D-backs 2, Cubs 4: Soria for laughing

The D-backs were one out from victory, then got Soria’d.

Bleh. Started out my day still hamstrung by a lingering sinus infection and dealing with my car being serviced for FIVE HOURS!

I’ve earned this beer.

Beer 1: Helical Haze by Simple Machine

Nothing says bad day quite like lengthy and costly repairs. Am I right or what? Blessedly a good hazy IPA goes at least some minor length to cure that. Kinda….

Gallen’s first game back since his hamstring injury and while not looking sharp in the 1st he does get through it bloodless. I’ll take it.

What I can’t take though is our offense putting up no fight, like last night, here in our half of the 1st. Bleh

Another scoreless inning for Gallen, though once again still not great. It’s obvious that he’s still shaking off some of the cobwebs from the last couple week, but his stuff still looks nasty.

In the next frame C Walk gets our first hit of the afternoon and Peralta immediately follows of with a single of his own, giving us our first chance in this young game to get on the board.

VanMeter grounds in to what should have been a double play, thankfully Rizzo misplays it, allowing CWalk and Peralta to advance.

Ahmed grounds out to drive in CWalk for our first run and lead. Let’s go!! 1-0 Dbacks

Gallen’s once again scoreless in the 3rd and 4th followed by our bats quitting down both in both those frames as well.

Beer 2: Milk of the Murder Hornet Imperial Milkshake IPA with Pineapple

[Jim: This is my pick for made-up beer name of the week…]

Love this name and love this beer. Also no Murder Hornets we’re harmed in the making of this beer.

Speaking of Murder Hornet, Gallen seems even more dialed in here in the 5th as he strikes of Hoerner for his 6th K of the game.

Zac follows that with his 7th K and an easy pop up to close out the inning. He’s back folks. 1-0 Dbacks going in to the bottom of the 5th.

Ahmed and Varsho reach to lead off the 5th, and Varsho in hilarious fashion as his broken bat pop up some how drops between three Cubies in right field. Lol.

Gallen is left in to bat, but regrettably that decision leads to a double play. Considering how Gallen is raking I’m fine with leaving him in, but that needed to be a bunt.

Thankfully Rojas makes that Gallen mistake moot with a single to drive in Ahmed and make this a 2-0 game.

Beer 3: Electric Lettuce NE IPA by Moonraker Brewing Company

As I open this juicy bit of beer goodness Pavin Smith has an excellent at bat to earn himself a walk, but Escobar can’t turn a good 5th in to a great one. Kinda a familiar theme with this year’s team I feel…..

Zac’s had a great game but the wheels start to wobble in the 6th with Bàez gets a deep double to drive in the Cubs first run, and despite getting the 2nd out Torey deems that it’s time to site Gallen down.

5.2 inning, 7ks and 1 earned run; not bad at all. I raise my glass to you Zac.

Mantiply gets the 3rd out though, so despite the danger we still escape the inning without conceding the lead 2-1 Dbacks going in to the bottom of the 6th.

No dice for us in the bottom of the 6th, and thus we’re off to the 7th with our narrow lead still intact.
Mantiply then continues to pitch well in the 7th, and de Geus takes the torch from him to complete a crisp 7th.

No bats once more in the bottom of the 7th. Sigh, this team just can’t seem to put up a crooked number inning.

Beer 4: Project Dank Experimental IPA (Summer addition) by La Cumbre Brewing Co

Mmmmmmmmm Dankkkkkkkkk. Great way to close out a game is with a beer that tastes like it should be in a dispensary.

Ramirez has really done a great job here in the 8th, despite allowing Bàez to reach on a wild pitch strikeout, but it’s depressing to hear just how many Cubs fans are in the stands. Guess I shouldn’t be as annoyed considering how bad this season is, but it’s annoying as hell.

Bryant gets hit by a Ramirez pitch right after that and my previous kind words about our reliever seem quite empty right now.

Thank God he gets Wisdom (hell of a name) to strike out. We needed that. 2-1 Dbacks going in to the bottom of the 8th.

Sadly the Dbacks go 1-2-3 in the 8th and it’s now Soria’s time to shine.

Soria opens up the 9th easily getting through Hoerner and Happ, but Ortega gets aboard with a two out double to really make things interesting.

Chirinos (recently of the Yankees) immediately drives Ortega home and we’re tied folks ……FML.

My Ford service guy calls just as Contreras crushes our hopes with a two-run blast to make this a 2-4 Cubs leads. The good news is my car is fine. Bad news is that we likely lost this game. Yay.

Bells and whistles, by Jim

Why, yes: yes, we did. There was a lead-off walk to get the tying run to the plate for Arizona, but that was it. The more things change…

Present in the Gameday Thread were: AzDbackfanInDc, DeadManG, Diamondhacks, Dschumac, GuruB, Jack Sommers, James Attwood, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Keegan Thompson, Michael McDermott, NikT77, Oldenschoole, Schilling2001, Snake_Bitten, gzimmerm, kilnborn and since_98. Comment of the thread – and a potential candidate for Comment of the Year, if we had one – goes to Snake_Bitten, after Bally’s feed crapped out just after the Cubs tied the game:

The Diamondbacks – and stop me if you’ve heard this before, far too often – will try to avoid the sweep tomorrow afternoon, with Merrill Kelly starting for them. It’s a 1:10 pm first pitch. Now, hurry and turn on the Suns game…

Post-game audio from Torey Lovullo [or link]

• Gallen Slap into DP in the 5th: It was his call to take the bunt off and hit away. Torey said it’s an “instinctual” play and the hitter can make the call in that situation,
• He addressed Gallen’s frustration about being pulled from the game. He was trying to talk his way out of it, but Torey joked he wasn’t going to try to break the rules twice. (it was the second mound visit)
• I asked him about Varsho’s issue with not throwing away the mask on a popups and if they had addressed that with him. He said they were aware of it and Robbie Hammock would continue to work with him on it.