and making the score 5-3, but the D-backs added three crucial insurance runs with two outs. Perhaps the most impressive at-bat was from Justin Upton: it looked like Fuentes was trying to hit him, but J-Up simply ripped a triple to the gap in right-center. The two RBI which resulted certainly came in very, very handy during the ninth.

Remarkably, the win came despite no less than four errors by the Diamondbacks. Reynolds and Hudson muffed ground-balls; Hudson also failed to handle a throw from the outfield (though it may have taken a weird bounce off the second-base bag); and Qualls threw the ball wildly to first. I think the last time we committed so many, was August 7th last year, when we lost 8-3 to Pittsburgh. However, that game will be remembered more for Justin Upton's home debut, where he ended a single short of the cycle.

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Co-masters of their domain: Brandon Webb (+20.9%)  and Stephen Drew (+21.3%)
God-emperor of suck: Jeff Salazar, -11.3%

That was a lot of fun - although the final couple of innings were better to look back on, once the win had been clinched, than to experience at the time! The victory was thus strangely reminiscent of last year in that way. Present in the Gameday Thread were 4 Corners Fan, unnamedDBacksfan, kishi, Wimb, foulpole, UofAZGrad (welcome!), dahlian, Azreous, DbacksSkins, hotclaws, singaporedbacksfan, visiting fan PinchHitLancePainter, srdmad, frienetic, Stile4aly, likeavirgin, Augie's Army and the late-arriving Turambar who, wisely, managed to avoid getting tagged with the "albatross" label as a result of his delayed showing.

The win runs our record against the West to an extremely-solid 20-5, and keeps our lead over the Dodgers at 4.5 games. We now head into our first encounter with the American League, in the shape of the underperforming Detroit Tigers, currently tied with the Mariners for fewest wins in the AL, I'm sure they will be glad to be missing Webb, but won't be looking forward to facing Arizona, who now have a 17-7 record n our home park. And an early warning. Sunday is KidKaster day. Those who had to endure that hideous ordeal on television last month will understand why I will be ensuring all exits are available from the living-room that day,