D-backs 3, Giants 10 – Record Breaker

The Diamondbacks played a baseball game today.

It’s actually impressive if you think about it. A Major League Baseball team, a team filled with decent players who have had successful careers up to this point, has taken the field 23 times in a row attempting to win the game. It’s one thing to go out there trying to lose, that’s not fun, maybe even illegal. But to actually try? Round of applause for our boys, please.

Zac Gallen came off the injured list to make his first start in 6 weeks. The D-backs were only 2 games under .500 since his last start, and while they were on a slight slide, there was optimism that this team had what it takes to at least compete in the National League. Pitchers could still use foreign substances to gain a better grip on the baseball. And Arizona was experiencing odd weather for the season, barely breaching 100F a couple times on the month.

For an inning, Gallen pitched like it was May. He reached 96 mph on his fastball and overpowered the Giants, needing only 9 pitches to get out of the first.

His 2nd inning was not great. A leadoff walk to Wilmer Flores precluded a Curt Casali homer, his first of the season. Going into today’s game, he was batting an abysmal 33 wRC+. Steven Duggar immediately followed with a triple, and Dauricio Dubon singled him home, 3-0 Giants.

The 3rd was another bad inning, bad enough to cause Gallen to leave the game. Mike Yastrzemski doubled to left, moved to 3rd on a wild pitch, and scored on a sacrifice fly to give the Giants an insurmountable lead, 4-0.

With Riley Smith now on the mound, the Giants continued to build their already massive lead, scoring single runs in the 4th and 5th innings, to give the Giants a 6-0 lead. It was just a really good team, using extra base hits to score base runners. Amazing.

You might be wondering what the D-backs hitters were doing during all this. Well, not much of anything. Zac Gallen erased the no-hitter threat in the 3rd with a 2-out single but it would take until the 7th for an everyday player to reach the hit column.

Pavin Smith singled to left to double the hit total on the day and Eduardo Escobar doubled to right, giving the D-backs a real scoring opportunity. Christian Walker reached on an error to score Smith from 3rd, and David Peralta singled to give the D-backs 2 runs in the inning. Unfortunately, that was it, 6-2 Giants.

The home team responded in turn, using three hits, including two doubles, to push across 2 runs to retake the 6 run lead, 8-2. Another 2 run inning in the 8th, again on 3 hits, pushed the lead to 10-2. And the D-backs used a leadoff triple to squeeze their final run of the day, 10-3.

Pretty impressive display as only one single player had a positive WPA on the day, with Eduardo Escobar scoring a positive .006 on the day.

25 users and 300+ comments to watch history made and with the Dodgers heading into town, the rough stretch will continue. Thanks for reading.