D-backs 4, Mets 5: Nelson and Arizona meet their Waterloo

19th century British military commanders for $400, please, Alex

Record: 18-17. Pace: 83-79. Change on 2024: +3.

To be fair, Ryne Nelson wasn’t particularly the problem this evening, in a spot start replacing Corbin Burnes. He allowed two runs over 4.1 innings, which is a perfectly reasonable outing for a long reliever. Admittedly, I’m not certain about some of the tactical decisions e.g. walking Juan Soto on four pitches, in front of Pete Alonso. Twice. It worked out the first time, Alonso hitting into an inning-ending double-play. But the second time? Nelson surrendered a 425-foot home-run to the Polar Bear. It was enough to make you feel like you were missing an eye, an arm and a leg. That was all the damage suffered by Nelson, who gave up three hits and four walks with a pair of strikeouts.

There were some causes for concern. Nelson doubled his season total of walks, having walked four over his previous seven appearances, covering 17.1 innings. It also took him fifty pitches before he got his first swinging strike. He needed nine batters before he delivered a first-pitch strike. Mind you, that got clobbered for a triple, so maybe there was method there. The runner then tried to come home on a fly ball to Corbin Carroll, who instead picked up another outfield assist (below). All told, the Mets put five balls in play off Nelson at over 100 mph. But they instead turned into four outs, including a 115 mph laser off the bat of Francisco Alvarez, right to Lourdes Gurriel.

The D-backs had actually taken the lead with their first batter of the game. Corbin Carroll cranked his tenth home-run of the season, tying him for the team lead with Eugenio Suarez. Ketel Marte followed with a single, but one out later, Josh Naylor hit into the first of two double-plays on the evening. That was kind of a theme, as the Mets hit into four all told: three traditional ones plus the one to Carroll. Those helped ensure neither team was able to do much on offense, and so the score remained 2-1 to New York through the end of the sixth. Both starters had left the game by that point, and with the Mets bullpen taxed by a double-header on Sunday, the contest still felt very winnable.

After Nelson, the D-backs turned to their bullpen pair of Little and Large. Or, in this case, Large and Littie. José Castillo (252 lbs, the largest man on the D-backs roater) was the beneficiary of one of the double-plays to end the fifth. He was then replaced by Juan Morillo, whose listed weight of 150 lbs, makes him the lightest man ever to take the mound for Arizona, by ten pounds. I’m not certain I believe that figure, but that’s how he is shown on MLB.com. The only player of less weight in franchise history was the all but forgotten Yonny Hernandez, a middle-infielder for a dozen games during the 2022 season, who weighted 140 lbs. Anyway: Morillo worked a scoreless sixth, leeping it a one-run game.

Unfortunately, bad Ryan Thompson turned up in the top of the seventh inning for Arizona. He faced five batters, retired only one, and that required a massively helpful call from home-plate umpire Marvin Hudson [pitch 5 was a called strike] A three-run homer by Francisco Lindor turned the one-run margin into a 5-1 advantage to the Mets, and bumped Thompson’s ERA up to 5.40. He may not be long for the A-bullpen, despite the absence of A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez. He ended up having to be bailed out by Tommy Henry, and further damage was avoided by the fourth and final double-play, started off by Ketel Marte after a really nice sliding stop on a ball back up the middle.

The Mets bullpen proved to be equally as wobbly in the eighth inning. Something called a Dedniel Núñez took the mound for the first time this year, threw six strikes in 18 pitches, and walked the bases full of Diamondbacks without retiring a batter. New York suddenly had to go to their A-bullpen, but all three runners scored. Josh Naylor made it 5-2 with a single back up the middle, and Eugenio Suarez followed by banging a ball 412 feet, off the wall in center (below). Somehow, it was only a two-run single, the longest by a D-back in the Statcast era. Quite how that happened and which baserunner’s fault it was – Naylor or Marte – was a subject of some discussion in the Gameday Thread.

Henry did his job, throwing 2.2 innings of one-hit ball, avoiding the need for the bullpen to be over-taxed. Alek Thomas led off the ninth, and was able to leg it out to first base, as the flip from Alonso to the pitcher was just errant enough. He then tried to steal second, but was called out. Torey Lovullo immediately challenged, but the call stood. To be honest, that seemed fair. None of the angles shown on the broadcast provided the necessary “clear and convincing evidence” for the call to be overturned. If the initial call had been safe, it would have been the same. That was the D-backs’ last, best hope: Carroll went down swinging at a pitch well down and in, and Arizona are 0-1 in the City Connect era.

Two hits and a walk for Carroll; two hits for Naylor and Suarez; a hit and a walk for Perdomo. But there are lessons to be learned as well, such as not walking Juan Soto. Nelson took the L, but it likely belongs considerably more to Thompson. There were also some base-running situations which felt like they could have been improved. Before the game, Lovullo spoke about the team not having played their best baseball yet. On the evidence of this evening’s showing, they still haven’t.

341 comments in the Gameday Thread – not quite as many as yesterday, but a very respectable total for a Monday night. Thanks to all who took part, with Diamondhacks winning Comment of the Night for reminding us how much Carroll has improved in the outfield this season.

Tomorrow, it’s the same two teams, at the same location, with the same start time of 6:40 pm. Zac Gallen will be the D-backs starter, and everything is still to play for in the season series against the Mets, now tied at 2-2.