Arizona 8, San Diego 5 – Snakes Survive Smith

Caleb Smith once again left before completing two innings, walking six of the 13 batters he faced, but the Diamondbacks had their own, bigger inning still in the tank.

Tonight’s tacos from San Diego are courtesy of Matt Peacock.

First Inning
The first inning opens with Nick Ahmed leading off against Ryan Waeathers. Nothing doing, despite how much Nick likes to face left-handed pitching. It is still early and a small sample size, but Home Plate Umpire, Bill Miller, appears to have an “interesting” idea of the strike zone. Ryan Weathers makes no fewer than thee mistakes in the top of the first. Marte watches one go by and Calhoun is unable to do anything with the other two.Miller’s strike zone and the Diamondbacks not capitalizing on mistakes portends a long night ahead.

Caleb Smith is effectively wild, but his pitch count is out of control, another potent of a long night for Arizona

Second Inning
Padres go up two on a walk and then a homer. The walk is all on Smith. The home run had Trent Grisham reaching and swinging with his but out and yet somehow, he hooked it down the left field line just around the pole. Make that four to zero in favour of the Friars. Smith loaded the bases before surrendering a two run double to Cronenworth, though he did manage to get Mahado to strike out in the first and then hit an infield fly rule on a 2-0 count in the second.. Small victories I guess. Smith’s night is mercifully over. A slick play by Nick Ahmed keeps the Dads from adding multiple more runs. Instead, all they get is one.

Third Inning
Nick Ahmed still likes hitting lefties. He hits an RBI double. He follows that up by showing off that he is actually one of the fastest players on the team (since Rojas is in Reno), and scampers home easily on a single by Marte.

Fourth Inning
Geez, we are an hour and 15 minutes into the game and we are just now starting the fourth. Oh dear. Hah! Super defender Machado whiffs on the bare-handed attempt and the Diamondbacks have runners on first and second with no one out and Christian Walker at the plate. He punches one into center and Kelly motors home. 5-3 Padres. Pavin SMith worked a 10-pitch at-bat, hitting a sharp grounder into right for a run-scoring single. It is now a one-run game and Weathers gets the hook. The Diamondbacks load the bases with the pitcher’s slot due up. Lovullo chooses to let PEacock hit for himself. That’s a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see how it plays out.

It’s a two-run single into center. Shows what the hell I know about baseball. Oh, by the way, it is now 6-5, Arizona. Peacock follows that up with a stolen base on a pitch in the dirt.That turns out to be HUGE. Ahmed grounds one over the mound into center and Peacock comes home from second. Diamondbacks tack on two more and the score is now 8-5. Also, there still aren’t any outs.Marte makes the first out. Calhoun squibs one down the third base line – against the over shift. Carson Kelly re-loads the bases with his second hit of the inning. Leave it to Cabrera to ground into a double play to end the frame.

Peacock makes quick work of the Padres in the bottom of the inning, throwing up the all-important shutdown inning to keep the momentum in Arizona’s dugout.

Pretty sure the nine outs following the Diamondbacks big frame took less time to complete than any three outs prior to them, save maybe the top of the first.

Fast forward to the seventh inning, Nick Ahmed ends the inning with his second stellar play of the game. Hosmer couldn’t believe his bad luck.

Joe Mantiply and Sean Poppen combine to keep the Padres scoreless for the final nine outs, despite a rare error by Nick Ahmed to start the bottom of the ninth. This led to a rare Arizona win and on the road even, no less.

It was a great come from behind win for the Diamondbacks as they came back from being down five after two. The gameday thread reflected the emotions of the game. In all, there were 15 commenters who contributed 324 total comments.

Comment of the night goes to gzimmerm:

Forgive me Father for I have sinned

I have not been a good steward of the time you have blessed me with by wasting it as a fan of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Posted by gzimmerm on Aug 6, 2021 | 7:56 PM reply unrec (9)

Gold Medal: Matt Peacock +11.7%
Silver Medal: Nick Ahmed +8.5%, Sean Poppen +8.5%
Lead: Caleb Smith -32.1%

The Diamondbacks are back at it in San Diego again tomorrow. Taylor Widener will face off against Yu Darvish. Both have had a rough go of things lately, so it might be another entertaining game resulting in some Diamondbacks magic.