The runs came in twos and Slade still can’t solve the second time through the order.
The Diamondbacks sent Slade Cecconi to the hill to try and secure our penultimate game of the season against the Reds. Just last week when Slade faced these same Reds, he made it through 5.1 innings allowing only 1 run on a solo shot by Jeimer Candelario. He did walk his season high (3) in last week’s outing while also getting his season low of punch outs (2), so I was watching to see if Slade’s control would come back to his season rates or if last week’s start was the beginning of a trend.
The outing started off well enough for young Slade, with a one pitch out to lead off the game. Cecconi only needed 8 pitches total to finish the first and bring the Snakes to the plate. Corbin led off with warning track fly out to right, but Hunter Greene settled in and needed only needed 12 pitches for his 1-2-3 inning. Slade earned another 1 pitch out to leadoff the Reds second and needed only 7 pitches in total for this 1-2-3 inning. Not a bad start at all to this game. Unfortunately, the D-backs were only slightly more patient in their half of the inning, but were just as ineffective. Both starters were cruising through 2.
The action started to pick up in the third. Slade was the first pitcher to relent, giving up a leadoff walk. He was spraying it around a little more in this inning but retired the next three hitters via strikeout, lazy flyout, before ending things with a screaming liner right at Walker to retire the side. It took 19 pitches but no damage done.
The Rattle (bottom of the order nickname I’m trying out courtesy AttracheK) came up in the bottom of the third and Jake McCarthy promptly hit a double down the right field line to get the Diamondbacks on the bases for the first time. Then Monday’s hero, Kevin Newman, worked a walk to get two on without an out. Tucker Barnhart laid down a great sacrifice bunt to get both runners into scoring position for the top of the order. The Rattle did its job, now the page turned to the top of the order to see if they could do anything with the opportunity. Corbin grounded out right at the drawn in infield, so no chance to advance the runners. Blaze came through though with a 2-strike, 2-out knock to right to score both runners. The side was retired on a great leaping grab by Jonathan India Joc, but the damage was done and the good guys lead 2-0!
Slade returned to the mound with 2 run lead to protect and started out decently by getting Elly to climb the ladder and whiff on a neck-high fastball to start the fourth. Then, the wheels started to wobble for the Arizona starter. The first base hit for the Reds went to Mike Ford on a worm burner back up the box, then there was nothing cheap about the next hit by Tyler Stephenson, a double lined to the base of the left field wall. That placed runners at second and third with one out and the second time through the order blues were returning for Slade. Jake Fraley got solid contact on a fly ball to center that was caught by Corbin but deep enough to score Ford from third. Then Jeimer Candelario, who is absolutely destroying the D-backs this season, singled through the shift between Blaze and Newman, scoring Stephenson from second. Corbin drew the ire of the GDT by missing the cutoff man on his throw to the infield which allowed Candelario to advance to second. Fortunately no further damage was done, as India popped out to McCarthy to end the inning, but the Diamondbacks headed back to the dugout in a tie ballgame. Christian Walker just missed the first pitch in his at bat to leadoff the fourth and flew out to the warning track in left, but the middle of the order went down in order for the second time of the night.
There was a leadoff single against Slade to start the fifth and that single came around to score on a big fly by Will Benson, making it 4-0. Slade retired the next two to end the inning, but now the D-backs were in a hole for the first time of the night. The Rattle came up in the fifth, but didn’t deliver the same results as the first time around. Newman (who else?) punched a one out single into right, but he was stranded there.
Slade came back out for the sixth sitting pretty pitch count wise (67), but was just trying to keep the team close after allowing a pair of runs in each of the last two innings. McCarthy nearly made a web gem on a flare down the line to lead off the sixth, but the ball popped out of his glove on the tumble and Stephenson, the Reds catcher, stood at first happy to be alive. Jake Fraley followed that up with his second hit of the night, a rocket into right. With the first two runners on and nobody out, the bullpen cranked up to prepare and come in to save their struggling right-hander. Slade was able to retire the next two he faced but Torey decided he couldn’t wait any longer to go and get the young man. Logan Allen came on in relief and seemed to be allergic to the strike zone. His wildness allowed both inherited runners to score before he could close out the inning.
This will go down as another outing for Cecconi where the final line looks ugly because the wheels fell off after he was nigh untouchable the first time through the order. Slade was able to be in the zone much more than his previous outing against Cincy (60% today, 45% last week), but he seemed to be in the heart of the zone rather than the edges and he got hit hard because of it.
Joc Pederson smoked a liner toward the visitor’s bullpen to get a 1-out double in the sixth, but Christian Walker and Lourdes Gurriel could not bring him home and the Diamondbacks stranded the RISP. The theme last night was not getting the big hit with runners in scoring position, but tonight it was more a struggle to get runners into scoring position at all. We were going to have to be very efficient with our scoring opportunities so wasting that double felt like a big miss.
Into the seventh we went, and Logan Allen navigated some self-induced turbulent waters but came out the other side without any runs allowed. Kevin Newman continued to answer “Present” at his turn in the order with a two-out double in the home-half of the inning. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot of rogering up from the rest of the lineup and he was LOB again.
The 8th and 9th innings featured a whole lot of no offense from either side. Logan Allen got through one out in the ninth before being relieved by Bryce Jarvis to close things out. The Reds bullpen only allowed a 2-out knock to Geno Suarez in the bottom of the ninth to nail down a rare-for-them win and give me my first defeat as a recapper. I really feel like part of the gang now, so there’s that.
The Diamondbacks never really got comfortable against Hunter Greene tonight. Greene was feeling it and was excited for each batter to get in the box. The Reds had an xBA of .290 while the D-backs had an xBA of .275 and the HardHit% were nearly identical at 31.4% and 32.1% (with the D-backs on the higher end), but the actual hit discrepancy was much more pronounced at 13-6 in favor of the Reds. Not going to win many games when you are outhit by that much.
Losing Probability
Courtesy FanGraphs
Players of the Game
Blaze Alexander: 1 for 4, but it was a clutch 2-strike, 2-out knock to score 2. WPA 13.4%
Kevin Newman: 2 for 2 with a walk, double, and run scored. WPA 8.0%
Gameday Thread
A very light Tuesday night, which is expected considering the outcome and the fact that it’s Tuesday. Only 93 comments and none went red so no COTN winner.
Coming Up
The Diamondbacks look to win the series tomorrow in a getaway day 12:40pm start. The Snakes will send Brandon Pfaadt (1-3, 4.60) to the mound against Reds lefty Andrew Abbott (2-4, 3.35).