This friggin’ guy.
I can’t even.
It’s been a deeply stupid week, and when I swapped recaps with Spencer for this week (he really wanted to do Star Wars day….may the Fourth be with you), and saw that I had drawn another Cecconi start, I felt pretty good about that. Slade’s been a big damn hero for us in his first two starts. That said, I felt a bit uneasy, not only because he was going up against Dylan Cease, but also because, as lights out as he has been, I figured Cecconi was bound to fall back to earth at some point. He’s a great kid and he’s really showed up for us, but he probably profiles as a middle-of-the-rotation starter at best, so I wondered how long his early run of brilliance was going to last.
We found out tonight.
He matched Cease zero for zero over the first three innings, and even pitched better, retiring every batter he faced in his first time through the Padres’ order. Cease, meanwhile, did the same to us, except for a two-out hustle double by Ketel Marte in the bottom of the first.
Then the top of the fourth rolled around, and the San Diego lineup turned over, and it seemed like Cecconi’s command and control deserted him. Suddenly he couldn’t locate any of his secondary stuff, and suddenly he was missing the edges of the zone with his fastball, and the only pitches he was able to throw for strikes were meatballs over the heart of the plate. And the top of the Padres lineup, as underperforming as they have been through the first month and change of the season, can indeed hit stuff like that. Jurickson Profar walked to start the inning, and then Fernando Tatis, Jr. hit one of the aforementioned meatballs over the fence in left center. Jake Cronenworth then did the same with another meatball, sending it over the fence in right center. Manny Machado walked, and scored on a Jackson Merrill double to into the gap in right center one out later. Cecconi ended the inning without further issue, but a hole had been dug. 4-0 San Diego
After Cease retired Gurriel, Marte and Walker in order in the bottom of the frame, the hole got deeper in the top of the fifth. Tyler Wade, the Padres’ nine-hole hitter, reached on a bunt single to third, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. One out later, Tatis singled to left, scoring Wade. Newly purchased reliever Matt Bowman took over for Slade, got the second out on a liner to right that Pavin Smith almost let go over his head, but managed to catch, before giving Machado his own dinger to left center. 7-0 San Diego
Joc Pederson, however, led off the bottom of the fifth with our second hit of the game, a double to right. Eugenio Suarez then singled to left center, scoring Pederson. Gabriel Moreno grounded into a double play, and Corbin Carroll, continuing to do nothing of value in the eight spot in the lineup, ensured that that was all we got. But hey, at least we were on the board, I guess? 7-1 San Diego
And that’s basically it. That’s your final score right there. To be fair, our bullpen wound up doing a decent job through the end of it, as they often do when we’ve basically been blown out—Bowman put up a zero in his second inning of work, Justin Martinez pitched around lotsa traffic but put up two zeroes of his own, McGough pitched a scoreless top of the ninth. On the other hand, after the Suarez single in the bottom of the fifth, our offense was retired in order in the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, and the ninth. Cecconi was lights out through the first three, made a mess in the fourth, made another mess in the fifth, but the other nine players did nothing to help him out or pick him up.
I was as excited as anyone at the moves we made this offseason, but one thing that I, and I think many of us, have realized, as the season has gotten underway, is that those acquisitions turned this team into something very different than it was last year. Not only is it a team that is much less effective at winning baseball games, it’s also a lot less fun to watch. Sure, we’ve been struck hard by the injury bug, but that’s not all of it. I don’t think it’s even the half of it.
We took the gang of Chaos Creators and tried to transform it into a much more conventional power-dependent ball club. And that transformation has not been effective. A number of people noted this tonight in the Gameday Thread, summed up quite cogently by VWBeetle:
Sad but true. And there’s yer ballgame.
Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs
Standout performers: None
Only 130 comments in the Gameday Thread tonight, which is sadly unsurprising, especially with the game going south the way it did in the top of the fourth. Several Sedona Red comments, all of them early, most of them hopeful or optimistic, which does not fit with the outcome. So instead, let us talk about the weather with set.builder39, who posted the first (and most rec’d) comment of the night:
So we go again tomorrow. Brandon Pfaadt takes the ball for us. On the other side is Michael King, about whom I know nothing, aside from the fact that he, like Pfaadt, throws righthanded. First pitch is 5:10pm AZ time, and it is Star Wars Day (for those who pronounce Force with a “th” sound at the end instead of an “s” sound, for whatever reason), and there’s also a Gabriel Moreno GIDP Golden Glove Bobblehead on offer tomorrow at Chase. So join us if you dare. Hope to see you.
Anyway. Thanks as always for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks.