Record: 64-59. Pace: 84-78. Change on last season: -6

The Diamondbacks pounded the Astros once again, using two grand slams, by Chris Young and Miguel Montero to cruise to another easy victory. It's the first time the team have scored 10+ runs in back-to-back road games for over eight years: the last time, coincidentally, was also in Houston, back in July 2000, when they won 10-4 and 12-9.

Tonight's game opened in much the same way as yesterday's, with our starting pitcher once again getting to bat before he took the mound. However, Petit was the beneficiary of even more run support, as the Diamondbacks scored five runs in the first - they've now out-scored the opposition 86-58 over the opening frame [it's not quite their best inning: in the fifth, the split is 89-51 in our favor. The ninth is our Achilles' heel; there, we've been outscored 56-30]. And, once again, Arizona were helped by wildness from the opposing starter: Backe walked three of the nine batters he faced, two of them coming round to score.

The big blow was courtesy of Miguel Montero, who came up with the bases loaded and two men out, and Arizona already one run ahead, thanks to an RBI single from Dunn. After working the count to 3-1, our catcher hit his second home-run of the year to right-field, for the first grand-slam of his career. It was also only the second of the year for the Diamondbacks, the other being by Eric Byrnes [remember him?] in Atlanta on May 25. Despite having one long-ball in his first 132 at-bats, Montero's second and third came in consecutive plate-appearances - he followed his salami with a smaller slice of power, scoring our next run with another homer, this time a solo shot: in the fourth.

Arizona continued to pull away, as Reynolds made the score 7-1, with his 82nd RBI of the season. Any faint chance the Astros had of coming back, was then removed when Chris Young came up with the bases loaded in the sixth - I note that Young was batting #2 against a right-handed starter... Montero had just missed going yard for the third time, settling for a double. CY promptly unloaded the bags, taking advantage of the short porch in left for his seventeenth homer of the year, and giving Arizona the first two slam game in franchise history. We're also the first National League team to double-dip our bats in El Salsa Grande, since the New York Mets on July 16, 2006 [they did it twice in the same inning, part of an eleven-run sixth!]

The team pounded out twelve hits - as noted previously, we've reached double figures there in every game since the arrival of our new slugger, and we added eight walks too. Dunn himself led the way, getting on base five times in five plate-appearances, with two hits and three walks. He may not be as flashy as Manny - we're still awaiting his first homer in an Arizona uniform - but we will happily settle for an on-base percentage of .520, based on Dunn going 6-for-18 with seven walks thus far. Montero and Young had three hits apiece, while Chris Burke continued his renaissance, extending his hitting streak to a season-high four games, along with two walks. The only downside was the end of Stephen Drew's streak at seventeen games, though even he walked twice.

Meanwhile, Yusmeiro Petit was outperforming most expectations, restricting Houston to two runs in seven innings on four hits and a walk, with five strikeouts. Some discussion on the Gameday Thread as to whether he may end up in the rotation next season, Certainly, his five starts this season have generally been very solid and effective outings - here's his combined line to date:
    Petit: 28 IP, 18 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 6 BB, 19 K, 2.89 ERA
While the usual small sample-size warnings apply, he's doing a better job of keeping the ball in the park [three homers] and simply allowing fewer base-runners. At the very worst, it seems he'll be a good sixth starter to have tucked away, either in the bullpen or down in Tucson next season.

The Astros did restore some respectability to the score late on in the game. They got their second run off Petit in the seventh, and Tony Pena then pitched a scoreless eighth. However, Leo Rosales allowed three hits to the first three batters he faced, and all of them came round to score, making the final score 11-5. Still, having outscored the Astros 23-7 over the first two games of the series, we have to feel very, very good about the way the offense has been hitting of late. Now, if the Damn Dodgers would stop winning for a bit, that'd be helpful. :-)

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Master of his domain: Miguel Montero, +29.5%
Honorable mention: Yusmeiro Petit, +11.6%
God-emperor of suck: Chad Tracy, -7.1%

In the time since the last sentence, JJ Hardy has uncorked a two-run homer, to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead in Los Angeles. However, we've seen the Dodgers come back late before, so I'm not counting this one until it's over.  Over 800 comments in the Gameday Threads tonight; another fun time, with conversation that occasionally sailed off-topic [sodas? Sir David Attenborough? Marathon runners' belly-buttons?], yet was no less entertaining for it. Present were ZonaBacks10, DbacksSkins, soco, emilylovesthedbacks, Muu, 4 Corners Fan, unnamedDBacksfan, njjohn [who gets credit for the 'SuperMon' label], DiamondbacksWIn, Zephon, foulpole, TwinnerA, hotclaws, Wimb, kishi, Turambar, Scrbl, AZWILDCATS, Azreous and BleedingSedonaRed.

So, just hanging round now, waiting for the Dodgers game to finish. Oh, if you want to hear my dulcet tones, I was interviewed on Baseball Digest Daily Live today. You can check it out, through their website - I'm on the most recent show, dated August 16th: I enjoyed the experience - it was nice to rant to someone who hadn't heard me complain about the Quentin trade for the past four months. And, with that, the Dodgers have tied it up in the ninth, and the game is going into extras. No idea how long that might go on, so I'll post this now. 11am first pitch tomorrow, with Johnson facing Oswalt as we go for the sweep.

Record: 61-59. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season: -6.

The time has come for everyone in the Diamondbacks organization to admit that Chris Young is not a #2 hitter. Whatever his talents may be - and I love his defense, his speed, and his power - it's clear that the top of the order is not the best place for them. This was driven home, painfully, in the ninth inning of tonight's game where we had managed to claw our way back into the game, despite coming in with a two-run deficit. Ojeda walked, Burke singled - I repeat that, Chris Burke had a meaningful hit - and Drew singled, and advanced on the throw, to put the tying run at third with only one out.

So we didn't even need a hit from Young, a deep fly ball would have been fine. But, instead, he struck out on a high fastball for the second out. Things were thrown at the TV here in SnakePit Towers; the dogs thought they were being thrown at them, as usual [I think they believe their names to be Getoffthesofaorelse and Stopdrinkingfromthedamntoilet]. And though Dunn came up with the bases loaded and worked the count full, his ground-ball proved insufficient to salvage the game. The NL average on-base percentage in the #2 hole this year is .329; the worst is Pittsburgh at .302. That's still better than Young's career OBP, which is .298 - and batting second, it drops to an even worse .265. It's not really Chris's fault, just another example of lineup construction that seems to defy logic in a variety of ways.

It was a particularly irritating loss, the team having come back from three runs down, in a game which looked to be entirely lost at various points earlier on. In particular, the bottom of the sixth, where Doug Slaten made his first appearance back off the DL, with the score 4-2 to Colorado. He continued where he left off, allowing two hits to put men on first and third with no-one out - Rockies WP at that point, 91.4%. However, a nicely-executed double-play, with our infield looking the runner back to third before beginning the turn, helped dodge a bullet there, and Arizona leveled things up in the seventh on an RBI groundout by Clark, and a single by Young - who was thrown out trying to reach second. Yes, even when he gets on-base, he makes an out...

Still, tied game now. Unfortunately, it didn't stay that way for long, as our bullpen picked up their nineteenth loss of the season - matching their total from all of last year, with more than a quarter of the schedule left to play. Their record last season was 30-19 - this year, it's 10-19, which basically tells you about all you need to know. Jon Rauch was the victim tonight, with a lead-off double in the eighth, that was about a foot from being a homer, a sacrifice bunt [nice to know Melvin isn't alone in his insanity], and then a two-run bomb. Mobs with torches and pitchforks will be following him tonight. Mind you, since he's a heavily-tattooed 6'11", he's probably used to that... :-)

I didn't see much of the early part of the game, when Davis was pitching, but it certainly didn't sound like he was pitching very well. The umpire seemed to have a tight, but consistent zone; Davis was missing his spots, perhaps because in the thin mountain air, his breaking pitches weren't moving as much as usual. He lasted only five innings, giving up four runs on six hits and two walks - one of the runs was unearned, thanks to an error by Drew. Of the relief corps, Slaten and Rauch have already been addressed: Peña had a 1-2-3 seventh, which was good to see, though was undeniably helped by Taveras grounding out on what was obviously ball four.

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Master of his domain: Stephen Drew, +19.1%
Honorable mention: Mark Reynolds, +13.3%
God-emperor of suck: Adam Dunn, -34.3%
Dishonorable mentions: Rauch, -31.2%; Davis, -19.0%

A relatively short roll-call tonight, but good to see rookie ZonaBacks10 step up, with a three-figure number of comments. Also present were: Azreous, kishi, DbacksSkins, foulpole, J Up, TwinnerA, LucaMaz3, 4 Corners Fan, srdmad, Muu, Scrbl, seanprh, snakecharmer, emilylovesthedbacks and singaporedbacksfan. I was not present: we went out for a curry, then sorted through films for the Phoenix Fear Film Festival in order to get a final list, while watching the game. I couldn't even bring myself to look at the Gameday Thread for a while afterwards: it was just too depressing, especially as the Dodgers came back from 6-1 down against the Phillies, to win on a walk-off homer from Garciaparra. However, when I did, I found some rather disturbing comments: appropriate action has been taken, and I trust there will not be a re-occurrence. An apology from those responsible would be nice.

So, the second defeat in eleven games versus Colorado means that we're back to being tied for first again. Tomorrow is a day game, with Dan Haren going for us: I hope we get the solid pitcher we say in June and July, as the August version has been slightly less reliable. A win would give us the series and also clinch the season bet vs. Purple Row. So, for a whole variety of reasons: bring victory on.

Record: 59-54. Pace: 85-77. Change on last season: -4

It's nice to find myself writing a recap for a game at Chase before 9pm. For Brandon Webb - not for the first time this year - apparently had an appointment elsewhere, buzz-sawing his way through opposing hitters with alacrity. As well as a sinker. Had he not run into a spot of bother in the ninth, this would likely have surpassed his earlier shutout in Phoenix, when he took 1:52 to defeat the Nationals. Tonight, he took three minutes longer, and the shutout was gone during that nervous ninth, where Pittsburgh got hits from their first three batters, and had the tying run in scoring position with one out. However, Webb reached deep, and struck out the next two with beautiful change-ups, to give us victory.

That was the first time the Pirates had got anyone past first base all night. Webb scattered a total of nine hits, but only one - Sanchez's double, leading off the ninth - was for extra bases, and he benefited from three twin killings, which helped keep his pitch-count down. He relied almost exclusively on his sinker, with very few curves and, until he needed it for those last two batters, rarely even the change-up. The result was no fewer than 21 groundball outs for Webb, with only two in the air, and four strikeouts - for the second night in a row, our starter didn't issue any walks. Of his 103 pitches, 67 were for strikes, as he picked up another win, running his record to 16-4 and taking is ERA down to 2.93.

The past couple of games have been fortuitous, in terms of our offense and pitching syncing with each other. Yesterday, when our performances on the mound left a bit to be desired, the batters stepped it up and pulled out the win. Tonight, when our hitters found Zach Duke almost as baffling as the Pirates found Webb, the tables were turned and they found themselves bailed out by stellar pitching. We were outhit 9-6 by Pittsburgh, but made the most of our chances: four of those hits were for extra bases, each came with two outs in the inning, and they combined to produce all three of our runs.

In the bottom of the third, Duke started through the order for a second time - first time through, we'd gone 1-for-9 against him, with the sole hit a Hudson single. However, we immediately had better success, with Drew doubling to deep right with two outs. Young then came up and golfed a pitch from down around his ankles, into the left-field bullpen, to break the scoreless tie and give the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead. That was Young's fifteenth homer of the year, and the good news is, that means he has already matched his total for each of June and July in August. The bad news is, that would be "one."

We only got two more runners into scoring position - and one of those came on a balk - over the next five innings, nor were we able to progress either past second. The final tally came with two outs in the eighth, with Hudson doubling to deep left, his second hit of the evening, and then Jackson bouncing one over the wall for a ground-rule double. That run extended the lead to 3-0, and certainly provided us with some comfort during the next half-inning, which proved more nerve wracking than most of us would have liked, even though our Win Probability never dropped lower than 72.4%.

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Master of his domain: Brandon Webb, +53.1%
Honorable mention: Chris Young, +16.1%
God-emperor of suck: Tony Clark, -4.5%

Thanks to everyone in the Gameday Thread, which pottered on after our own contest was over, as we waited for the Cardinals to beat the Dodgers. That took a little longer than expected, thanks to Los Angeles scoring four times in the ninth, but the end result was still what we wanted, albeit slightly later! Good job too, or I'd have had to start an overflow thread... Present there were: kishi, unnamedDBacksfan, utahdbacksfan, Wimb, snakecharmer, foulpole, hotclaws, soco, J Up (welcome!), Shums, Scrbl, TwinnerA, DiamondbacksWIn, Red Reign, luckycc, singaporedbacksfan, Snakebitten, 4 Corners Fan, srdmad, the mystical one, Muu, and SongBird.

The win, combined with that Dodgers loss, extends our lead back to 2.5 games in the division. We win the series, running our unbeaten streak there to five, and have the chance to go for the sweep tomorrow, Randy Johnson seeking to take his sixth victory in a row. It's an afternoon game, please note, with first pitch at 12:40, Arizona time. I look forward to a good turnout from the British contingent for that one!

Record: 58-54. Pace: 84-78. Change on last season: -4

1st inning. This is not the start I wanted to see. Rather than us teeing off against the worst pitchers in the National League, it's Dan Haren who is being smacked about like a Little Leaguer. Three hits - albeit one a checked-swing bloop - and a wild-pitch give Pittsburgh the lead, and they have men on second and third with only one out. A strikeout gives hope of escaping without further damage, but he grooves one to Moss, who uncorks a two-run double off the wall in center. All of a sudden, we are staring at a three-run deficit.

Important to start getting back those runs quickly. Herrera has allowed opposing hitters to bat at a .408 clip, which in encouraging. Drew doesn't even need to bother, walking on four straight pitches, which is a start. Two more balls fly out of the zone before the seventh pitch finally finds the zone. The eighth gets slapped right back up the middle by Hudson, and we have two on with no outs. Jackson grounds out, but O-Dawg does a nice job of breaking up the double-play. Tracy walks on four straight too, loading them up for Reynolds. He swats the first pitch to left-center, and we're on the board, still with the bases loaded. However, Romero swings at a 3-1 pitch and grounds into a double-play. Blast. Still: Herrera looks eminently hittable, to say the least.

2nd inning. Need Haren to post a zero. He does, with a great deal more conviction than in the first, retiring the Pirates in order and hardly breaking a sweat. Time for us to keep clawing our way out of the sand on this one, having been buried up to our necks below the high-water mark, to use an appropriately piratical metaphor. Young legs out an infield hit, then takes second on a passed-ball. Snyder walks - the third already - and I'd be thinking about not having Haren bunt, since Herrera doesn't deserve to have any outs given to him. Still, Dan gets it down, and it's up to the top of the order. Drew does the job, two runs somehow scoring on a ball that doesn't quite get out of the infield. That ends Herrera's night, having coughed up the entire three-run lead in four outs, and we are into the Pirates bullpen already. Hudson grounds out, and Jackson flies out, but we're back in this one.

3rd inning. A sudden rush of comedic spectators distracts me (along with the unexpected arrival of The Complete Frank Miller Batman), and I am discomfited to see that the Pirates have somehow taken the lead again: I'm presuming a homer was involved, given the lack of men on base. However, that is all the damage, and we come out swinging, with a lead-off single to Tracy. Reynolds takes strike three, though it didn't look like it to me. Hmmph. Romero and Young fail to do much, so the Pirates have their first zero of the game and we still trail by one run.

4th inning. Another leadoff single against Haren, but outs follow - in particular a nice, leaping grab and swipe-tag by Hudson of a wild throw from Reynolds as he tried to start a double-play. There's nothing doing for the Pirates thereafter. Unfortunately, there's nothing doing for the Diamondbacks in our half of the inning either, and we are retired in order. Is it too late to ask for the Pirates to bring Herrera back? We miss him...

5th inning. Another lead-off hit: that's four in five now for the Pirates. Worse is to follow, with the next batter reaching too, and there's activity in the Arizona bullpen. A fielder's choice gets one out, but a wild pitch brings back memories of the first inning. However, Haren bears down and ends the inning without damage, keeping it a one-run game. We get a lead-off walk for Hudson, and Jackson ties the game with a double into the left-center gap. Tracy has a productive out to advance Jackson to third, but Reynolds doesn't, grounding out to third. Romero, however, gives Arizona the lead for the first time with a single, then steals second: he tries to reach home on a single by Young, but is gunned down quite easily. Doesn't show much faith in Snyder. We are now ahead for the first time, 5-4.

6th inning. It certainly didn't look like we'd still be seeing Haren at this point after he allowed three runs in the first. This might be his most impressive frame yet, as the Pirates go down easily, without a ball leaving the infield. Be nice to pad the lead a bit, and a leadoff walk gives us the opportunity, but the pinch-hitting Tony Clark grounds inNorto a double play. Drew reaches, and then steals second - our aggressive running-game raising its head again. Hudson walks, giving Jackson a chance to extend the lead. He comes through with a single and though Tracy goes down, the lead is up to two.

7th inning. Haren is done, and Pena comes in. It's looking like it could be a long nine outs, with a leadoff homer. But there's no more damage and we still have a one-run lead as we stand and stretch. The lead is immediately re-extended in the bottom half, with Reynolds' 23rd homer - we're now helping to increase the Pirates' road average. After Romero pops out, but Young triples down into the left-field corner: it looked like he was going to try for an inside the park homer, and thought better of it. He still managed to make the out at home, getting caught in a rundown after a botched suicide squeeze by Snyder. Shame, since Snyder and Clark then singled. So much for aggression, eh?

8th inning. Rauch out of the bullpen. A pair of rather too long to be comfortable fly-balls and a strikeout later, we are done with that, and the Pirates are down to their last three outs. Hudson leads off our half of the eighth with a double, becoming the fifth D-back to have a multi-hit game tonight - Young leads the way with three hits. "Anyone but the Dodgers," seems to be his motto. An Ojeda single makes it a three-run lead - and for the firs time tonight, I feel somewhat comfortable.

Reynolds adds another tally, and we are officially piling-on. Bases-loaded walk? Sure. Ground-rule double for Tony Clark? Bring it on. Run-scoring wild pitch? Don't mind if we do. We may have learned only one thing tonight: the Pirates pitchers clearly are as bad as we heard. It's something of a relief when Hudson grounds into his eighteenth double-play of the year to end the inning, with the game blown apart and the score 13-5. Fifty games still to go, and O-Dawg is already #6 on the franchise all-time list for GIDPs in a season.

9th inning. Surprised to see Lyon out for the ninth, but I guess he was warmed up. Maybe he got cold again, as he walks the first hitter and after a strikeout, gives up back-to-back hits to help the Pirates give the score some respectability. Another single loads the bases for McLouth, Pittsburgh's best hitter, and I begin to shift nervously, as a long ball here would make things...interesting. He singles, and the Fangraph, which flatlined after the eighth, twitches as if hit with a defibrillator. Fortunately, with Cruz warming in the pen, a flyout and groundout ends things.

Focusing on the positive; season high for runs and hits. Three hits each for Reynolds and Young, while Drew, Hudson and Snyder all reached safely four times, on hits and walks, and Jackson added a couple of hits. A grand total of 28 base-runners, on eighteen hits and ten walks - that's one below the franchise record for a regulation nine innings [September 26, 2001, against Milwaukee: also eighteen hits and ten walks, but we had someone reach on an error too].

The pitching... About the only nice thing I can say is, it's the first time we've won this season while giving up seven or more earned runs. Haren did jack up his K:BB ration, with eight more strikeouts and no walks, and after that first inning, he pitched commendably. Having had a few tough decisions go against him early on, it's about time he got a W in a game where he might not have fully deserved it, based on his performance. Our bullpen is certainly in a lot better shape than the Pirates', who were forced into 6.1 innings of work this evening.

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Master of his domain: Conor Jackson, +22.0%
Honorable mentions: Drew, +13.5%; Hudson, +12.0%
God-emperor of suck: Dan Haren, -6.1%

The Gameday Thread was very, very busy, with 31 participants: DbacksSkins clearly missed us while he was away, returning with 231 comments. Some of which even were to do with the game. :-) [I would gently remind participants that we have an off-topic chat room for a reason... Basically, when the thread can't go any further right, go chat-roomwards.] Also present, were 4 Corners Fan, kishi, snakecharmer, Zephon, soco, TwinnerA, Shums, G Dub, utahdbacksfan, J Up, hotclaws, Wimb, unnamedDBacksfan, njjohn, the mystical one, Muu, srdmad, singaporedbacksfan, MamaLing, dahlian, DiamondbacksWIn, foulpole, AZWILDCATS, nargel, TuLoRocks2008, AJforAZ, JUPTON10, Scrbl, mrssoco, and emilylovesthedbacks. Sorry to have missed discussing this one.

Not quite the well-pitched exhibition I anticipate, though you can't complain any time you score more than a dozen runs. Limited action in the rest of baseball; no Dodgers game, so we are 1.5 games clear, fractionally more breathing space for Arizona. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't the start of Haren's second-half slump. However, the team victory is the most important thing, starting off the home-stand on the right foot; let's just not make a habit of needing to score eight or more runs for victory, shall we?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Record; 57-53. Pace: 84-78. Change on last season: -3.

I guess it was inevitable, but I'd rather Ramirez had waited until we left town to hit his first home-run, simply so we wouldn't have to see the pants-wetting reaction at Dodger Stadium. Judging by that, it would appear LA fans had never seen a home-run before. Mind you, given their non-Manny leader in that category has a bare dozen, and LA are dead last in the league overall, I guess they are something of a rare event. The Dodgers were also the beneficiaries of an umpiring error - Juan Pierre's bunt rolled foul but was called fair by the home-plate umpire, Darryl Cousins. That led to Ramirez coming up with a man on and an additional run for Los Angeles.

Yeah: paging Bitter, party of one. Two long balls and the continued ineffectiveness of the offense, held to two runs for the third straight game, were what ended our four-game winning streak. Can't win 'em all, that's true: but the offensive faucet has been cut off at the source in this series, with a combined line in the past three games of just 200/.223/.330. When you face someone like Kuroda, who came in with an ERA of 9.82 over his last four starts, you certainly expect to be able to do better than four hits and one run over 7.1 innings.

However, that is all we managed: the lone run came on Montero's first long-ball of the year, and we only had one other man reach scoring position against him, until the last batter Kuroda faced, with one out in the eighth inning. That brought the tying run to the plate, and it also reached there in the ninth inning; we couldn't do anything with this late flurry of offensive activity, and took our foot off the Dodgers' neck, spurning a golden - or, at least, gold-plated - opportunity to send them four games back. We've been able to do nothing against the Dodgers' starters at all this series:
    LA starters: 19.1 IP, 15 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 11 K, 1.40 ERA
Admittedly, not that they've done much better against ours:
    AZ starters: 19 IP, 16 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 13 K, 1.89 ERA

The Petit Unit took the loss, because of the home-runs to Ramirez and Blake, though you'll generally be happy to take three runs over five innings from your #5 starter. [That's a higher Game Score than Micah has averaged over his last 14 starts since April 26] He'd only thrown 58 pitches, so I was somewhat surprised to see him pinch-hit for in the sixth, but I guess the aim was to try and kick-start the offense. It didn't work, Ojeda grounding out, and the replacement pitcher, Rosales, allowed three hits and a run in the sixth, ending our bullpen's scoreless streak.

Good to see Juan Cruz back [Peguero was sent back down, despite not having appeared in a game - so if you didn't notice his presence, that's fine!], though his first batter faced was somewhat shaky, taking ten pitches to walk Kuroda. After that, he settled down, though did allow a bloop single to Martin, which brought you-know-who to the plate with two men aboard. Cruz finished the inning off by striking Ramirez out - which is exactly the same way all of the previous four encounters between the two ended. As Grace and Sutton pointed out, we might well be seeing this encounter a few more times before the end of the season. Peña finished off with a scoreless eighth.

We were held to only five hits and a walk, our lowest figure since getting shut out 2-0 by the Cubs on July 21. Jackson was the only player to reach safely more than once, with a hit and a walk. Chris Young was 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts, leaving him 0-for-12 with five K's in this series. He looks increasingly to be suffering from a case of Quentinitis, the main symptom of which is swinging wildly at sliders down and away, out of the strikezone. While not incurable - Quentin seems to have recovered nicely, damnhimtohell - while Young is infected, it will remain a major hole, that opposing pitchers can easily exploit.

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Master of his domain: Miguel Montero, +9.6%
God-emperor of suck: Chad Tracy, -12.8%

A solid Gameday Thread, though unfortunately, we have to implement a new rule due to abuse: non-mods [basically, anyone whose name is not listed at the bottom of the site] are limited to one picture per thread, and any subsequent ones will be deleted. This is because the posting of the same, large picture on multiple occasions brings everything to a grinding halt - and, personally, I find it tiresome, like seeing the word "Sweet!" every single time a Diamondbacks player gets a hit. Present were: DbacksSkins, AF DBacks Fanatic, soco, Azreous, kishi, Wimb, hotclaws, snakecharmer, utahdbacksfan, DiamondbacksWIn, foulpole, TwinnerA, Scrbl, luckycc, unnamedDBacksfan, garyho and 4 Corners Fan.

Coming into the series, I would have been happy to settle for a spliy, but after the first two wins, I now feel greedy, and if we "only" get those two victories, I'll feel that this was a lost opportunity. Davis takes the mound today, and it is, of course, the Mark Reynolds party over at the socos, so that should be a lot of fun! A victory would make it all the more sweet enjoyable. :-)

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

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

[Thanks to Kishi for the image]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Record: 3-2. Pace: 97-65. Change on last season: 0

They may be storing the balls in raspberry Jello or whatever at Coors these days, but a trip there still appears to be the perfect prescription to cure ailing bats: we have had at least one man reach base every inning so far. Arizona had more hits yesterday, than in the entire series against the Reds, and the two games thus far have raised the team's batting average from .154 to .241. Fifteen hits yesterday, with five of our eight starting position players having multi-hit games, and Conor Jackson and Justin Upton getting three hits apiece.

The former was both surprising and no shock: Jackson was still suffering from the lingering after-effects of a respiratory ailment, which was very obvious in the post-game interview. On the other hand, Jackson has owned Jeff Francis almost his entire career, and so seeing him back in the lineup was no surprise: that 3-for-4 off him yesterday improves CoJack's career average vs. Francis to .370 [10-for-27]. The good news for Arizona is, he also has excellent numbers against the aces of our other main rivals. He's batted .364 [8-for-22] against Jake Peavy, and .474 [9-for-19] against Brad Penny. Small sample sizes, obviously, but it's not difficult to see that Jackson will be crucial to the D-backs this season.

Chris Young also had a good day, making a statement early on by homering in his first at-bat, to lead off the game, and then adding another, with the score 3-2, to provide us with some much needed breathing space [we'd already blown two leads at that point, and keeping it a one-run game was asking for trouble, especially in Coors]. Interesting paragraph by Nick Piecoro, describing what happened in that at-bat by Young:

With a runner on in the sixth and ahead 3-1 in the count, Young thought back to his previous two at-bats. Both times Francis threw him change-ups. Both times, he grounded out. "If he's getting me out on it," Young thought, "why would he change it?" Francis threw another change-up, and Young hit it out for his sixth career multi-home run game... "Last year," Young said, "I might have been looking dead red the entire time, no matter what the count is, no matter what the situation is. That's the type of hitter I was. This year, I'm making an effort to make some adjustments."

Best of all, the second blast actually came with a runner on base - after nine consecutive solo homers from the team, I was beginning to wonder if Bud had passed some kind of rule forbidding the Diamondbacks from hitting the ball out of the park with anyone aboard. Young is tied with, perhaps surprisingly, Justin Upton, for the team lead, each having three homers.

Brandon Webb was masterful, continuing the form he showed against the Rockies in his last regular-season start of 2007, with just one earned run over seven innings, on five hits and a walk. Again, he made good use of his change-up, particularly against Taveras: "I kind of made some adjustments and hopefully I can continue that. I think I mixed it up maybe a hair more than I had been. I felt like I threw a lot of offspeed pitches, first-pitch curveballs and that kind of kept them off-balance and threw some changeups for strikeouts." He didn't even get flustered when Reynolds made errors on back-to-back balls hit to him in the second, which led to Colorado tying the score for the second time.

A couple of notes on defense. Reynolds' errors were bad; on the first, he couldn't get the ball out of his glove, forcing him to hurry a throw to second, which went wild. The second was perhaps even more embarrassing; he had plenty of time, and simply air-mailed his throw to first. However, he did redeem himself somewhat with a couple of good plays later on, notably with the bases-loaded in the eighth. Hudson also made a great dive to throw out the runner from his knees, saving a run; Young had a fine read on a deep drive to the track in center; and Drew took a hit and RBI away from Troyboy, diving to his right in the ninth, to leave Tulowitzki 0-for-5 on the day. My, how we laughed...

The Rockies certainly had their chances, but went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position, their runs coming on a solo homer and a groundout. The most startling failures came against our bullpen, Tony Peña and Brandon Lyon putting Colorado men at third with no outs, in the eighth and ninth inning respectively. But both were stranded there: Peña's performance was particularly impressive, as he had loaded the bases, meaning the tying run was in the on-deck circle. But he struck out Atkins and Ianetta, then got Spilborghs to ground out to Reynolds. [Memo to Tony: please bear in mind, we got rid of Valverde for making things 'interesting'...] Medders, meanwhile, was saved by Drew's beautiful catch, previously mentioned.

A few words of comfort for the Rockies' fans, however. Despite scoring only eight runs in your first five games, your team is not actually that bad. There is no conceivable way they will continue to be so un-clutch: thus far, you are hitting just .095 [4-for-42] with runners in scoring position, and your hitters are below the Uecker line overall, at .198. This will not last, any more than the Padres batting .299, or the Braves hitting .370 with RISP. However, if you wouldn't mind continuing to suck for one more day, that'd be okay with us. I also note that the D-backs have been un-clutchy thus far too, just a .190 BA, but are still scoring a very respectable 5.2 runs per game. That's entirely because of their MLB-leading ten homers.

Master of his domain: Chris Young, +22.7%
Honorary mention: Brandon Webb, +20.1%
God-Emperor of suck: Chris Snyder, -13.7%

Most voluminous GT since Opening Day. It ended up past 600, and I didn't notice much slowdown, even towards the end. Present were: kishi, soco, seton hall snake pit, Russ, DbacksSkins, peachy rex, hotclaws, LucaMaz3, foulpole, Wimb, The Main Man, Captain D Bag, DiamondbacksWIn, frienetic, AZDarkKnight, snakecharmer, azshadowwalker, 4 Corners Fan, Craig from Az, singaporedbacksfan, TwinnerA, Silverblood, njjohn, dstorm and unnamedDBacksfan, so thanks to them for their input.

Got an email with an interesting fantasy twist from Jack Collins. He's running a fantasy league where your roster is all the players on a particular team. He's looking for someone to run the Diamondbacks, using the Diamondbacks roster - though, obviously, the opportunity for you to actually manage will be limited. If anyone is interested, drop me a line. First come, first served.

Gameday Thread to follow quite soon, I think, since it's a noon start.

Record: 2-2. Pace: 81-81. Change on last season: 0

i don't know what the team did on the flight from Cincinnati to Colorado, but whatever it was, clearly worked. Barely 24 hours after being one-hit, Micah Owings, Chad Qualls and Juan Cruz delivered almost the perfect answer, restricting the Colorado Rockies to just two hits. Meanwhile, the bats woke up too, pounding out 13 hits to inflict what I think is the worst defeat the Rockies have ever endured in the 16-year history of Opening Day at Coors Field. If the pre-game NLCS celebrations were designed to get under the skin of the Diamondbacks, then I look forward to them continuing for the rest of the weekend.

Owings was a revelation, particularly in the light of a poor Spring Training campaign, where he allowed 22 hits and 13 walks in only 15.2 innings, for an ERA of 11.32. Really, who would have him then coming to Coors Field, facing a lineup basically unchanged from the one which led the league in BA last year, and restricting them to two hits and one run in 6.2 innings? Oh, and struck out a career-high nine batters, including three from last year's MVP runner-up, Matt Holliday [Cruz also K'd him in the ninth]. Pwnings retired 17 straight batters at one point, and said afterwards, "I felt good today about my command and felt good all around. I felt good about my guys behind me and the offense put up that 3-spot behind me and that helped a lot."

"That 3-spot" would be the first inning, where we sprung out to an early lead, with Chris Snyder giving us an RBI single, and Mark Reynolds adding a two-run double, as we sent eight to the plate, almost getting Owings a chance to bat before he pitched. That set the tone for the afternoon, as we scored runs in six different innings. Reynolds added a solo homer in the fifth, giving him three RBI on two hits for the day, as well as a walk. Orlando Hudson had two hits, and Justin Upton had a homer among his three hits in one game, the latter for the first time since his home debut last August 7, when he was a single short of the cycle.

Of particular note, Chris Young reached safely three times on two walks and a hit. It's the walks that are impressive: he has five so far, which is the same number he had on May 4 last year, not April 4. [In 2007, he had five BB in his first 106 PA's - this year, it's taken him just nineteen] He may only be hitting .214, but we'll happily take an OBP of .421 out of the leadoff spot, so good work there, Chris. This performance was also without the presence of Conor Jackson, missing once again with what is now officially "flu", rather than "flu-like" - Chris Burke again took over at first. Jackson was apparently available as a pinch-hitter today, though was hardly needed, and I imagine he'll be back in the lineup tomorrow, since he's 7-for-23 with four homers against Rockies starter, Jeff Francis.

About the only one to miss out on the fun was Stephen Drew, 0-for-5 with two K's; he batted eighth. Even Eric Byrnes - booed lustily before the game, by Rockies' fans who haven't forgotten his "I also don't think the Rockies have outplayed us, because they haven't" comments during the NLCS - got a double, though that still leaves his average thus far languishing alongside Drew at .125. Still, beats the Rockies [and it certainly did today!], who now have six regulars hitting below the Uecker line after the first four games, led by Holliday's 1-for-14. Of course, early-season stats are a funny thing: Upton is on pace to lead the team in homers. With 81.

Still, quote of the day goes to visiting fan, Silverblood. "Can you guys pleas stop this?? Please??! We are sorry we beat you in the NLCS! This isn't even fair, it's like you're playing the.... Casper Ghosts, we suck so badly right now. Can you just please get yourselves out and end this abortion of a game faster?!! Dear god. This is AWFUL. You are kicking us up, down, and sideways, we are so terrible right now." Oh, things aren't so bad: it's only four games, and you are exactly one behind us. Still, thus far, the Rockies seem like a pale shadow of the 20-in-21 team, and have been outscored thus far by a margin of 20-6. And you're facing Brandon Webb tomorrow. Have fun with that. :-)

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Master of his domain: Micah Pwnings, +26.0
Honorary mention: Mark Reynolds, +18.8%
God-emperor of suck: Stephen Drew, -6.3%

Thanks to Devin [aka kishi] for starting the Gameday Thread off for me, as I'd blown off the alleged start time provided by the system here as fictitious - no way we'd play two day games in a row, surely! Er, oh yes, there is... Devin, you've now been granted "authorship" privileges, so if it happens again, you can now post stories on to the front page here! Present down the line were Craig from Az, kishi, seton hall snake pit, dstorm, hotclaws, jweech [welcome!], Russ, bcloirao, TwinnerA, peachy rex, Captain D Bag, singaporedbacksfan, 4 Corners Fan, DiamondbacksWIn, Wactivist, Mr. Philosophical, Silverblood, Azreous and soco. I see the Republic are posting a "live game chat" too. Final tally of comments there: 15. Maybe i should go invite people here?

Forgot to mention Randy Johnson's first rehab start down in Tucson, pitching in the Sidewinder's opener. The results weren't much to write home about, as the Big Unit allowed eight hits, two walks and five runs, in four innings, with the only strikeout that of the opposing pitcher. On the plus side, he had a two-run single in the first, and then was walked on four pitches in his next at-bat, so perhaps he's been taking lessons from Micah. Afterwards, Johnson was blunt: "I didn't feel obviously too good about the performance, the amount of effort that it took to get through four innings... I'd like to think things will improve a little bit from a pitching perspective and I get my amount of work in that I need to get in spread over six innings or five innings." Next, and hopefully final, rehab start for Johnson is on the 8th.

i look forward to actually, perhaps, seeing some of tomorrow's game: thus far, it's been very hard to do so. The only one I've been able to watch thus far was Opening Day, and I had to take off work in order to do that! This may explain why the stories so far have felt, at least to me, more like recaps of the boxscore than an eyewitness report. Should prove a little easier tomorrow and Sunday, so see you there.