A wild ride capped with late inning offense sends the Serpientes home happy
That was wild!
Going in, spectators were probably prepared for plenty of runs scored. One sports book set the Over-Under at 10 runs. This game more than doubled that amount of runs.
Tommy Henry took the mound for the Serpientes looking to make his final argument for staying in the rotation once Jordan Montgomery joins the big league club this weekend. His argument was less than convincing.
Henry started hot, getting three outs on four pitches in the first inning and then, with help from Tucker Barnhart doing his best Gabi impersonation to catch Christopher Morel stealing second, got through with only 14 pitches in the second. Kyle Hendricks’ first inning was just as effective, if not as efficient. His early season numbers have been less than Hendricks-like and Diamondbacks hitters were probably licking their chops after their disappointing output last night. D-backs went quietly in the first, but drew blood in the second on a Joc walk, Suarez single, then Blaze brought Joc home from third with a fielder’s choice ground out.
D-backs 1, Cubs 0 after 2 innings
Tommy Henry made his way out to try and get a shutdown inning but couldn’t come through. Back to back doubles to leadoff the inning were the only hits, but the Diamondbacks found themselves tied at 1 going into the home half of the third. The offense responded with three runs off Hendricks. The first damage was Lourdes Gurriel’s fifth homer and 19th and 20th RBI of the year on a skyscraper in to the left field bleachers. Two batters later, Joc Pederson got his first dinger as a Snake with a screaming 110mph shot just fair of the right field foul pole.
D-backs 4, Cubs 1 through 3 innings (Answerback #1)
Henry came back out with a three run lead and got the shutdown inning he could not secure in the third. He was aided by one of the better defensive plays the Diamondbacks have made in this young season when Christian Walker snared a grounder on the infield grass and threw to second from his backside where Blaze was still making his way over from the 6-hole. The throw bounced and Blaze made a wonderful diving/stretching/contorting catch with his foot on the bag to get the force and keep the runner out of scoring position.
The bottom of the fourth was uninteresting for the D-backs, but things got real interesting in the 5th where we got our first real peek of what this game was going to be like. The Cubs started Single, Triple, Double, Double, then added another Triple which chased Tommy from the ballgame. Scott McGough came in to the distress of the Game Thread, but he acquitted himself quite well, stranding that triple at third, but the damage was done as the Snakes came up to bat in the bottom of the fifth trailing the Cubs 5-4.
The Diamondbacks answered the Cubs four runs with four of their own, but in a very different way. In contrast to the extra base hits the Cubs had in the visitors’ half-inning, the D-backs strung together three singles, three walks, and a Sac Fly, but the real damage was done on three wild pitches by the Cubs in the inning. Hendricks was pulled after Ketel, Lourdes, and Walker loaded the bases. Lefty Luke Little came on to face Joc Pederson which presented Torey with the choice of swapping out Joc for Grichuk to try and take advantage of the bases loaded opportunity. Torey left Joc in and Little promptly threw a wild pitch allowing one run to score. After how last night’s game ended, seeing a wild pitch on the other side felt like balance was restored in the universe. But the universe kept giving! Another run came home on a wild pitch and then a passed ball and subsequent errant throw by the Cubs’ young catcher Amaya put Joc Pederson at third where he was driven in by Blaze for his second RBI of the night.
D-backs 8, Cubs 5 after 5 innings (Answerback #2)
Scott McGough came back out for the top of the sixth and, to shock of the Thread, pitched a 1-2-3 inning! McGough has been the target of criticism (deserved), but he earned all the ‘attaboys’ and pats on the back tonight. The Diamondbacks offense couldn’t muster any insurance runs in the last half of the sixth, and so we entered the to-this-point barren offensive wasteland of the 7-8-9 innings with a 3 run lead. Would that be enough?
No. No it would not.
The top of the seventh meant a new D-backs reliever, Luis Frias. Well, I was certainly hopeful that McGough’s turn to the light would be contagious and Frias might match it. I was instantly proven wrong as Frias allowed three runners on three batters faced (one was a blade of grass away from being a sliding fly out to Corbin), and so Kyle Nelson had to come in with the bases juiced and nobody out. Nelson induced a Cody Bellinger pop out on the infield to get the all important first out, and I began to think we might wiggle out of this inning with the lead. Instead, the Cubs went Sac Fly, Single, Walk before Ian Happ came up and tattooed a cutter and placed it in the home bullpen for a Grand Slam. Miguel Castro came in and got the last out of the 7th, but 7 runs came home in the inning, giving the Diamondbacks a 3 run deficit and sending several commenters in the Thread to their beds where they would presumably better preserve their blood pressure.
Geno Suarez and Blaze Alexander rekindled hope for all still in attendance to leadoff the home-half of the 7th with a walk and a rope double to the wall in left-center. Blaze notched his third RBI, but no further damage was done.
D-backs 9, Cubs 11 through 7 (maybe…)
Miguel Castro came back out in the 8th and was nearly as efficient as McGough, stranding a one-out Triple with back-to-back strikeouts of Swanson and Bellinger to keep the deficit at 2. The Diamondbacks chipped away a little more in the 8th, but it felt like they let an opportunity slip away when they loaded the bases with no outs and only walked away with a single run scored from a Joc Pederson Sac Fly.
D-backs 10, Cubs 11 after 8 (almost…)
Miguel Castro was dealing and had only thrown 20 pitches, so Torey made the decision to ride the big fella through the ninth. Castro rewarded his faith with a 1-2-3 inning. Seriously, great work today by two of the more maligned characters in the bullpen tonight to keep the good guys in range. Although, after scoring a run in both the 7th AND 8th innings, it felt like we had already reached our quota for late runs for the week and would likely meekly slink off into the night and hope to fight off a sweep tomorrow afternoon. But this was a different Diamondbacks team tonight. This team felt more like the 2023 Snakes for the first time all year. Ketel Marte came up to bat with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth and launched a rocket towards the right-center gap. At first I was sure it was a double, but then it kept floating up and I was more concerned that Bellinger or Tauchmann might be able to reach it for the last out of the game. But it didn’t come down! Not in the field of play anyway. Ketel hit the game-tying solo shot 410 feet to the top of the wall in the pool area, and it need every single inch of that 410 feet. Tie ball game after 9! Free baseball! Again!
D-backs 11, Cubs 11 through regulation (There it is! Answerback #3 complete)
An entirely new battery came out for the 10th inning, but it was the same as last night’s ill-fated 9th inning duo with Kevin Ginkel on the mound and Gabi Moreno behind the plate. Fortunately, there were no wild pitches this time as Ginkel faced the minimum, though a TOOTBLAN by WonderCub Michael Busch made things a little easier than it could have been. A scoreless Cub tenth set the stage for a potential walkoff, which would be our first of the year if I’m not mistaken. Drew Smyly came out of the Cub bullpen to try and strand the ghost runner at second for Chicago, but Torey now countered with his platoon advantage DH sending Randal Grichuk to the plate in place of Joc. On the second pitch of the inning, Grichuk laced the ball into the left-center gap, scoring Christian Walker and securing a Diamondback 12-11 victory!
Quite a game with ups and downs and twists and turns, but glad the good guys ended up on top in one of these tonight. For the first time this year, it felt like this was the offense we were watching during the 2023 playoffs with some home runs and smart, aggressive base running. Two meltdown innings from the bullpen were not enough to sink our ship tonight as the Answerbacks made their first appearance of the season.
Total of 284 comments on tonight’s Gameday Thread, not a ton of Sedona Red to choose from, but this one from Xerostomia seems to sum up the feels best.
The Diamondbacks and Cubs reconvene at Chase tomorrow for a 12:40 first pitch, pitting Brandon Pfaadt against Jordan Wicks.
Good night! Go D-backs!