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.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
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: 59-58. Pace: 82-80. Change in last season: -7

"For the first time in over four months, the Diamondbacks find themselves sitting in second place in the National League West, the result of the Dodgers' extra-innings victory over the Giants." Dammit, I had a perfectly-good recap all written, bemoaning our fall into second. But the Los Angeles Chokers coughed up a tenth-inning lead in San Francisco, and so we still cling on to top spot, by our fingernails. It's a position we hardly deserve, particulary after a wretched sixth inning against the Braves, where a perfect storm of incompetence - management, pitching, defense - and bad luck, allowed Atlanta to score seven runs.

Arizona actually entered with a 3-2 lead. They clawed their way back into the game, thanks largely to an error by Escobar with one out in the fifth, that turned a potential double-play off the bat of Jackson into the tying run. A sacrifice fly by Tracy then gave us the lead. However, Haren's pitch-count was at 100, and given the score situation - and the "must win" nature of the contest - he should have been on a very short leash. A laser-beam to Romero in right was an out, but a single and double followed, and Haren should have been lifted. However, Melvin, adhering to his usual philosophy of mishandling pitchers, left Haren out there to surrender the tying and go-ahead runs to Atlanta, as well as another single, before coming to get him.

Worse - much worse, in any number of ways - followed. Juan Cruz came in, walked the first batter on four pitches, then hit the next guy. At this point, it was clear he had nothing, and I was reduced to hoping Melvin would yank him before the game was entirely out of range. Cruz did fan Jones, but a single to left scored three runs. It would have been two, except that a wild throw from Cruz to second - what we  called a "hospital pass" in my soccer days - sent O-Dawg right into the path of McCann, snapping his wrist back, and leaving him flapping on the deck like a stranded fish and having to be helped off the field, his wrist supported. Cruz then committed another error that let McCann score from second, completing the disaster. We came into the inning with a 65.7% Win Probability, and left it at 3.4%,

Outside of the first inning, where he allowed a two-run homer, Haren was okay. He clearly didn't have his best stuff, but those two runs were the only ones he allowed through the front five. However, his final line was an ugly 5.1 innings, 10 hits, three walks and six earned runs. He struggled with his control - it's only his second three-walk game of the season, and his ERA over his past two starts has gone up from 2.62 to 3.00. I hope he doesn't suffer the curse of the long-term contract that has already affected a few other Diamondbacks over the past couple of years: Eric Byrnes and Chad Tracy being the most obvious examples.

The rest of the pitching staff had a night to forget too, allowing five runs over 3.2 innings, though only two of them were earned - after Cruz came Pena, who continued to struggle, with two runs (one earned) coming in his inning of work, Qualls was the only one we sent out there to escape damage to his ERA, with a scoreless ninth. Our defense was pretty wretched too, with four errors in total: two for Cruz and one by Reynolds, both during the sixth, while Romero was also charged with an E, as he chased a ball around the outfield corner, like a dog following a car. Jackson also had an issue, taking a bad route to a fly-ball in left, that ended up being a double, and Drew threw wildly to first trying to complete a double-play, though fortunately, the runner didn't get to advance.

Offensively, it was good to see the team make their way back into the game, but after the sixth, they can hardly be blamed for giving up a little bit. Stephen Drew had a pair of extra-base hits, extending his hitting streak to twelve games. Miguel Montero also had two hits, while Tony Clark - who came into the game as part of a double-switch for Haren - reached twice, on a walk and a hit. However, the final play of the game pretty much summed up the night, as Jackson ran into his own batted ball, going up the first base line, and was out on batter's interference. That ended a wretched night for the Diamondbacks, one which I think everyone who works for or supports the team will want to forget.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain:  Conor Jackson: +11.3%
God-emperor of suck: Dan Haren, -35.5%
Dishonorable mention: Juan Cruz, -17.9%

Not the finest of nights in the Gameday Thread, with - probably understandably - a fair bit of negativity, as we slid out of the playoff spot for the first time since almost the beginning of the season. Still, it's nice to share the pain: thanks to hotclaws, snakecharmer, 4 Corners Fan, ZonaBacks10, Jim McLennan, soco, unnamedDBacksfan, njjohn, AZWILDCATS [who is now forbidden from mentioning the Dodgers - any such comments will be removed], TwinnerA, Muu, AF DBacks Fanatic, srdmad, foulpole, Scrbl, dbacksbj, Zephon and jazzbo13 for taking part in the pain-sharing. Atlanta has now outscored us 28-14 in the first three games, and it's up to Brandon Webb if we are to avoid the series sweep tomorrow.

The scope of Orlando Hudson's injury is still unclear, but it doesn't look good. Speaking after the game, Bob Melvin sounded very gloomy, stating that surgery seems likely, which would basically be likely to take Hudson out of things for the rest of the season. But they are waiting for him to be examined by a hand specialist in the morning, and the decision will likely be made then. However, it seems certain that, at the very least, we'll be seeing Augie Ojeda starting at second - and likely a lot more of Chris Burke...

Finally, as I'm writing this recap, I've also been watching The Eric Byrnes Show, and in this episode, there's footage taken at the North Phoenix Baptist Church card show, where he talks about how much he loves meeting the fans. Hmm. Or not so much. According to this piece about the event, "Autographs are $29 each per item. This will be the only autograph appearance Byrnes will make during the 2008 season." So much for "the opportunity to meet so many people I would otherwise never have met." As long as they have twenty-nine bucks to spare, it would appear... Yeah, I'm grumpy. I'm off to bed, to watch some Olympics. Maybe that'll cheer me up.

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.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
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: 50-50. Pace: 81-81. Change on last season: -2

That was, all told, a damn fine evening. Dinner, followed by two and a half hours exploring the surreal universe which springs from the mind of Eddie Izzard - he spent the first 30 minutes alone riffing on Phoenix and its Wikipedia entry, which he pulled up on his iPhone. The city is, of course, named after the mythical bird which came here, died in flames, and was resurrected - only to discover it was still actually on fire. Anyone who can slide seamlessly from giraffes to the noises made by tennis players inside five minutes is...someone who shares my mental wiring.

And then I come home to find out that the Dodgers lost (Kershaw got slapped about something awful) - and, more importantly, that the D-backs were doing their best Davey Crockett impression, and hunting bear at Chase. I did manage to catch a little bit of the game at dinner, as Yusmeiro Petit got Ramirez to fly out to the warning track, ending the third inning. It looked like the batter thought that one was out of here, as he trotted out of the box casually. Nothing better than seeing the shock on an opposing hitter's face as his home-run trot has to take a sharp right-turn towards his dugout. At that stage, we were only 1-0 up, thanks to Jackson's tenth homer of the year, so this was by no means over.

Jackson also scored our second run in the bottom of third, sliding home from second after a single by Reynolds. The Cubs got a run back in the next frame, after their #8 hitter tripled, but that was the only damage they managed off Petit, despite a few hard-hit balls and four free passes. Still, as far as spot-starts go, on less than 24 hours notice, we'll be more than happy with five innings of one-run ball, on three hits and with four strikeouts. Melvin after the game said that Petit may get another start, with Owings going full-time to the pen, presumably tiding us over until Max Scherzer is ready to return to the rotation. Said Petit, "This year I feel a little more comfortable. It's easier to make adjustments, and so far I've been feeling good about what I've done."

The game stayed close until the bottom of the seventh, when Hudson got his eighth homer of the year, a shot that made it a 5-1 game, after Drew scored on one of three Cubs wild pitches [they were also charged with three errors - so it is not just us!]. While the Cubs pulled one back immediately, Arizona poured it on in the eighth. They sent ten men to the plate on four hits and three walks, with the key blow a two-run double by Clark - after the Cubs had intentionally loaded the bases by giving Drew a free pass, in order to get to Jackson. CoJack continues to be on fire, with three hits and three RBI this evening: Drew, Hudson, Tracy and Reynolds all reached safely twice with a hit and a walk. We had five walks and only four strikeouts, a good ratio

After Petit left the game, he was followed by Rosales, Qualls, Peña and Rauch, with the only tally a solo HR off Peña. Rauch was one of two debuts for the Diamondbacks in tonight's game, and both proved to be successful. Jon Rauch, acquired from the Nationals in exchange for Emilio Bonifacio, pitched a scoreless ninth inning, though by that point, it was no longer a save situation, thanks to the four we scored in the eighth. He struck out the first two batters he faced, and though a single and wild pitch followed, he got Fukudome to ground out, clinching the game. connor Robertson was sent down to Tucson to make room for Rauch in the pen, and the departure of Bonifacio meant Jamie D'Antona made his debut, pinch-hitting for Qualls in the seventh. He promptly singled to left-field, in his first ever major-league at-bat. Here's to many more.

The chance for that might come sooner rather than later, thanks to a scary moment in the eighth, as our hottest hitter this month, Hudson, was hit on the ankle by Hart, dropping O-Dawg like a sack of potatoes. The fortunate thing is, there appears to be no permanent damage, with X-rays proving negative. I wouldn't be surprised to see him sitting out tomorrow, so he'll have a couple of days to rest thanks to the off-day on Thursday. Much discussion at BCB at to whether someone - possibly Micah 'Up & In' Owings, second in the majors for hit batters - will exact retribution tomorrow at some point. Romero was also plunked earlier in the game, though as noted, given the general wildness of the Cubs' pitchers, maybe they just sucked. :-) Sweeping them out of Arizona would, however, be far sweeter than engaging in pseudo-macho nonsense, much as I really want to see Chris Snyder in a brawl some day!

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Yusmeiro Petit, +18.0%
God-Emperor of suck: Miguel Montero, -6.1%

Very busy Gameday Thread(s), with over 900 comments, even with the Chat Room operating [how did that go? I popped in when I came home, but there was just Emily and Phil left at that stage]. Present in the "formal" thread were DbacksSkins, soco, Scrbl, snakecharmer, Zephon, mrssoco, emilylovesthedbacks, TwinnerA, 4 Corners Fan, foulpole, AF DBacks Fanatic, Muu, kishi, hotclaws, DiamondbacksWIn, dahlian, AJforAZ and unnamedDBacksfan.

These have been a pair of very impressive performances, shutting down the most productive offense in the National League to only two runs in eighteen innings - games started by our #4 pitcher and a spot-replacement, to boot. Now, let's go for the jugular tomorrow and finish off the reeling and demoralized Cubs: they swept us at Wrigley earlier in the season, so turnabout will be very fair play.

Record: 27-16. Pace: 102-60. Change on last season: +5

Poor Max Scherzer. For the second time in a row, he gave his team five or more innings, without allowing an earned run, and failed to get the decision. Indeed, this time, he was tagged with the loss, thanks to a pair of unearned runs in the fifth. However, he does bear some responsibility for the loss; there were really three obvious mistakes made by the Diamondbacks during this game, and so, to be honest, we didn't deserve to win.

Firstly, Scherzer walking the opposing pitcher with two outs in that fifth inning. Not just any pitcher, mind: an American League pitcher, whose bats probably had to be labeled "Hold this end." Armando Galarraga had never faced major-league pitching before this game. Indeed, his entire professional batting experience prior to yesterday afternoon, consisted of five plate-appearances at AA-ball, back in 2005. But he didn't even have to swing against Scherzer. Two called strikes and four balls later, he was trotting down to first-base. "I was trying to get after him, trying to get ahead, and I didn’t," said Scherzer.

The inning, which should have been over, rumbled on. Granderson singled, and then mistake #2 happened. An easy ground-ball down the first-base line was booted by Conor Jackson into foul territory, and everyone was safe, with the bases now loaded. Carlos Guillen then proceeded to hit a two-run single into center, the pitcher trotted home with the go-ahead run and Scherzer was on his way to a loss which he didn't particularly deserve. Control, as in his first start, was a problem, as he walked a season-high four in five innings, compared to only three hits.

The Tigers extended their lead to 3-0, on a solo homer off Brandon Medders in the seventh, but Arizona came back. We loaded the bases up with nobody out in the bottom half of that inning, on three straight walks, and a Snyder sacrifice fly and pinch-hit single by Montero made it a 3-2 game. However, Chris Young grounded into a double-play that ended the threat. We got Drew on-base to lead-off the eighth, but then came the third mistake - or, rather, two mistakes, one of management and one of execution.

It appears that Melvin had not learned from his mistake of the previous night, and called upon Orlando Hudson to bunt Drew from first to second. This forces me to repeat myself, once again using the Win Probability calculator to illustrate what effect his decisions and their execution had on the Diamondbacks' chances. The basic position is, bottom of the eighth, no outs, man on first and down by one run:

• Before play = 39.7%
• After successful bunt [man on second, one out] = 35.5%
• After actual, god-awful cock-up by Hudson = 18.6%

Yes, you read that correctly. Even if the sacrifice had been executed impeccably and was successful in moving the base-runner along, it reduced our chances of winning by 4.2%. That's discounting the fact that you take the bat out of the hands of the guy who a) had the highest batting average on the entire team last year, and b) is also red-hot, having at that point gone 8-for-17 since coming back from his injury. The reality was even worse, since the double-play which actually resulted, led to more than 21% being wiped off the odds of victory.

For Orlando did, at least, succeed in making both Melvin and himself look like total idiots. He popped up the bunt-attempt in front of the plate, but didn't bother trying to run it out, instead turning and heading for the dugout. Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez made a brilliant choice, letting the ball drop, then picking it up and firing to second to start the double-play, wiping the bases clear. According to Melvin - Hudson did not appear to provide any quotes, which must rank as a first for O-Dawg - Orlando "just had a little bit of a brain cramp. He obviously thought he was going to catch it." It's far from the first mental error Hudson has made (remember his 'brain cramp' about the infield-fly rule?), and I'm forced to wonder if his mind is, perhaps, on free-agency.

However, if you wanted to point a finger for this defeat, it should generally go to the offense. Three hits, all singles, isn't going to get it done. In this series, the Diamondbacks are batting just .148 [8-for-54], against the pitching staff who have the worst ERA in the entire major-leagues, at 4.99. If it hadn't been for the Tigers' defensive incompetence, we'd be looking down the barrel of a sweep this morning, instead of having a chance to take the series. Mark Reynolds continued his recent slump, going 0-for-3, and is batting below the Uecker line for the past month, at just .191. His power-stroke has also vanished: since his last homer on April 25, he has 65 at-bats and only two extra-base hits.

Despite being the Master of his Domain on Friday, Eric Byrnes was left out of the starting lineup on Saturday, to give his hamstrings a bit of a break. He said, "I had better at-bats, and I was looking forward to building on that. I’m still dealing with a little tightness and soreness. It’s not a large issue. But the No. 1 thing is, we’re in this for the long haul." He did get into the game as a pinch-hitter - and, I note, received a warm reception from the crowd. He walked during the seventh-inning rally, but lined to left with one out in the ninth.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Justin Upton, +11.5%
Honorary mention: Miguel Montero, +11.2%
God-emperor of suck: Chris Snyder, -19.3%
Dis-honorable mention: Orlando Hudson, -17.7%

A bit quieter in the Gameday Thread yesterday. Present were: unnamedDBacksfan, Azreous, dahlian, DbacksSkins, TwinnerA, Turambar, foulpole, Snakebitten, hotclaws, Wimb, kishi, Muu, OnlineHomeopath and srdmad. I saw most of the game down in Gilbert at the Grain Belt restaurant, after the play - I can certainly recommend their steaks. Maybe everyone was at the park, where there was a large crowd: 48,804. That's the most since Opening Day, and the biggest non-Opening Day crowd since the Red Sox came to town last June. Of course, this was likely fueled in part by the fact that a ticket could be obtained in exchange for buying a case of beer at Circle K, but overall, attendance this season is at 28,846 per game. That compares to 24,155 over the first 26 games of last year, so we're about 19.4% ahead of that. if that keeps up, we'll be looking at 2.7-2.8 million on the year.

Was talking to shoewizard yesterday, and he pointed out the incredible plate discipline being shown by our young players, in particular Justin Upton. He has 22 walks, which would put him on pace for 83 over the full season. That would be remarkable in a number of ways: straight-up, it's a number which only Troy Glaus and Luis Gonzalez has ever reached in the history of the franchise, most recently the latter with 84 in 2005. For someone his age, it's even more astonishing: no twenty-year old has had 85 walks since Ted Williams in 1939, and the only other one in baseball history was Mel Ott, back in 1929. Though Upton isn't even leading the team: Chris Young has 24 walks, and is on pace for 90, which hasn't been seen since Gonzo had 94 in 2003.

Record: 25-15. Pace: 101-61. Change on last season: +4

The good news is, yes, The Sets now has wi-fi. The bad news is, my PC never went past "Acquiring network address", so full connectivity proved elusive this evening. Still, I was able to watch some of the game, albeit on a TV with a dodgy cable connection. This was a different one from last week's frozen mosaic device: this one was old-school lines and static. Still, he are are my notes, pretty much written as the game unfolded. I arrived just in time to see Eric Byrnes' first at-bat of the evening, which can only be described as possessing all the hideous fascination of a car-accident. Even when he was 3-0 ahead, you knew it was going to end in another Flying Nun, and after swinging at ball four, that's exactly what happened as he struck out swinging. There were some poignant and painfully appropriate signs in the crowd: the one that sticks in my mind said "Eric: don't hit it here. Just hit it."

De La Rosa had a very nice curveball; makes you wonder if he'll eventually be another one of those pitchers we look back on and regret trading away [a.k.a. the Brad Penny Hall of Fame]. Turns out he passed through our organization not once, but twice: we signed him back in March 1998, then sold him to Monterrey in 2000, before his brief transit as part of both the Schilling and Sexson trades. He struck out Owings and Young with it in the third, despite the sign in the crowd saying "Our lineup has nine hitters. Does yours?" - the more cynical among you are probably muttering that this is being somewhat kind to certain members of said lineup. Interesting to see Snyder trying to drop down a bunt with Reynolds on first. Not many times you'll see the #8 hitter in an NL lineup doing that, with the pitcher on deck. Just another way that the presence of Pwnings changes the dynamics of the game.

Owings was pitching with admirable efficiency - well, from what I can tell anyway. The entire top of the fourth, bar the final fly-ball, happened in the time it took me to write the above paragraph [my laptop is out of sight of the television, so I keep having to scurry across the bar, watch some baseball, and then run back to our table.] We finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth; a Drew double, an infield single by Hudson, and a Jackson single, spectacularly misplayed into a double by Hawpe, which brought the first run home. The Rockies walked Upton to get to Byrnes, who promptly obliged by grounding into a double-play, albeit one that did score another run. He was just trying SO hard, it was...sad and painful and about a dozen other emotions, all in one. The volume was down on the TV - how was the crowd reaction?

Perhaps the biggest hit was Orlando Hudson's two-RBI knock in the bottom of the fifth, that doubled our lead and made the score 4-0. We had men on second and third with one outs, but Drew struck out and it looked as if De La Rosa was going to escape the inning unscathed. However, O-Dawg muscled a bloop into the outfield, and both base-runners advanced. A walk to Jackson ended the Colorado starter's evening with two outs in the fourth, but another free pass, to Upton, meant that Byrnes came up with the bases-loaded again. One headfirst slide later, the inning was over - ironically, just in time for the start of the comedy show, which basically suspended my ability to pay much attention to the game, except sneaking surreptitious glances out of the corner of my eye.

What I did see, in a squinty way, was Colorado gradually pulling closer after Owings left. In contrast to yesterday, while much the same bullpen was in operation, they didn't exactly look lights out - tonight, it was seven hits and three runs in three innings. Each of Qualls, Slaten and Peña were tagged for a run by the Rockies, which meant Lyon was faced with a one-run lead in the ninth. If one pitch can be said to have decided the outcome, it was a 3-1 pitch to Matt Holliday that he thought was ball four: the home-plate umpire disagreed and Holliday grounded out. That proved crucial as Lyon subsequently allowed a pair of two-out singles that put the tying run at third-base. However, he then got Hawpe to pop out to Reynolds, for his fifteenth straight shutout inning, eleventh save and Arizona's 25th victory.

Excellent outing by Owings, who gave us six scoreless innings, on five hits and two walks, with five K's. He got into and out of trouble in the first, loading the bases with one out, but got a crucial strikeout of Atkins and escaped without damage. The Rockies didn't get another runner past second base until the last batter Owings faced, to end the sixth inning. However, Owings did go ohfer, dropping his average down to "only" .370 - he might have been robbed by a call at first, however. Arizona was actually outhit quite significantly by the Rockies, 12-7, but they left the bases littered with wasted opportunities, stranding a dozen men. Drew and Hudson had two hits, the latter also surviving a nasty moment when he stumbled coming out of the batter's box, which led to the grounds crew drying up the area around home-plate.

[Click to enlarge in new window]
Master of his domain: Micah Owings, +31.5%
Honorary mention: Orlando Hudson, +16.0%
God-emperor of suck: Eric Byrnes, -8.8%

Solid turnout in the Gameday Thread - we might even have needed an overflow thread, if I'd been able to get connected. However, thanks to those who did not experience technical difficulties; soco, mrssoco, DbacksSkins, Wimb, unnamedDBacksfan, 4 Corners Fan, kishi (happy birthday!), foulpole, snakecharmer, hotclaws, TwinnerA, isoldout, dstorm, frienetic, dahlian, UptonMVP, batster, srdmad, seton hall snake pit, Zephon and singaporedbacksfan. With tomorrow night's marquee pitching match-up, however, I will be clearing the decks and should be in full effect.

Finally, here's one of those player comparison things:
Left-fielder A: .214/.275/.357     
Left-fielder B: .276/.343/.429
I think we all know who Player A is, so let's move on, shall we? Player B, however, might surprise you: Luis Gonzalez, in a less-than-full time role for the surprising (and NL East leading) Florida Marlins. Over on Major-League Jerk, Hef speculates on how Gonzo's career might have played out, had he decided to stay here. It's an interesting domino-esque effect, had Gonzo stayed as the fourth outfielder in 2006, backing up Quentin, Young and Byrnes. Who can say?

Record: 21-11. Pace: 106-56. Change on last season: +5

For the first ever, I am writing the game recap while it's still taking place. This was pretty much an abomination on a whole number of levels. We came into it with such high expectations, but the reality check came hard and fast, as first-round pick Max Scherzer was cruelly exposed. By the end of three innings, Scherzer had allowed seven hits, a walk, a hit batter and thrown a wild pitch as, with the aid of some more sloppy defense, Arizona had dug themselves a 5-1 hole - one from which they never looked remotely like escaping. Instead, this turned into amomg the biggest drubbings of the season to date. Not quite what we were hoping for, then...

After his debut, certain posters disagreed with me (using various degrees of sarcasm)  for questioning whether Scherzer was quite ready, mentally, to face major-league hitting. It gives me no pleasure to say, "I told you so." He has a nice fastball, to be sure, touching 98 mph, but that isn't enough to get you past a lineup of major-league hitters who have a scouting report, particularly when you can't throw anything else for a strike. They just sit, wait for the fastball, and dispatch it as appropriate. In contrast, Jamie Moyer was nowhere near Scherzer's raw stuff - if he threw anything that touched 90 mph, I must have missed it - but hit his spots, mixed things up, and kept our batters off-balance for seven flummoxing innings. The difference was, Moyer pitched, while Scherzer just threw. 

A few words on our defense: hang on, let me just look up "inadequate" in my thesaurus. Drew made his fourth error, Reynolds his seventh - the latter is now on pace to make 35 this season. Now, I'm the first to say that errors are not a great measure by which to judge...well, anything much, but I think it can hardly be argued that he's been done a dis-service. Another four unearned runs were coughed up by the defense today, giving us 25 on the year to date, tied for the most in the majors. Someone who looked extremely uncomfortable out there today was Orlando Hudson. Despite claims to the contrary, he was very clearly not back to full health; his appearance yesterday was not misleading there. As Mark Grace said, would we rather have Augie Ojeda out there at 100%, or Orlando Hudson at 50%?

Because "50%" is an adequate description of O-Dawg's pace down the first-base line as he grounded into a double-play in the sixth. We'd got the first two on, after singles by Young and - hey! - Byrnes [it's a sad day when the most well-paid player on your roster going 1-for-4 is a pleasant surprise...], and with the score only 5-1 at that point, we had a chance to come back into the game. However, Hudson killed the rally, with extreme prejudice, and the Phillies poured on another four runs in the next half-inning.

Scherzer did get through the fourth without further issue, but had to be lifted, having reached his pitch count - he finished on 92. Ironically, it was Edgar Gonzalez who took over in long-relief, reversing the roles which the two played last week. EdGon posted zeros for two innings, but then gave up the aforementioned four-spot in the seventh, mostly because an ill-advised dive by Upton missed the ball entirely, turning it into a bases-clearing triple. What little was left of our Win Probability at that stage - and it was already down to 5.7% - made its excuses and bolted off to beat the traffic, as that made the score 9-1 to Philadelphia. Slaten and Medders completed the mop-up duty necessary.

We made the score fractionally more respectable by scoring two runs in the ninth, and somehow managed to get eleven hits. On the other hand, we went without a single walk, for the first time in 67 consecutive games (including the post-season), going back to August 29th last year. Young, Upton and Drew had two hits each, and Snyder swatted his second homer of the year. Our catcher is quietly getting back into the groove we expected: after hitting a startling .083 through the first ten games, Snyder put together a line of .326/.421/.587 before tonight's bomb, and has reached base safely, with a hit or a walk, in seventeen consecutive starts. [In three games, he came in as a late-inning replacement] It may be time to think about moving him back up the order, especially considering the struggles of some of our other hitters.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Stephen Drew, +11.0% [shurely shome mishtake?]
God-emperor of suck: Max Scherzer, -31.4%

Don't look now, but the Dodgers hammered the Mets and are only three games behind us. Somehow, we still have the best win percentage in the major-leagues, but can anyone honestly say it feels like that right now? Certainly, many more nights which combine bad starts, poor hitting and defensive mis-handling, and we won't even have the best record in the division... Fascinating thread over at DBBP, where Levski discusses the team problems., that I commend to all interested parties. It's not time to panic yet, but if Hudson, Byrnes and Owings continue to be run out there hurt, then the comfy cushion which we built up in April may soon be replaced, by the cold, hard plastic found in a doctor's waiting-room...

I'll confess, I bailed out of this one early, and wouldn't blame anyone else who did so too. We ended a little short of 500 on the night: thanks to foulpole, dahlian, soco, snakecharmer, RAMJB, hotclaws, DbacksSkins, 4 Corners Fan, Turambar, unnamedDBacksfan, pvlas [welcome], LucaMaz3, TwinnerA, Muu, kishi, srdmad, Azreous, mrssoco, TexSkins and likeavirgin [I'm confused...but welcome!]. soco gets the award for Commentor of the Game, with more posts than anyone else [thanks to 'charmer's roll-call script, I can now see these things!], but picked up the evening's only recommendation for his stalwart defense of the beautiful game. :-)

And off to bed. Here's to better things tomorrow, though with a Randy Johnson start, I think I can hear the bullpen wheezing...

Record: 20-9. Pace: 112-50. Change on last season: +4

It certainly looks like the shine has gone off the start of the season for our offense. Over the past ten games, they have a collective line of .238/.311/.394. While they're still averaging an acceptable number of runs [4.7], they have an ugly K:BB ratio of almost 3:1 [94:32]. Of particular concern over this time are:
   Mark Reynolds: 4-for-36, 3 BB, 21 K
   Eric Byrnes: 5-for-32, 1 BB, 6 K
   Stephen Drew: 6-for-32, 4 BB. 4 K
I know that Reynolds was incredibly streaky last year, but he was one K away from having ten consecutive games with multiple strikeouts. The seven in a row he did manage, was a franchise record, and hasn't been surpassed in the majors since Cory Snyder's eight, from Sep. 27-Oct 5, 1986. Ten would have been the longest since Baseball-Reference.com records began, in 1956.

Last night was a poor performance on just about every level - when our hitting, pitching fielding and managing all sucked, to one degree or another, it seems almost petty to start pointing out specifics. Still, that's what I'm here for. :-( To go through these in reverse order, first off, I'm with dahlian on this one: it was questionable to run Owings out there at all. He could have been given extra days off without having to pitch anyone on short rest; he was visibly limping when running the bases on Wednesday. Using Webb tonight and Haren tomorrow would also have given us the pitching edge in two of the three games. 

Owings said afterwards: "I wasn't too sharp. I didn't go into the game feeling 100 percent, but I had to keep battling. You could tell I definitely didn't have all my stuff tonight out of the chute." Unfortunately, Melvin apparently couldn't - running Owings out there for the sixth inning was a particularly poor decision. I know our manager wanted to get him one more AB [he was up third in the bottom of the sixth], but after five, Owings' line was 9 H, 3 BB, 2 K, 5 ER. We should have been grateful still to be in the game, and turned things over to the bullpen at that point - if necessary, making a double switch to get a couple of innings out of Medders [who was instead used for six pitches to get one out] or Cruz [nine pitches]. But Owings instead allowed two more runs on a long-ball, effectively ending the game as a contest.

Defense. I must confess, after Hudson's howling blunder in the opening inning, letting what should have been a double-play ball through to the outfield, my first thought - when I'd calmed down - was, "What will foulpole say?" The answer is, apparently, very little [I do not see a Fanpost this morning, yelling "Headline News! O-Dawg sucks!", as Hairston received]. In Orlando's defense, the ball did apparently tip fractionally off Owings' glove, but it was hardly a missile: how it wasn't scored an error on someone, I have no idea. if we'd turned that, it would have been only a one-run lead for the Mets. Instead, by the time we finally escaped, they were 3-0 up, and we would never get nearer than those additional two runs. That wasn't the only miscue; it was, however, easily the most obvious and costly.

Hitting. We had our moments when we could have come back into the game. We had the tying run at the plate in the first, on-base in the second with only one man out, and at the plate, again with one out, in the fifth. We went 0-for-5 there, which coincidentally is Eric Byrnes line for the night. I don't know if his hamstrings are still bothering him, but he looked pretty bad, right from the first offering he saw, which he popped up to the second baseman. Five at-bats; fourteen pitches in total. That's only two more than Owings saw in a single plate-appearance. Reynolds went 0-for-4 with two K's, and we only managed one walk outside of the pitcher's spot. Though it has to be said, we did have a number of hard-hit balls that seemed to find Mets leather.

Pitching. This has largely been covered above; Owings refused to blame the ankle, saying, "Never going to point a finger. I decided I was going to go tonight, that's what we decided and it felt pretty good." He seemed to be missing his spots, however; according to Montero, "The beginning of the game, he was dragging his arm a little bit. In the beginning of the game, he was trying to do too much." That's back-to-back poor outing for Owings, who has now allowed 12 earned runs in the last 10.2 innings, on sixteen hits, six walks and three homers. On the plus side, the bullpen were again solid, mostly the B-corps giving us 3.1 scoreless innings. That takes our relievers' collective ERA down to 2.49 this year.

Orlando Hudson had to come out of the game after his double in the fifth, with what the report calls "a strained right hamstring," though his opinion on it somewhat less severe. "It's just tightness. It's not the first time I've been through it. I went through it a couple of times in Toronto, but you know, I've got the best strength coach and the best trainer, so it's going to be good. Probably, I'll be off, and hopefully back at it Sunday." Hope that's the case - he's one of the D-backs who has been hitting of late [113-for-39 in those last ten games] and given that, we can ill afford to be without him for any extended period.

Game Notes

• Sorry for the lack of pictures again. I think Mrs. SnakePit hates visual evidence, having erased the photos from the Dodgers game, and left the camera at the office last night.
• Micah Owings' at-bats were things of wonder. I've criticized his aggressiveness before, but this time he saw nineteen pitches and walked both times, including a fabulous twelve-pitch battle the second time. The last time any pitcher came up twice and got two walks was back in 2004, when Tom Glavine did it. Owings' OBP is now exactly .500.
  
• Compare and contrast Jackson running through the cycle in a blowout, giving a teammate an RBI opportunity, to Jose Reyes selfishly trying to get home in the ninth for an inside-the-parker to complete his cycle, and being easily thrown out. I know who is the better team player.
  
• I don't think we'll be eating the burros from Garcias again. Ick.
• Lot of Mets fans in attendance, or maybe it's just that the AZ fans were shut down by that horrible first inning.  They fall into two categories ["Welcome to Sweeping Generalizations with your host, Jim McLennan..."]: the loud and noxious, who appear to be rehearsing for walk-on parts in The Sopranos, and the almost-invisible, only detectable by the Mets caps.
• For 'Skins, Eric's entrance music is The Outfield's Your Love. You can listen to it here. Or not. But I promise, it isn't Rick Astley.
  
• Mrs. SnakePit was very amused by the "Car!" thing, once it was explained to her. That scratching sound you hear is dahlian crossing her off his Christmas card list... ;-)
• Yes, Amare Stoudemire was in the house, and got a warm reception from those who recognized him. Which initially excluded us - hey, he's just a large dude in a Suns jersey. But isn't there something odd about a sports superstar going round town wearing a shirt with his own name on it? D'you think Brandon Webb goes to Fry's with his #17 on?
• Enjoyed the fireworks afterwards; they seemed to have more variety. Ended with Beethoven's Ode to Joy, so that sharpened us up and made us ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence. Well, a Tivo'd ep of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles, when we came home.
  

 
[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Chris Young, +6.5%
God-emperor of suck: Micah Owings, -34.1%
Dishonorable mention: Mark Reynolds, -13.7%

Looks like I needn't have been worried about the need for an overflow thread, as we barely crawled past 400. Difficult to sustain much enthusiasm for the game...even when you were at it. Here, courtesy of 'charmer's awesome automated roll-call script, are the attendees: seton hall snake pit, soco, unnamedDBacksfan, kishi, Smoltz's Beard, Azreous, DbacksSkins, Muu, foulpole, hotclaws, DiamondbacksWIn, Turambar, singaporedbacksfan, dahlian, Elway4Prez, Wactivist, TwinnerA, dstorm, 4 Corners Fan, srdmad and snakecharmer. And with that, I'd better get this up, since first-pitch in today's afternoon game is barely an hour away now. So, expect that to follow very shortly...

Record: 13-4. Pace: 124-38. Change on last season: +3.

Today's game perhaps illustrated the greatest difference between this team and previous versions of the Diamondbacks. Last year, if the team was behind 3-1, and their only hit in the first five innings had been by their pitcher, it would probably have been time to plan for tomorrow. [In 2007, we were 10-50 when trailing after five innings] However, watching today's game, I felt little or no sense of despondency, more a calm certainty that our offense would come around. And lo, we scored a run in the sixth, added two more in the seventh to take the lead, and then blew it open by once again putting up a six-spot, Conor Jackson making both the first and the last out of the eighth inning.

I don't know if the Padres bullpen were still suffering a hangover from their 14 innings of work on Thursday. But Thatcher and Cameron, who'd thrown 24 and 27 pitches respectively in that marathon, proved pleasantly ineffective, combining for 1.2 innings, six hits, four walks and eight runs - though five were unearned, thanks to a complete miss of a grounder by Khalil Greene [I'm pretty sure the Gameday Thread resounded to the rafters after that one, though I have yet to check]. Thanks to the wildness [seven walks in total], we scored ten runs on only nine hits: Upton had a pair, though Byrnes reached safely twice on two walks and a hit.

Credit also to Jackson, who singled, then stole second and came home to score the tying run in the sixth on a single by Reynolds [Special K was thrown out on an ill-advised attempt to reach second, though the camera missed it entirely - all we got to see was Reynolds rolling in the infield dirt about ten feet past the base. Not quite sure what happened there] I know stealing off Josh Bard is like robbing the blind little match-girl, but he did so with such ease, I wouldn't be surprised to see him doing more. He seemed to enjoy showing off the new-found wheels: Jackson already has more triples this season (three) than in his 310 prior career games.

On the other hand, what was up with Orlando Hudson? I think someone needs to buy him a copy of the Official Rules. Last week, he tries to advance on an infield fly, then this afternoon, after our first two hitters get on, he tries to bunt them along, but gets called out for batter's interference, because his back foot was very obviously not in the box. Even if he'd done it right, it seems a strange decision - after the pitcher has walked the first two hitters, I'd be inclined to take a couple of pitches, and not give him an easy out, especially with the nuclear offense we are running out there these days. Did he do that on his own? Inquiring minds want to know: he has been scuffling lately, just 5-for-27 in the last seven games.

Solid enough outing by Edgar Gonzalez, who went six innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits and four walks - he battled control problems, but the only damage came on a pair of long balls. Some discussion in the thread about how what we should expect from EdGon. While I share Foulpole and Phil's concern about his HR rate, Jeff Sackmann took a look at this over at The Hardball Times, and found that the ERA of the average #5 pitcher in 2006 was a meaty 6.24. In his 32 starts, Gonzalez's ERA is now 5.69 - and that's pitching in a distinctly hitter-friendly home-park. I don't think even Edgar's mother would describe him as a potential Cy Young winner, but as a back of the rotation fill-in until Doug Davis returns, he's a lot better than most teams have available. [In another piece, Sackmann also found most teams use between ten and twelve starters per season, suggesting that depth is an important aspect of any rotation]

Elsewhere on the pitching side, is anyone else a little concerned about Juan Cruz? Sure, his ERA is a very nice 2.35, with only four hits in 7.2 innings. But after today, he has now walked eight hitters already - tied for most on the club, even including all the starters. Last season, he'd only walked eight hitters on June 7, though did have some time on the DL. His raw "stuff' seems as good as ever; I think I saw him hit 99 mph on the radar gun this afternoon. But a lot of the pitches that were missing the mark were not anywhere close to the plate. No damage today though; still, something to keep an eye on. Chad Qualls extended his scoreless streak with another zero, and Brandon Lyon, having warmed up, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth in what was a non-save situation, thanks to our six runs in the bottom of the eighth.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Chris Young, +23.4%
Honorary mention: Stephen Drew, +22.2%
God-emperor of suck: Orlando Hudson, +12.8%

I got to watch this one at my sister-in-law's, while enjoying some extremely tender ribs [not normally a fan; much like wings, they're often more trouble than they're worth, but these just fell off the bone], tiramisu and Stella Artois. The latter may have been partly responsible for my complete failure to understand Joe Garagiola Sr. when he started trying to burble about BABIP and what it meant. I love Joe, and think it's great he's trying to understand the new baseball math - even if the result is like watching your grandfather attempt to program the iPod he was given as an ill-advised Christmas present. However...a little more edumification on the basics, before attempting to discuss it on television, would help avoid him sound like the infamous "the Internet is a series of tubes" politician.

Anyway, present in the Gameday Thread here were: paqs, Captain D Bag, peachy rex, kishi, foulpole, DbacksSkins, soco, Philip from LA, seton hall snake pit, Snakebitten [welcome!], azshadowwalker, dahlian, Wimb, 4 Corners Fan, hotclaws [loved the macro!], Craig from Az, njjohn, singaporedbacksfan, Songbird and oklahomasooners. Though Skins appeared to spend more time over at GLB, posting pics of co-eds, in an apparently successful attempt to thaw relations with them. Perhaps this is something the State Department should look into: "Hey, Al Qaeda! Drop the jihad stuff and we'll give you all lifetime subscriptions to Maxim." It's insane, but...it...just...might...work...

Anyway, another series win in the back, and we continue to roll, with our fourth win in a row. The Rockies have matched us there, but the Padres (5.5 back) and Dodgers (six behind) are already beginning to find themselves looking up at a sizable gap. We've now scored exactly double the runs of our opponents in the 17 games so far, 112-56 - no other team in the majors has even reached three figures for runs. Long may that continue. And, finally, some good news on the Doug Davis front:

Nine days after undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer, Arizona LHP Doug Davis threw from 120 feet on Saturday afternoon. "I felt real good out there throwing the ball," Davis said. "I don’t feel any different right now than I did before surgery. A little sore in the neck area." Davis has targeted May 9 at the Chicago Cubs for his return to the rotation.

Get well soon, Doug, needless to say.

Record: 7-2. Pace: 126-36. Change on last season: 0

The Arizona Diamondbacks: inhabiting Joe Torre's nightmares since 2001. He may have moved from one coast to the other, but he can't escape the torment caused by the Diamondbacks. We completed the sweep over the Dodgers, racking up our sixth win in a row - and, in sharp contrast to the offensive blowouts of the first two games, this was an old-school nailbiter, where there was never more than one run separating the two teams from the first pitch to the last. Kept homerless for the first time all year, this was much more like the 2007 version of the team, scratching out hits and grinding out a one-run win, as they did 32 times last year.

Micah Owings was just good enough: three runs on seven hits and a walk, but the key was that he pitched seven innings, thereby giving the besieged bullpen a much-needed breather. "There were times when he might not have the command that he did in Colorado, but boy, to give seven innings there when our bullpen was not full up down there, those guys know it," said Melvin after the game. Owings also made an opening statement, plunking Rafael Furcal to lead off the first inning - I have to think that was retaliation for the hit-fest inflicted on Arizona the night before.

Not that it stopped the Dodgers, with Conor Jackson forced to leave the game in the top of the sixth with a bruised left hand after being hit again, this time by Kuroda - CoJack's third HBP in two games. Fortunately, X-rays proved negative, and hopefully he'll be back in the lineup for the weekend series against the Rockies, after tomorrow's off-day. Chris Burke came in as a replacement, and went 1-for-2, though could be the recipient of some blame for Furcal's double down the line, on the first batter after he entered the game. Still, you take your impromptu corner infielders where you can get them, I suppose.

This was back and forth all game. The Dodgers took the lead in the second on a double by Pierre. The Diamondbacks returned, taking advantage of an error by Loney to score twice, on a groundout by Mark Reynolds and a Justin Upton single, in the fourth. The Dodgers tied it up again in the fifth, and a Loney homer made it 3-2 to them in the sixth. However, a crafty bunt single from Augie Ojeda, a more normal hit by Robby Hammock and a very-disciplined base on balls worked by Micah Owings, loaded the bases with one out. However, to much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, our newest multi-millionaire popped out [Young is 1-for-11 with 6 K's since signing the contract!].

But Eric Byrnes delivered his most important contribution of the season so far, with a two-run single that gave us the lead, this time for good. Byrnes enjoyed his first three-hit game since September 11, and was joined there by Augie Ojeda. The Littlest Ballplayer was making his first start of the year, playing shortstop in place of Drew [sitting this one out due to a sore right quad] and got his first three-hit game since August 28. Er, that's August 2004. Upton added two, his fourth multi-hit contest of the season, while Hammock, starting in place of Snyder after last night's lengthy contest, reached base twice on a hit and a walk.

After Owings completed the seventh inning, it was over to what was left of the bullpen. I can imagine them all looking nervously at each other when the phone rang, and going "Well, it's clearly not for me..." Juan Cruz was the lucky recipient of another outing and got around a one-out walk with the aid of a double-play. Then it was Lyon time, and though he gave up a deep fly to the first batter he faced, got the next man to ground out and then finished with a flourish, sending Andruw Jones down swinging, to notch his second save and seal the season sweep. Despite some qualms, the bullpen has been getting it done, posting a 2.36 ERA thus far, with seven earned runs in 26.2 innings.

Master of his domain: Eric Byrnes, +27.3%
Honorary mention: Brandon Lyon, +16.8%
God-Emperor of suck: Chris Young, -12.6%

Props over the past 24 hours to Azreous, for writing a kickass report after Tuesday's game - I'm hoping to get him doing regular recaps - and for watching over things in today's Gameday Thread, starting an overspill when the molasses crept in to the first one, around the 500 post mark.  We have a double-dose of 'Charmer roll-call goodness, starting with yesterday, where present in the comments w peachy rex, AZDarkKnight, dstorm, soco, foulpole, 4 Corners Fan, snakecharmer, Azreous, DbacksSkins, singaporedbacksfan, Wimb, TwinnerA, Turambar, jsk6788, kishi, hotclaws, Captain D Bag, DisplacedAZfan, Mr. Philosophical, Frank Squishy, peeklay, DiamondbacksWIn, seton hall snake pit, oklahomasooners and calltyriu.

Today was even more of a monster: 935 comments in total, which is not just a regular season best, it surpasses the all-time record of 932 in Game 2 of the NLDS last October. And this was for a weekday afternoon game, without much contribution from me. I think four figures is definitely within reach. jsk6788, 4 Corners Fan, hotclaws, AZDarkKnight, DbacksSkins, snakecharmer, soco, dstorm, seton hall snake pit, foulpole, jweech, TwinnerA, smartsnake [welcome!], Azreous, bcloirao, AZSEAfan, kishi, Craig from Az, Wimb, leemellon, batster, Captain D Bag, frienetic, Huxtable Reunion, TuLoRocks2008 [welcome, though you might get comments about your username!] and peachy rex were present this afternoon.

Another sweep against a divisional rival, and I find myself in the unusual position of cheering for the Giants, as they're battling the Padres to a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the eighth at the moment. Be nice if they came out on top, as that'd give us a 2.5 game cushion on top of the the division, as we welcome Colorado into the Shire, ready to administer some further strict discipline to those naughty Orckies. Actually, the imagery that sentence conjures up in my mind, is probably something I could have done without.

Randy Johnson made his second - and probably final - rehab start down in Tucson. This one seemed to go a good deal better than his first, as the Big Unit struck out seven in six innings, allowing three hits and a walk and throwing a total of 85 pitches. According to Nick Piecoro, "Working off a fastball that sat in the 89-92 mph range, Johnson also was effective with a slider, splitter and change-up," and all being well, should be ready to slot into fellow left-hander Doug Davis's spot in the rotation, when it comes up next on Monday, in San Franciso. Worth repeating at some length Randy's comments after the game:

It's a lot easier to say, 'You know what? I can pitch a major-league start and feel comfortable because I had a game like today. I'll wait and see what they (coaches) say. But I do feel a lot more positive about this start... I was pitching ahead in the count, and that makes all the difference. All three (off-speed) pitches were working. I was pitching both sides of the plate. Now, if you take those pitches and equate them to what would happen if a major-league batter is up? I don't know. But I would take my chances, because I was pitching where I want to pitch.

With the signing of Young, that appears to end the contract discussions for the foreseeable future. The question of Hudson remains lurking on the horizon, and the Tribune thinks O-Dawg is not going be cheap: "Hudson, a three-time Gold Glove winner who will become a free agent after this season, is said to be seeking a yearly salary similar to the $15 million Philadelphia’s Chase Utley will receive." Regrettably, I think this means that we will be playing Where in the World is Orlando Hudson? this off-season. I just do not see the Diamondbacks being prepared to commit to a long-term deal at those rates, especially as he turns 31 before the end of the year. 

Finally, an interesting tidbit at Fangraphs.com who point out that Mark Reynolds has "cut down on swinging at pitches outside the strike zone by 6%." Whatever he's doing, it's clearly having the right effect. And, hooray, the Giants prevailed over the Padres, 1-0, with a ninth-inning run. Surprisingly, Trevor Hoffman was not involved in that loss. But it leaves us with the hoped-for comfortable lead, and a very satisfactory off-day tomorrow. Lolback and random stuff to follow, no doubt.