What, that’s not the “42” being honored today?
Record: 8-9. Pace: 76-86. Change on 2023: -2.
I think you ought to know, I’m feeling very depressed… Well, actually, this is likely not a game that the Diamondbacks deserved to win, and that’s almost entirely on the offense. They went 3-for-35 tonight, managing just a Randal Grichuk double and singles by Jake McCarthy and Corbin Carroll over eleven innings. That’s not good enough, especially against a pitcher making his second career start, and who only has two pitches in his arsenal, a fastball and a curveball. You might as well flip a coin up there. Unfortunately, the D-backs hitters appeared to be rolling a die instead, and one of those ones used for Dungeons and Dragons to boot.
To be fair, Arizona’s hitters actually did barrel the ball up on a number of occasions, but it seemed like the harder they hit the ball, the more unerringly it found Cubs gloves. Courtesy of Baseball Savant, here are a sampling of exit velocities and expected batting averages for the Diamondbacks hitters this evening:
- Corbin Carroll, 1st inning, 104.1 mph, .880, lineout
- Ketel Marte, 3rd inning, 100.8 mph, .470, lineout
- Christian Walker, 4th inning, 101.5 mph, .430, lineout
- Lourdes Gurriel, 6th inning, 102.1 mph, .670, lineout
- Gabriel Moreno, 8th inning, 67.8 mph, .830 flyout
The last showed that even when the D-backs blooped what should have been a hit, it still ended up as an out. Admittedly, the Cubs had their share as well, such as Ian Happ’s 113.5 mph forceout, which was the hardest-hit ball of the night. But they had three times as many hits as the Diamondbacks, 9-3, and it’s hard to overcome such a disparity in the offensive column.
Merrill Kelly was not at his sharpest, with his efficiency being the main bugbear. The only damage came on a second-inning home-run by Michael Busch, who tied the Cubs franchise record by going deep for his fifth consecutive game. Outside of that, Kelly was fine. He allowed three hits and two walks with five strikeouts: but it took him 95 pitches to get through five innings, needing 4.75 pitches per plate appearances. Considering the figure across his first three starts was 3.64 P/PA. the extended at-bats worked by Chicago likely cost him a good inning of work on the night. He still managed to get his ERA for the year down to 2.15, so blame really can’t be laid on (Mother) Kelly’s door-step.
After Chicago took the lead, Arizona were able to come right back and level things up. Christian Walker got things going with his team-leading eleventh walk, two outs later, Gabriel Moreno also worked a base on balls, and Jake McCarthy brought home Walker, with a single to right-center, making it 1-1. Those three men were literally the onle base-runners Arizona managed against Ben Brown, who looked as if he should be delivering papers rather than pitching in a major-league ballpark. He had been pressed into work as a starter due to the Cubs’ injury problems, but he showed you can do a lot with a little, if you use your pitching repertoire smartly.
Until the bottom of the eighth, there was little of interest except Joc Pederson striking out. That’s of note, because it hadn’t happened at all this season. prior to the seventh inning tonight. He had gone 37 K’less plate-appearances to start the season, the second longest streak in franchise history, The record belongs to Orlando Hudson in 2008, who began that year with 50 consecutive PA before he struck out. Anyway, in the eighth, the D-backs got their other two hits. With one out, just after Moreno was robbed of a bloop, Grichuk doubled to left. The Cubs walked Marte to get a L/L match-up on Carroll, who pulled the ball nicely to right-field for an RBI single – something he has notably not been doing of late.
That brought in Kevin Ginkel for the save, and he was one out away from sealing the victory, though had men on first and second. But he spiked an 0-1 slider, which pinged off Moreno, and our catcher completely lost track of the ball, allowing the runner to score all the way from second on the wild pitch. Into extras we went, and Bryce Jarvis did yeoman’s work there, stranding the Manfred Man in the tenth, and somehow limiting the Cubs to just that run in the eleventh, after opening walk, single, RBI single. But the Diamondbacks offense returned to its state of putrefied slumber, perhaps best summed up by a dreadful AB from Grichuk in the tenth inning (above), with men on first and second.
They were consequently unable to score their Manfred Man in the tenth, which would have won them the game, or in the eleventh, which would have prolonged things. Mind you, with Scott McGough and Luis Frias the only bullpen arms left, the latter would likely only have been a stay of execution. Though, again, we really can’t blame the bullpen, who held the Cubs to one earned run over six innings – and that only scored on Moreno’s impersonation of a nocturnal flying mammal. It was, instead, a feeble set of efforts at the plate, and nobody should escape criticism there. This was a game we never deserved to win, almost did anyway, the ended up losing. Life? Don’t talk to me about life…
Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com
Zaphod Beeblebrox: Bryce Jarvis, +26.8%
Ford Prefect: Kelly, +17.9%; Carroll, +16.3%; Thompson, +11.0%
Vogon poetry: Lourdes Gurriell, -32.6%
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal: Walker, -25.3%; Ginkel, -18.9%; Marte, -18.7%; Suarez, -10.4%; Alexander, -10.2%
At 3:18, that was the longest Diamondbacks regular season game since the 13-inning win against the same opponents at the same location on September 16th last year. It certainly felt like it, and there were a brisk 338 comments in the Gameday Thread, though not all of them were complimentary shall we say. But in the spirit of positivity, I’m giving Comment of the Night to jeffern51:
I think it is interesting to see our purported “long relief guy” being used two nights in a row. I suspect that, when Jordan Montgomery comes back, we may see whoever he replaces in the rotation shifting to that long role, with Jarvis moving up the pecking order and, I suspect, Luis Frias being optioned down to Reno. We will see later in the week. Tomorrow, it’s the same two teams, but you should have a different recapper. 🙂 Tommy Henry gets the start for the Diamondbacks.