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: 59-55. Pace: 84-78. Change on last season: -4

An hour later than intended, I thought I'd put this up as a placeholder for Jim and a thread for us to follow the Dodgers/Cardinals game tonight if anyone was so inclined. For the interested, it's 3-3 in the 4th.

For those who can't wait for Jim's recap, the main points of today's game are:

• Jeff Karstens' second start of the season was almost perfect, literally, retiring 23 batters before Chris Young laced a double down the left field line. He completed the game with a 2-hit shutout.
• Randy Johnson was similarly awesome for a majority of the game. He allowed a home run to Freddy Sanchez in the 4th and another run scored in the 8th. His 7th inning was particularly made of nice angry RJ strike-throwing goodness.

Now, Jim's un-condensed version. :-)

S'funny how things go. The first game of the series, we saw the worst pitching display at Chase in a very long time, with a procession of hurlers, apparently incapable of finding the strike-zone if the world's largest funnel had been placed between the mound and home-plate. But today, the unheralded Karstens, with ten career starts, comes within four batters of becoming the least experienced pitcher ever to throw a perfect game. Is it treacherous to admit that I was, to a certain extent, rooting for him over the final couple of frames?

It was not to be, however, with Chris Young ending the bid with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, delivering a clean double down the left-field line. He also walked Augie Ojeda to open the ninth, and allowed a two-out single there to Stephen Drew. Still, a two-hit, complete-game shutout is nothing to be sneezed at, especially when he got as many hits as the entire Arizona line-up. Since coming to Pittsburgh in the trade with the Yankees for Xavier Nady, Karstens has thrown nothing but zeroes, over fifteen consecutive innings, against the leaders of the NL Central and NL West. Not bad for someone who came into the year with a career ERA of 5.65. The rush to snap him up in your fantasy baseball league starts here. :-)

Despite getting tagged with the loss, Randy - the last man with a perfect game - didn't pitch badly, giving up two runs and pitching into the eighth inning: he probably wasn't helped by Melvin throwing him out once again, Johnson despite already being at a hundred pitches by the end of the seventh. That allowed Doug Mientkiewicz to win the day, driving in a run with a double: as you may recall, there was some argy-bargy earlier on between those two. There wasn't much carry-over today, much though some would have liked to see a fastball "accidentally" get away from the Big Unit.

The closest to a confrontation was Johnson pointedly stepping off the mound, when the Polish God of Scrabble was all ready to hit. Though the Pirates' hitter was full of praise for Johnson after the game this afternoon, saying: "That's the best stuff I think he's had in four or five years. His ball had some life to it. His slider was hidden very well. He was throwing it into me and away and when he does that, he's tough. There's a reason why he's won starts in a row. That's a totally different guy than what we saw [in Pittsburgh]." Certainly a radical change from his earlier comments of, "He's been out of the game for three years in my mind... That just shows me how mentally weak he is... He doesn't have intimidating stuff anymore."

The Big Unit scattered seven hits over 7.1 innings, with the only other damage a solo homer to Sanchez in the fourth, that broke a scoreless tie. He struck out seven and, for the third straight day, our starter didn't walk anyone, giving them a K:BB ratio of 19:0 for this series. Some concerns - shall we say - were expressed when Qualls came in with men on second and third and one out in the eighth, but he stopped both men from scoring, and Juan Cruz had a much more confident outing this time around, his second back off the DL. He pitched a perfect ninth, striking out two of the three hitters he faced.

The hitters, needless to say, had hardly any success, though a number of ball were hit hard and deep to the outfield. That included two of the first three batters, and you'd have got long odds at that point for the starter still being there in the eighth, never mind still throwing a perfect game. Our best - almost only - chance of breaking the shutout up came when Ojeda walked to lead off the ninth. However, Tony Clark promptly grounded straight into his fourth double-play in 33 at-bats [and that's discounting a couple of others which should have been turned by the opposition]. He only has four hits in that time, and since those 33 at-bats have resulted in 31 outs, I guess this means Clark has a "real" batting average of .061... Drew then got our second hit, before Hudson grounded out to end the game.

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Master of his domain: Augie Ojeda, +9.4%
God-emperor of suck: Tony Clark, -17.5%
Dishonorable mentions: Hudson, -12.1%; Romero, -12.0%; Tracy, -10.4%

An active Gameday Thread, with a special shout-out to ZonaBacks10, who made his debut today, though it hardly turned out to be auspicious! If we get shut-out again tomorrow, the patented SnakePit IP Address Air-Strike Co-ordinator will be booted up... :-) Also present were snakecharmer, DbacksSkins, Zephon, kishi, Wimb, soco, AJforAZ, hotclaws, utahdbacksfan, unnamedDBacksfan, SongBird, luckycc, Muu, AZSEAfan, britdback, emilylovesthedbacks, bcloirao, NewJackCity, nihil67, srdmad, dahlian, frienetic, Red Reign, dstorm, AZWILDCATS and Scrbl. Just a reminder about the no F-bombs policy too, which some people seem...keen to test, shall we say. Use them, and your comment will be hidden. Get upset about that, and further action may result. Thank you for your attention. :-)

As 'Charmer noted above, the Dodgers are playing the Cardinals as I write, and it's looking pretty good for St. Louis, as I'm pleased to report an 8-3 lead for them in the fifth. That would keep our lead at 2.5 games, and overall, I'm satisfied with having taken two out of three here. The next four games against the Teixeira-less Braves will also be an interesting test: we are supposed to be going to tomorrow night's game, but Mrs. SnakePit is feeling mucousy and less than 100%, so we will be making a decision on that nearer the time. Looks like another early night for us!

Record: 53-51. Pace: 83-79. Change on last season: -3

Usually, teams that allow fourteen hits to their opposition in regulation do not win games - only ten times, of the 160 occasions it happened in the NL this year before today. But the key for the Diamondbacks as they finished off their first sweep in almost 2 1/2 months,, was less the number of hits, than the fact that they did not walk a single opposing batter. This is an area where the team has improved markedly this year: their overall BB/9 rate is 2.90 per nine; it was 3.41 last season. Though I imagine not having Hernandez v2.0 is likely helpful in this regard. :-)

Randy Johnson scattered nine hits over seven innings, with just two strikeouts, but  again, his good control helped immeasurably. As Randy said at the beginning of the month, ""If you have velocity, that's a luxury; but if you don't have location... That's a necessity." The results since those words bear out their truth: in four starts, the Big Unit has walked only two, in 26.1 innings - and has won all four games, with today being #292 for his career. He'll have probably eleven more starts this season, so three hundred remains a long shot. Still, who knows, especially if he keeps going like today, where he posted nothing but zeros, for the second game in a row. Perhaps surprisingly, that's the first time Johnson has had back-to-back starts with no runs allowed, in over nine years - the last occasion was July 15-20, 1999.

In contrast, the Giants pitching staff provided nine free passes to Diamondbacks' hitters; the problems this caused were most apparent in the four-run fourth inning. There, Barry Zito walked three hitters, including Chris Snyder with the bases loaded. All three men eventually came round to score, with the key blow a two-run knock from Drew, and our Win Probability finished the inning at 85%. Particular kudus to both Mark Reynolds and Snyder [though what they will do with their woodland African antelopes, I don't know...] for well-worked at-bats that eventually resulted in walks. Snyder was just great, fouling off some tough, tough pitches by Zito with a full count, before taking one out of the zone.

Conor Jackson - and stop me if you've heard this one before - had another extremely-productive day, reaching base safely four times, on three hits and a walk, getting his twelfth homer of the season. It's his fifth consecutive multi-hit game [the franchise record, in case you were wondering, is seven, by Gonzo in June 2001], and having gone 13-for-24 with three homers and seven RBI this week, he's going to be among the front-runners for Player of the Week honors. He's now batting .324, and it's been a while since the Diamondbacks had anyone that high on this date. Let's take a look back and see how far we have to go...

Some surprising names show up as contenders. Johnny "The Walkless Wonder" Estrada came pretty close, hitting .323 in 2006; Tony Clark was at .328 in 2005, but that was in less than 200 at-bats, compared to Jackson's 340. The same goes for Quinton McCracken in 2002, where he was at .340 on this date, though with just 188 AB. To find the last legitimate, full-time player with a higher batting-average than Jackson, it looks like we have to go back all the way to 2001, where Luis Gonzalez had a rather impressive line of .350/.439/.738 on July 29, with 41 HR and 102 RBI. Wow. I guess I'd kinda forgotten exactky how good Gonzo was in his prime.

Mark Reynolds hammered his 21st homer, and Stephen Drew had three hits in the lead-off spot, bouncing back from a schooling received at the hands of Lincecum last night. His OBP - a key mark for those atop the order - is up to .313. While still a little lower than we'd like, it's the highest it has been in over than six weeks, and is at a respectable .366 for the month of July. Some discussion as to whether Hudson - OBP .420 in July, and .365 overall - might be better off in the #1 spot, in part because that'd help avoid the double-plays into which O-Dawg hits. He now has seventeen for the year, as many as any other two players on the roster put together. The reason is clear when you look at the stats sorted by GroundOut/AirOut ratio;  Hudson is all the way up at 1.67, while none of the other regulars are above one. He's a ground-ball machine.

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Master of his domain: Randy Johnson, +24.1%
Honorable mentions: Jackson, 15.9%; Drew, +15.3%
God-emperor of suck: Chris Young, -7.4%

Nice turnout for a Sunday in the Gameday Thread, with appearances by Muu, AF DBacks Fanatic, unnamedDBacksfan, snakecharmer, hotclaws, srdmad, emilylovesthedbacks, Mr. Philosophical, Red Reign, dahlian, soco, AJforAZ, Scrbl, AZWILDCATS, 4 Corners Fan, SongBird, frienetic, Wimb, utahdbacksfan, mrssoco, DiamondbacksWIn, pepperdinedevil and TwinnerA. It's apparently the first time that we've swept the Giants in San Francisco over a three-game series, since May 2001. Frankly, it feels about as long as that since we have swept anyone.

But with the Dodgers beating up on the Nationals - not to mention the Rockies suddenly rediscovering how to play, and winning nine of their last ten games - it was important for the Diamondbacks to keep pace. Mission accomplished there. So, we retain a one-game lead and head down the coast to San Diego, while the Dodgers get to take their turn at San Francisco. They get to dodge Lincecum: curses! Still: we simply need to keep winning. Now we've got that difficult third victory under our belts, let's see how far we can go.

Record: 49-50. Pace: 80-82. Change on last season: -2.

While there was no wi-fi access for me tonight, I did have the laptop, and so was able to scribble down a few notes while watching the game: I could just about see the game, but there was no audio, so any insights are entirely based on what I coukd see. Here's the game as I saw it.

1st inning. Arrive at the Grand Tavern just in time to see the D-backs go down in order, with little fuss. Drew strikes out, then Jackson swings at the first pitch he sees. Hudson has a bit of a better at-bat, but the net result is an easy fly-ball to the outfield.

2nd inning. Johnson is looking pretty good. His slider is moving very nicely, and his mechanics look pretty good. Radar is showing low-90's for his pitches, right where we'd hope. He retires the Cubs in order, getting a nice strikeout looking to end the inning. The Chicago hitter seemed less than impressed, and the pitch did look a bit inside. Arizona's turn starts with Tracy lifting the ball to the outfield, and he is followed by Reynolds, who does take a couple of pitches, to get ahead at 2-1, before going down swinging at a pitch around his ankles. Young goes one further, working the count full before he takes strike three at the bottom of the zone.

3rd inning. Harden looks as advertised - without wishing him ill, I hope we don't have to face him again this season. Bottom of the order up for Chicago. Edmonds becomes the first base-runner with a blooped single back up the middle. Cedeno goes after the first pitch and sends it deep to center, but Young tracks it down at the warning track. Harden's first two bunts yell "AL pitcher!" but he gets the third one down, advancing the runner. Theriot also goes after the first pitch, and the result is the same: Young makes the third out in deep center. Snyder is carved up by Harden, with some ugly swings; Romero pops up weakly on the infield; Johnson probably has the best at-bat, running the count full without taking the bat off his shoulder, then foul tips one to end the inning.

4th inning. Another Cubs base-runner, Johnson on a swinging bunt that trickles about 30 feet, leaving Reynolds without a chance. However, Lee pops out to shallow right, Ramirez K's, and Soto pops out to end the threat. Be nice if we could get our leadoff man aboard... Drew, however, strikes out, and Harden remains perfect through four innings. If only I could post in the Gameday Thread about now: I would be readying the pics of St. Penelope. On the other hand, Johnson hasn't exactly given up hard hits, just a bloop and a swinging bunt.

5th inning. That said, Young is being kept busy, running down another ball in center-field, . Phew. I miss the rest of the inning, as our comics and the host are arriving, so get distracted by discussing the merits of The Dark Knight. However, I get back to the game just in time to see Chad Tracy take a walk. Score one for St. Penelope, even in hypothetical form. Now, can we make it count? Mark Reynolds can't, going down swinging at something 96 mph-shaped. Something really wild from Harden moves Tracy into scoring position, but Young pops out and Snyder is also retired, to end our first threat. We're still being no hit through five. Time for some more St. Penelope pics?

6th inning. Looks that the first run will go to the winning team: okay, that's true most of the time anyway, but all the more so as the zeros stack up. Johnson strikes out Harden to open the sixth, and another fine catch by Young gets the second out. The next batter does reach, and Snyder is out to talk to Johnson. The Unit looks a bit gassed, and with his spot up in the bottom half, I wonder if he's done. But he gets out of the inning. Now, let's get some ru...well, can we start with hits, and work up to the complex stuff?

Romero decides to combine the two, breaking up the no-hitter with the first homer of his major-league career: while it will doubtless be classified by HitTracker as a "Just Enough", it looks might good on the scoreboard. Johnson is batting for himself, so seems he'll be going out for another frame. He actually gets decent wood on the ball, flying out to fairly-deep center. Drew puts the ball in play - first time today - but is still retired. and Jackson goes down swinging. We have one hit. Two base-runners. And the lead. Now, can we keep it?

7th inning. Wish I knew what Johnson's pitch-count was at. That would make me feel a bit more comfortable. Another deep fly, this time to the warning-track in left. Phew. Eight outs to get. I'm beginning to think about who'll pitch the last two innings. Tracy makes a nice catch in foul territory for the second out. I am almost certain that we won't see Lyon in the ninth: I presume it will be Pena. But who'll be up in the eighth? A 1-2-3 inning for Randy. Maybe they'll send him out there again? Wish I knew what Johnson's pitch-count was at... I'd also feel better if we can add on a run or two. If Romero can hit the ball out of the park, then anyone can. Doesn't happen in our half, despite a two-out walk to Reynolds. I think Harden is done.

8th inning. Johnson has gone, his unbeaten record against the Cubs secure. Interestingly, we bring in Micah Owings to relieve the Big Unit. It all gets a little confusing at this point: I am trying to listen to a comedian friend who just got out of jail, and is having a big welcome home party on Saturday. However, over his shoulder I see Owings get a big double-play to end the eighth. I am perhaps more excited by that than the party. Three outs to get. Bottom of the inning. Leadoff walk to Snyder. Tony Clark pinch-hits and is now 0-for-6 since joining the team. Still, Drew delivers a clutch two-out triple to make it 2-0 before the end of the eighth. Is that Chad Qualls warming in the bullpen?

9th inning. Deep breath. Three outs. Qualls is in. We so need to hold on to this one, after the disaster which was Sunday. Qualls, however, walks the leadoff hitter to bring the tying run to the plate. Then Tracy drops a potential double-play ball, and everyone is safe. Tying run on base. Still no-one out. I have a massive, impending sense of doom. But Qualls gets the next batter to hit another ground-ball, and this one gets executed impeccably. Two out, the tying run no longer on base. Two pitches later, a soft grounder ends the game, and Arizona has beaten the Cubs for the first time this year, giving Rich Harden his first loss in blue. Halle-bloody-lujah, and I am saved from having to wear a Cubs cap on Thursday.

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Master of his domain: Randy Johnson, +46.1%
Honorable mentions: Owings, +12.4%; Romero,+12.4%
God-emperor of suck: Conor Jackson, -6.0%

We drove past Chase after work tonight, and saw all the Cubs fans heading towards the park: very happy to send them home disappointed! In what is probably his last regular-season outing against the Cubs, Johnson ran his career record against them to 13-0, with an ERA of 1.84. I know the W-L record is the best among any active pitchers with ten starts against one team: I wonder where that ERA ranks. It's also the first time ever Arizona has won a game on two hits: we'd won six times on three hits, most recently in May 2005 against the Nationals. Credit some very solid defense, with Young a gurgling vortex - in a good way - in center, sucking up everything hit to him.

Monstrous thread, testing the technological boundaries of SB Nation v2.0: 845 comments in one thread? Some of them were even actually about the game, though I had a lot of skimming over the irrelevancies to do once I got home... Focus, people! :-) Thanks to those who took part: mikeb, kennythered (welcome!), soco, DbacksSkins, kishi, Zephon, TwinnerA, mrssoco, snakecharmer, AF DBacks Fanatic, AZWILDCATS, unnamedDBacksfan, DiamondbacksWIn, singaporedbacksfan, NewJackCity, dstorm, emilylovesthedbacks, friendly visiting fan JoeCoolMan24, njjohn, Scrbl, srdmad, seton hall snake pit and 4 Corners Fan

Elsewhere, the Rockies and Dodgers got together for a 26-run game of pinball at Coors, with the Dodgers coming out on top to stay level with Arizona. And Jose Valverde out-Lyoned Lyon, allowing six earned runs in one-third of an inning of work for Houston, as they coughed up a late lead. His ERA is now 4.86: with Qualls getting the save for us, that trade is now looking nowhere near as bad as it was 24 hours ago!

Tomorrow brings the Petit Unit to the mound, replacing Owings, who appears to have been slid into the bullpen: I am wondering if this is going to be a permanent move? And is Petit just a place-holder until Scherzer gets his arm strength up to 100% and can rejoin the rotation? It promises to be an interesting encounter: I will not be about at all for that one, so as noted, if anyone wants to take over recap duties, please let me know...

Record: 47-47.  Pace: 81-81. Change on last season: -2

Well, that was unexpected, wasn't it? I mean, in a serious, lightning from a clear sky kind of way. The Phillies had just tied up the game at two on a Victorino homer, and the first two in the Arizona fourth went down quietly, exposing the bottom third of our order, which had been - and would be again - wretchedly ineffectual [Outside that inning, slots 7-9 went 0-for-10, in fact]. But Romero rifled a ground-ball into right-field, and Hammock drew an unintentional intentional walk. That brought up Randy Johnson - who, since the end of the 2004 season, had hit .080 [4-for-50] with one RBI. Little wonder that the limit of my hopes and aspirations at this point were, "Well, at least we've got the offensive epicenter of the Gurgling Vortex of Suck(TM) out of the way."

Eaton quickly went 1-2 on the Big Unit, but the third strike proved remarkably elusive. Johnson, somehow, managed to lay off the bad pitches and foul off the good ones, finally working the count full. Then, on what I think was the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Eaton sent down a fastball, and Johnson smashed it into the left-field corner for a two-RBI double. Eaton would have been better off taking the baseball and cramming it down his throat in a suicide bid. As by the time the third out was eventually recorded, nine consecutive Diamondbacks had reached base safely, on six hits plus three walks, and we'd scored eight runs, all with two outs.

- A. Romero singled to center
- R. Hammock walked, A. Romero to second
- R. Johnson doubled to deep left, R. Hammock and A. Romero scored
- S. Drew walked
- C. Jackson doubled to deep left, R. Johnson scored, S. Drew to third
- O. Hudson intentionally walked
- C. Tracy singled to center, S. Drew and C. Jackson scored, O. Hudson to third
- M. Reynolds homered to deep center, O. Hudson and C. Tracy scored
- C. Young singled to center

Ah, that's the kind of inning that has been a long time coming as far as the Diamondbacks are concerned, with a cunning mix of bloops [Tracy's broken-bat blooper - especially impressive as it came off a leftie pitcher, brought in specifically to face him] and blasts, Reynolds getting his nineteenth homer of the season with a three-run bomb that capped the inning. If he gets one tomorrow, he'll be the first Diamondback hitter to reach twenty homers before the All-Star break, since Steve Finley had 21, back in 2004. Special K's 58 RBI is already the most in the first-half for five years: Gonzo had 67 in 2003.

So, victories are like buses for Randy Johnson: you wait forever for one to show up, then two come along together. After seven weeks for career win #289, he had only six days before #290 gets tucked in his locker. He wasn't brilliant; more 'good enough'. Johnson allowed four runs on five hits and a walk, including two homers to the light-hitting Shane Victorino, who had only three round-trippers in 312 AB this season prior to the game. He could perhaps have gone longer, having thrown 84 pitches after the sixth; however, he suffered cramps in his calf while warming up, a result of his running the bases. [Must be said, he didn't look comfortable there. Mark Grace joked Randy was looking for an oxygen mask in the dugout. I commented his hit would have been a triple, if he hadn't had to stop at first and ask for directions.] Better safe than sorry though, and with about nine days till his next outing, he should be fine.

Tracy had three hits - two off southpaws - while Drew and Jackson each reached safely three times, with a pair of hits and a walk. Every starter bar Hammock had a hit, though Young's 1-for-5 with two K's is...about par for the course of late, unfortunately. There just is no alternative right now: he has played 816 of the 836 innings there this season; Alex Romero, with thirty-five minor league games at the position, and one in the majors, is not the answer. However, if we continue to get decent production from 1B and LF [on this road-trip, Tracy and Jackson are 8-for-20 and 7-for-21 respectively], then we might be ok. If I don't want to say we're out of the woods yet, in fourteen games since our team BA reached a low of .244 on June 27, we've hit .264 and gone 7-7.

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Masterof his domain: Randy Johnson, +21.1% - batting!
Honorable mentions: Tracy, +17.0%; Jackson, +17.0%
God-emperor of suck: Randy Johnson, -5.1% - pitching!

Welcome to Randy Johnson's Bizarro World. I think it may be a very, very long time before we see Johnson master of his domain...for his ability at the plate, rather than for directing 94 mph sliders over it. However, that was genuinely a decent at-bat he put together, and sometimes that, and a little luck, will bring unexpected dividends to even the least effective hitter. Today was his first multi-RBI game since October 2nd, 2004, and the eighth of his career overall. The win sends us back to .500, and guarantees that the worst we can finish the first half is tied for the lead in the division.

A chunky Gameday Thread, passing 600 comments - admittedly, the game itself seemed well down on the list of priorities, even before our eight-run outburst effectively ended it as a spectacle. Present were seton hall snake pit, AF DBacks Fanatic, DbacksSkins, TwinnerA, hotclaws, kishi, golfmanthee, mrssoco, soco, Zephon, AZWILDCATS, Mr. Philosophical, emilylovesthedbacks and, unnamedDBacksfan. We now get to kick back and see whether the Dodgers can break their two-game streak against the Marlins this evening. Then, tomorrow morning, it's Brandon Webb against Cole Hamels, to decide whether we finish the first-half over .500 or under it. Should be fun: see you for that!

Record: 44-45. Pace: 80-82. Change on last season: -3.

It wasn't pretty. We had to struggle and claw our way to a massive three runs, while another botched play by the defense almost cost us the game. But, the franchise's longest ever streak in sole possession of first-place rolls on - at least for another day. We don't play tomorrow, but the Dodgers do: it would be ironic if they won, and ended the streak that way. It's probably too early to describe games as "must win" before the All-Star break, but this was certainly a "really, really like to win, pretty please with sugar on top" game. Being swept by our division rival at home, and losing first-place as a result, would have been a painful blow.

Let's start at the end, shall we? Lyon came in to cling to a two-run lead in the ninth, but things started poorly with a leadoff single by the Padres. They immediately got a great deal worse: Kouzmanoff hit a line-drive to right, which caromed off the glove of a diving Upton for a double. Then, Upton's throw back to the infield glanced off Hudson's glove, and then again off the desperate grab of Tracy, who was backing up - one run trotted home, and the tying run now stood at third-base, still with nobody out. First-place; it was nice to have known you. Maybe we'll meet again sometime down the road?

Hah! Brandon Lyon is made of sterner stuff than that. Chase Headley, the dugout will see you now - he went down swinging. Khalil Greene: why don't you ground out to the drawn-in infield? Thank you for your co-operation. Brian Giles: oh, same again will be fine. Game over, Lyon gets his sixteenth save, and the mere +7.8% he gets on the Win Probability doesn't quite reflect the roller-coast nature of that ninth inning:

The effective work done by Lyon Salvage Incorporated finally got the loss monkey off the Big Unit's back, breaking a streak of six straight losses and giving him his first victory since May 18. It didn't look like that would be the case after the first batter he faced, as Diamondbacks' nemesis Scott Hairston cranked his third homer of the series into the bleachers, giving Arizona an early hole from which they, inevitably, struggled to escape. Four straight zeroes were posted by Banks: add on the seven by Peavy, six from Baek, six by Parra in the Matinee Miracle, and a couple from McClung at the end of his stint, and it meant we hadn't scored a single run off the opposition starter for twenty-five innings, over parts of five games.

But when that streak ended...hoo-boy, it ended. Justin Upton merely uncorked what is being called the longest home-run in the majors this year, utterly crushing a ball into Friday's Front Row. And not the bottom row either, but the top tier: a couple of feet to the left, and it would have been pinging around the inside of the restaurant like a psychotic pinball. The estimate from the club was 484 feet, but we'll wait from a neutral estimate out of HitTracker.com before anointing it officially: "I just caught it perfect and it took off a little bit," said Upton, in what appears to be his entry for Understatement of the Year.

Hammock was next up, and a shaken Banks hit him - I think Upton's blast broke the Banks, as it were. Johnson bunted him over, and with two outs, Drew gave the Diamondbacks the lead, with a single to right-center. Mark Reynolds added a crucial insurance run with his eighteenth homer off the batters' eye in center during the sixth inning. Justin Upton could probably be heard sniggering in the dugout, for Special K's shot was "only" estimated at 424 foot. "Hey, it still counts exactly the same as yours," would be Reynolds' appropriate reminder. Two hits for Tracy and two for Upton, but the K:BB ratio remained weak, at 1:6, leaving the final tally for this series four walks and twenty-four strikeouts.

Mind you, the Padres were a good deal worse than us, fanning fourteen times without taking a walk. Ten of those came courtesy of Johnson who, after and outside of the homer to Hairston had one of his best outings in a long time; he allowed only three hits and retired 19 of 23 batters faced, with the other one getting plunked. He was pulled after a leadoff double in the seventh was followed by a ground-out that advanced the runner. Hearts collectively sunk as Chad Qualls came to the mound, who has rarely met an inherited runner of late that hasn't crossed home-plate as a result. However, he belied that rep with back-to-back strikeouts, and Peña also pitched out of difficulty in the eighth, after letting the first two Padres reach base. Over those final three innings alone, San Diego were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

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Master of his domain: Randy Johnson, +18.6%
Honorable mentions: Upton, 13.1%; Qualls, +12.2%
God-emperor of suck: Conor Jackson, -12.0%

This one ended up over 600, which is pretty monstrous for a single thread. Thanks to soco, unnamedDBacksfan, DbacksSkins, snakecharmer, Snakebitten, DiamondbacksWIn, kishi, hotclaws, Muu, mrssoco, Zephon, luckycc, emilylovesthedbacks, golfmanthee, Counsellmember, dahlian, 4 Corners Fan, srdmad, Geno Ardi [welcome!] and SongBird for their comments - no thanks to the now-banned RAMJB and ben_grdn, who are both the same person, but still outstayed their welcome.

Congratulations to Dan Haren and Brandon Webb, both very deserving selections to represent the Diamondbacks at this year's All-Star Game in New York. It's not clear at the moment whether Webb will be able to play: he's scheduled to throw on the side that day, so he might be able to get an inning off, even as he starts the last day before and the first day atter the break. Tuesday would be Haren's regularly-scheduled day to pitch, so I imagine he'll be good to go: I doubt he'll get the call to start. I suspect that ERA leader Volquez, who picked up his eleventh win tonight, might get the nod, schedule permitting. See the attached poll for who was the Diamondbacks first-half All-Star, outside of these two.

Off-day tomorrow, and I've got one too - woo-hoo, four-day weekend! Arizona will be heading towards Washington, for their series there. They might be joined in first by the Dodgers, as they will be playing the Braves tomorrow - and must be salivating at the prospect, since the Atlanta bullpen had to work for eleven innings tonight, finally getting past the Astros in seventeen. Go, Braves... More to follow on Monday, including our old favorite, the Random Off-Day Thread.

Record: 42-42. Pace: 81-81. Change on last season: -5

Welcome back, .500. We barely had time to miss you. Not that anybody did, but still.

Randy Johnson was on the hill for the second game of the series, but his results continued to be disappointing. The Not-So-Big Unit struggled yet again, coming up short in another attempt at win 289. He gave up seven runs in just 3 2/3 innings, needing 93 pitches to get through that span. He was knocked around eight hits and three walks as his ERA ballooned up to 5.46. The killing blows were mostly struck by J.J. Hardy, who homered off Johnson in each of the first two innings -- but they were far from the only well-struck balls of the night.

The recently called up Connor Robertson was solid in relief, however, giving up just one run on two hits in three innings in an effort that kept the Diamondbacks in the game. In the process, he posted a Curt-Schilling-esque 32/9 strike to ball ratio. Rosales and Slaten also saw work and posted solid outings.

Despite the early deficit, the offense valiantly tried to claw its way back in the game. Down 7-1, the Diamondbacks picked up two runs in the fourth (Montero's RBI single and Ojeda's RBI groundout) and two more in the fifth on Conor Jackson's eight homer of the season, which cut the lead to a much more respectable 7-5. In the eighth, with the deficit back to three, Reynolds and Tracy started the inning with singles, but they could only manage to get one run back on a Chris Young RBI fielder's choice. An unlucky double play lineout by Montero later, they found their rally very much killed off.

The leadoff man reached again in the ninth when Ojeda was plunked by a Salomon Torres pitch. A groundout to the right side by Salazer moved him into scoring position, but that was as far as Augie would get. As the potential tying run, Upton and Burke both grounded out, and that was that.

Ultimately, the early hole Johnson dug was just too much to climb out of. Jackson had three hits including the homer, and Reynolds, Tracy and Young added two hits of their own (Tracy also walked to reach base for a third time). On a number of days with our starting pitchers, six runs would have been enough, but not so today. On the flip side, Drew was 0-for-4 in the leadoff spot, which continues to be a puzzling (to put it nicely) decision.

Missing from the lineup for very understandable reasons was Chris Snyder, who apparently managed to fracture a testicle. No further discussion on the subject is necessary. Byrnes is still nursing the hamstring problem, and Reynolds took a sharp ground ball off his hand, although he stayed in the game and showed no ill effects. Considering the struggles right now, another nasty bite from the injury bug would seem to be the last thing we need. Robby Hammock literally showed up in the middle of the game, which only served to add to the feeling of watching the walking wounded. Robertson's 41 pitches would seem to imply that Owings will be able to make his start, although at this point it could also be whoever still has a working arm in the bullpen in a joint effort. Hard to say. In any case, it doesn't bode well for tomorrow's game.

Record: 40-39. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season: -5

Well, this road-trip rolls merrily along. In the six games so far, we have lost five, scored a total of 12 runs, and batted .194 overall. This might have been the worst one yet: shutout for the second time this year, Arizona mustered only two hits and one walk in seven shutout innings from Tim Wakefield, and ended on the receiving end of a three-hitter. It's gone beyond desperate. It's sunk below pathetic. It's now reached the stage where, no matter how bad the Diamondbacks' offense gets, I simply shrug my shoulders, roll my eyes and move on. This kind of performance is no longer a shock or a surprise; it's pretty much what I've come to expect. Kinda sad.

Another solid outing from a starter, in a losing cause. In the past eight games, we have now had six quality starts, an ERA of 3.48 [take out Randy's complete-game suckage in Minnesota, and the ERA in the other seven was 2.72], but the team has gone 2-6. No, by and large, it has not been the starting pitching which has caused the problems over the past [insert however long a time-frame you feel like considering]. If Johnson was not brilliant - he allowed eight hits and two walks in six innings, and it took him 109 pitches to get that far - the two runs he allowed were a significant improvement over the previous outings, and this was his best start of the month.

The Big Unit, of course, was not able to acquire that pesky 289th career win, which remained as elusive as it has for the past seven appearances - one short of tying the longest winless streak in his entire 21-season career.  The chances of him reaching the 300 mark this season now appear to be basically zero, and one begins to wonder, will it ever happen? Instead, Johnson got tagged with his fifth consecutive loss, the first time that has happened since an infamous stretch when he pitched for us in 1999. There, he received a total of zero runs in support over four straight games, which we lost 0-1, 0-2, 0-1 and 0-2. The only streak of defeats in his career to surpass this, dates all the way back to 1992, when he lost eight in a row, with Seattle.

The headline on the mlb.com recap says, "Johnson outdueled by Wakefield." That's something of a misrepresentation of the facts, since Coco Crisp alone had as many extra-base hits off Johnson, as our entire roster managed, of any type, off the Boston knuckleballer. I guess "Johnson pitches quite well, while the Arizona hitters flail wildly as the ball flutter towards them," was felt to be a little too wordy as captions go. Pre-game batting practice was served up by Hall of Fame knuckler, now the D-backs radio analyst, Tom Candiotti, who said, "It's so different than a guy going out there and throwing the ball 90 mph with breaking stuff. You see that every day, so you get conditioned to it. That's one of the things that makes knuckleballers pretty effective is that they're the only ones who do it."

No kidding. Wakefield faced two batters over the minimum through his seven innings. The only hitters to reach were Montero (single), Hudson (double) and Young (walk) - the last-named was thrown out trying to steal second, reducing our success-rate in that area this season to a troubling 65%. As an aside, I notice that leading the team in successful thefts this year are...Mark Reynolds and Conor Jackson, each with five. Hands up anyone who bet money on them as a quinella in this category.

Arizona threatened to end the shutout in the ninth, loading the bases for Chad Tracy with two outs. That put the Diamondbacks just a bloop and a blast away from tying up the game, and sent our Win Probability shooting all the way up from 0.2% to the dizzying heights of 1.3%. Clearly terrified, Red Sox manager Terry Francona, was forced to go deep into his bullpen to salvage the game, and... Oh, who am I trying to kid? Jonathan Papelbon struck out Tracy to end the game, complete the shutout, and consign the Diamondbacks - four outs from taking the series yesterday - to another defeat. In the 29 games Arizona has played over the past month, we have scored 94 runs - an average of 3.2 per game. We have scored more than four on only four occasions in that time.

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Master of his domain: Randy Johnson, +6.3%
God-emperor of suck: Chad Tracy, -10.6%

Yes, the losing pitcher was Arizona's best player of the game. Any questions? Apparently not. For after two epic gameday threads earlier in the series, this was - entirely understandably - one of the limper efforts we have mustered this season. Present were: Wimb, DbacksSkins, emilylovesthedbacks, TwinnerA, nihil67, hotclaws, kishi, luckycc, 4 Corners Fan, Elway4Prez, dbacksfan01, Diamondhacks, dahlian, snakecharmer and Muu. Obviously, the next person to mention Rachel Nichols in a Gameday Thread will find a mob of outraged Diamondbacks fans marching on their home with torches, since this game proved that she is the Antichrist to our saints. Do not believe her lies!

Thus, a series that began with so much hope, ends with Arizona licking their wounds and slinking off. About the only things I enjoyed about this game was that it a) started on time, and b) didn't take long. So I get to post this relatively early, and go off to watch something appropriately crap - likely starring Bruce Campbell and that irritating sidekick from Xena. Sure beats rehashing this one any further, folks.

Record: 34-30. Pace: 86-76. Change on last season: -3

Or, for those not fluent in the language of love, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Or, for those who prefer a less flowery version, "Same shirt, different day." [Well, more or less. :-)] Mark Reynolds almost had four homers in consecutive at-bats, but lost out as the umpires reversed one and turned it into a double. Bob Melvin picked up his first ejection of the season in the second inning, for arguing the above call. There was almost the first bench-clearing brawl in a long time for the Diamondbacks.

However, the end result still remained exactly the same: 6-8 hits once more [13 games in a row]; five runs or less [14 straight] and a defeat [6-14 over the past twenty]. The "less than nine hits" thing is now reaching epic proportions: no National League team has had a longer run of such offensively-limited games, since the Mets rolled for twenty straight in July 1972. Mark Reynolds continued to be the main offensive force, swatting a homer and two doubles, while Chris Young got two hits and Justin Upton reached safely four times, with a hit and three of our four walks. However, I can't blame the Pirates for walking him, since behind J-Up sat Miguel Montero - he went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts and eight men left on base, as well as committing one of our three errors. I haven't looked at the Fangraph yet, but I've a fair idea he will not be master of his domain.

Randy Johnson's control was not his best today, and it really hurt him. Of the five runs he allowed, four of the batters who scored had reached base on balls, and the fifth was driven in thanks to a bases-loaded walk. He seemed a bit upset with the home-plate umpire's strike-zone, and far more than upset with Doug 'Triple-word Score'  Mientkiewicz stepping out of the batter's box in the middle of Johnson's delivery. Words were exchanged, the Big Unit headed towards the batter's box, both benches cleared, but order was restored without things escalating further. "It didn’t bother me at all," Johnson said. "If it would have, he’d probably be on a stretcher and I’d probably be out of the game."

Subsequent events would suggest otherwise, and that the incident definitely affected our starter. He walked Mientkiewicz, made a fielding error on the next play and then, after Montero muffed Duke's sacrifice bunt, walked another man with the bases loaded and still no-one out. He did bear down, retiring the next three without further damage, but continued to struggle thereafter  He ended up allowing five runs (one unearned) on six hits and five walks. Johnson was replaced by Juan Cruz with two outs in the sixth inning, failing to complete six for the first time since May 13th, but throwing a season-high 106 pitches. Win #289 remains as elusive as it has been in his past four starts now.

Mark Reynolds thought he'd got a homer in the second, with a long drive to right. A fan caught the ball, and while initially ruled a four-bagger, after the Pirates' manager came out to appeal, it was ruled that the fan had leaned into play to grab the ball. Bob Melvin came out to put his point of view, and something he said clearly upset home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg, who tossed Melvin. Replays appeared to indicate the men in blue got this one right in the end, though you wouldn't find our manager willing to admit it after the game. He commented, "My opinion was the first-base umpire got it right. The first-base umpire is closest to the play and my opinion was he got it right, and I didn't know why they overturned it."

The Pirates pulled steadily away, reaching a 5-1 lead after six. An RBI double for Young pulled back a run in the seventh, and we had the tying run at the plate with one out. However, first Montero, then pinch-hitter Owings, struck out swinging. Our best chance was in the eighth: Drew homered to lead things off, and we loaded the bases after that, putting the tying run in scoring position. Inexplicably, Montero was left up there to hit for himself again - the swinging K which followed had the air of inevitability about it. Chris Burke batted leadoff once again, and went 0-for-4, making him 0-for-11 at the top of the order this year. His presence in the starting lineup puzzles me: put him the spot where he'll get most at-bats, and I'm beyond puzzlement. I can only be described as bewildered.

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God-emperor of his domain: Justin Upton, +18.0%
Honorable mention: Mark Reynolds, +15.4%
God-emperor of suck: Miguel Montero, -29.3%
Dishonorable mention: Randy Johnson, -16.8%

For a weekday morning game, not a bad turnout in the Gameday Thread. Certainly, no shortage of things to talk about. Present were 4 Corners Fan, DbacksSkins, luckycc, nihil67, Counsellmember, hotclaws, isoldout, TwinnerA, Muu, kishi, Diamondhacks, srdmad, dahlian, Wimb and victor frankenstein. A series which started so well, with back-to-back wins behind solid pitching, sputters out into a split. It seems the only way we can win is if the Dodgers do so too.

It's on to New York, who are staggering even worse than we are, having just been swept in a four-game series by the Padres. Sheesh. They took two of three from us back in Arizona at the start of  May and, in a quirk of scheduling fate, the rematches will see exactly the same pitchers go head-to-head again. First it's Owings vs. Maine, then Webb vs. Pelfrey and we finish on Thursday with Haren vs. Santana. At this point...sheesh, dare I hope for two out of three? Oh, and a pony...

Record: 30-24. Pace: 90-72. Change on last season: -1

That one hurt. In the first two games, we were never really in them, so the defeat was more inevitable than anything too disturbing or shocking. This one, however, was looking pretty good through the seventh inning, as we held on to a one-run lead, and Randy Johnson just missed out on passing Roger Clemens for second-place on the all-time strikeout leaderboard. He tied Clemens by fanning the first hitter of that inning and seemed to get to two strikes on everyone else he faced, but was obviously running out of gas, and couldn't quite get the final one he needed to overtake The 'Roid Rocket. Still, he was looking good for win #289, if we could only get the last six outs.

Then, enter Peña and Jackson, who each deserve about equal blame for the eighth inning fiasco that followed. I don't think I can quite stomach a full recap, so let's just go with the play-by-play:

T. Pena relieved R. Johnson
A. Rowand flied out to center
B. Molina walked
E. Burriss ran for B. Molina
R. Durham safe at first on first baseman C. Jackson's fielding error,
       E. Burriss to second
O. Vizquel grounded out to first, E. Burriss to third, R. Durham to second
J. Bowker hit by pitch
F. Lewis walked, E. Burriss scored, R. Durham to third, J. Bowker to second
C. Qualls relieved T. Pena

Well done, Conor and Tony! You must get up very early. The Giants scored the tying run without actually - oh, I dunno - needing to get a hit or anything like that, on two walks, an error and Jackson booting what seems like his ten-millionth simple groundball of the year. We could still have escape on Vizquel's hard grounder, but a clearly-rattled Jackson opted to go to first for the simple out, rather than trying to turn the inning-ending double-play. One plunking and a bases-loaded walk later, and exit Win #289, muttering something about beating the traffic.

Okay, so we still had a chance to win, right? Right? Hello? Is this thing on? I suspect that no-one really felt too confident of our chances, and when Randy 'Snake Eater' Winn homered to lead off the Giants' ninth, the reaction seemed to be one more of inevitability and disappointment than anything else. Perhaps it was the seed I planted before the game, pointing out our poor record - now 1-15 - when scoring three runs or less. It never really seemed that three runs would be sufficient to hold off the Giants, any more than it was sufficient to hold them off in the first two games of the series.

[Obscure factoid for the day #1: Hitting. It was actually the fourth consecutive game scoring exactly the same total of runs, so at least we're consistent - albeit consistently inadequate. That sets a new franchise record: we've had a number of three-game streaks with the same offensive output, but this was the first such four-peat. The Diamondbacks still have some way to go to match the 2003 Cleveland Indians, who scored exactly four runs in seven consecutive games between July 12 and July 20.]

Justin Upton continues to show signs of life, getting his first multi-hit game in a couple of weeks, whacking his first homer since May 8, and adding an RBI triple. That's seven bases in all, the most he's had all season, and the first time too that he's had more than one extra-base hit in the same game, so there's hope he's getting back onto track. He did strikeout twice though, and is now ahead of Mark Reynolds in that category. Orlando Hudson continued his hot hitting with two more hits; since coming back from his layoff, he's hitting .396 [21-for-53]. However, he also grounded into his team-leading seventh double-play. Jackson and Reynolds each reached safely twice, with a hit and a walk.

The best thing to come out of the game was, without question, Randy Johnson's outing: seven innings, six hits, two walks and two runs, with those nine strikeouts bringing him level with Clemens on the all-time list at 4,672. It's just a shame he didn't quite manage to reach #2 in front of the home fans, but it seems all but certain he'll do so again the Brewers next week. He showed excellent control, and managed a couple of strikeouts that left the Giants' hitters looking particularly incompetent: one even falling over onto home-plate after striking out. In his past three starts, Johnson has pitched 20 innings, allowed three earned runs and has a K:BB ratio of 24:3.

[Obscure factoid for the day #2: Pitching. The loss dropped Chad Qualls to 0-5; that's the worst start to a career for any Arizona pitcher, since Willie Blair lost his first seven decisions back at the beginning of our inaugural season in 1998. Next up for Qualls: the consecutive loss streak for an Arizona reliever is seven, by Greg Swindell in 2001-02, and then for an Arizona pitcher overall, the 0-11 record by Edgar Gonzalez between September 2003 and June 2006. EdGon also holds the record run of futility by an Arizona starter - the above was part of a streak where he had thirteen losses in 14 outings, but he swiped a couple of relief wins during it]

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Master of his domain: Randy Johnson, +21.1%
Honorable mention: Justin Upton, +16.7%
God-emperor of suck: Tony Peña, -27.4%
Dishonorable mention: Chad Qualls, -14.8%

Another very busy Gameday Thread, with 'Skins posting his second straight double-century, finishing at 206 posts for the night. soco hit three figures too, and also present were, unnamedDBacksfan, dahlian, hotclaws, mrssoco, victor frankenstein, srdmad, dstorm, foulpole, RAMJB, TwinnerA, peeklay, Wimb, UofAZGrad, acidtongue, luckycc and LucaMaz3. The final tally was over eight hundred; it seems clear that the number of comments has little or no correlation to team performance. But we need to await 'Charmer's doctoral thesis on factors affecting Gameday Thread participation for a full analysis. :-)

I'm thinking maybe it's time to update our slogan: perhaps something along the lines of, "Hey, at least the Dodgers lost again too." For they also dropped their fourth in a row; while our wretched performance sees the Diamondbacks firmly entrenched, at 10-16, in their first losing month since 2006, Los Angeles has managed to catch up exactly one-half game on Arizona since May 2nd. Don't look now, but San Francisco are seven back...though that too is only one-half game closer than they were on May 2nd. Indeed, to prove how little has changed, despite our poor performance, here are the full NL West standings then and now:

And with that, to bed. I'm trying to talk Azreous into doing the recap for tomorrow night - because, to be honest, after the past three games, my enthusiasm has been stretched painfully thin. The Nationals should present something of an easier challenge, but all hopes of a winning home-stand now lie, like dust in the wind. I just hope that, when we go to Sunday's game, we are not looking to stave off back-to-back sweeps. That may seem unduly pessimistic, but after this series, it doesn't seem utterly implausible.