A game literally in two parts resulted in a D-backs extra innings loss.
Game Summary
The Diamondbacks undefeated June came to an end Saturday morning thanks to a rain delay Friday night that turned into a suspended game. Many Pitters in the GDT were perturbed with the umpiring crews decision to keep the game going last night in the midst of a downpour. Of course, after 5 innings, the game would be considered officially complete with us as the victors due to the Snakes holding on to a 1-run lead, but I’m sure that in no way clouded our judgement in believing the best course of action was to call the game.
Unfortunately the game was not called after 5, and the D-backs got bit twice in the 6th in the middle of a typhoon-level rainstorm. First, Cristian Mena gave up the game-tying home run that assured we would not get a victory on Friday night. Then, Mena’s control left him (though perhaps understandable due to him having to pitch underwater), resulting in a wild pitch that drilled Gabi in the throwing hand and making him leave the game. Fortunately, Mena limited the damage there and the game was suspended for the evening, all tied up at 3 runs apiece.
The game restarted Saturday morning, and I can honestly say the bullpen did their job. Juan Morillo was the first man out of the bullpen, but he couldn’t find the strike zone at all, walking three batters while retiring only one. Jalen Beeks came in and got out of the inning without allowing a run to score, then he came out and put in another inning of scoreless work to keep the game tied through 8. Ryan Thompson was the next man up and he rebounded nicely from his last outing in Atlanta, dominating the Reds in a 1-2-3 9th and sending the game to extras.
The Diamondback offense had the Manfred man on start the 10th and Carroll, as a pinch hitter, leading off. Corbin didn’t do the whole job, but he at least did well enough to move Geno over to third with a ground out to second base. Jose Herrera then walked, but Ildemaro Vargas and Tim Tawa struck out to leave use scoreless in our half of the 10th.
Ryan Thompson came back out for the 10th and struck out Spencer Steer to start things off, but a hard line drive to center field skipped past Alek Thomas and the Reds walked it off. Watching the play live, it looked like Alek never got a good read on the ball. Part of that was the ball absolutely scorched so he didn’t have much time to make a decision on it, but his indecisiveness showed on screen as he took a weaving route that ended with him just hoping to stick his glove out and keep the ball in front of him as it bounced off the turf. He whiffed. The Reds won.
Loss Probability and Box Score
Outside the Box Score
- E-Rod gave a bloop single down the first base line to lead off the second, then balked him to second with nobody out. Surprisingly, he got out of it via a couple grounders to the left side of the diamond and a lazy fly out. With one out, E-Rod induced a ground ball to Domo who threw out the runner trying to advance from second to third. Terry Francona was not amused (according to some basic lip reading) at the base running gaffe.
- For those following the Diamondbacks offense and their home run celebrations, Domo debuted his new basketball-themed home run trot when he went back-to-back with Ketel in the third. While Ketel comes to a full-stop for a jumper between 2nd and 3rd base on his trot, Domo broke out a slick around-the-back dribble pantomime that led into a finger roll. I feel that fits him well.
- Grichuk was really getting good contact on Reds’ starter Nick Lodolo. His first at bat ended in a 102mph line out to Center. His second at bat was a 104mph line drive single to center. Through the top of the 4th inning, 2 of the 4 hardest hit balls in play belonged to Grichuk (and all of the top 5 belonged to the Diamondbacks).
- Reds got back-to-back one-out singles of E-Rod in very different manners. Christian Encarnacion-Strand stung a liner to center with an exit velocity of 107mph (the hardest hit of the game). Jose Trevino followed with a little dumper that landed just in front of Lourdes Gurriel. Jose Trevino followed with a 64.7mph exit velocity, the slowest ball in play of the game. All’s well that ends well, though as E-Rod got an infield pop out and a ꓘ to finish the fourth inning maintaining his one-run lead and with only 53 pitches.
- Timmy Tawa TOOTBLAN’d in the fifth. He took off too early from first and the lefty Lodolo saw it in plenty of time made his pickoff move to first. Christian Encarnacion-Strand made a poor throw, short-hopping the shortstop covering second base but McClain was able to make a lucky stab (replay showed his eyes closed and he was looking away in case the ball hopped up towards his face) to make the catch and tag out Tawa.
- There was a little bit of rain drizzling down early in the game, but the rain really started to come down at the bottom of the 5th.
- E-Rod stranded a leadoff double from April-Diamondback Garrett Hampson in the 5th. A sac bunt moved Hampson to third with one out, but E-Rod got the Reds to pop out and strikeout to end the threat.
- Cristian Mena came on in the 6th as Arizona’s first call to the bullpen. He started out beautifully when he struck out Spencer Steer looking at a gorgeous curveball that dotted the lower outside corner. He then kinda went off the rails (possibly due to the developing downpour), allowing a homer, a single, a wild pitch that (clipped Gabi’s hand and forced him from the game), and a walk. Fortunately, he was able to squeeze a couple groundouts around all that to get the inning over without the Reds taking the lead and possibly winning the game based on the contest going the required number of innings to be considered complete.
- Jalen Beeks made about as good a play as you can make when you muff the initial play to keep the game tied at the end of the 8th inning. The Reds had the go-ahead run at third with two outs and Beeks induced a chopper back to the mound. He reached out with his glove and the ball bounced off the glove and died in the grass between the mound and third. Thankfully it was the Reds’ catcher who was running to first because with any other player on the Reds roster, they likely would have got to first well before Beeks could run over, pick up the ball, turn, and throw to first. Because it was Jose Trevino, however, Beeks was rewarded for keeping his composure and jumping off the mound to field, turn and throw to first just in time to record the third out without the tie breaking run scoring. Kudos are due to Tim Tawa for making the play at first, as well, because the throw was down the first base line and toward the running Trevino. A seasoned first baseman likely makes that play without much fuss, but Tawa is not a seasoned first baseman, so job well done.
Player of the Game
I didn’t spend any time talking about him during the Game Summary, but Eduardo Rodriguez gets the nod from me for POTG. Last time we saw E-Rod, he was getting repeatedly shelled before finding himself on the IL. Tonight was going to be a short night for him no matter what as he needed to build back up, but tonight’s game was about as good a start as we could’ve hoped for. He went 5 efficient innings, only gave up a 2-run homer, and otherwise felt very much in control of this game. We need this version of E-Rod going forward with Corbin Burnes gone for the year, and last night was a promising step in that direction. Hopefully, it continues.
Comment of the Game
A total of 298 comments in the GDT between last night and this morning. Not a ton of Sedona red to choose from, but this one from MikeMono was the most rec’d comment of the night and it was what every Diamondbacks fan was thinking last night:
Coming Up
By the time this recap is up, the next game is likely underway, but just for history sake when future Diamondbacks fans look back at the Snakepit archives, the D-backs face the Nationals in the second game of this series later today about at 1:10pm Arizona time. Ryne Nelson will be on the bump in our bid to restart a winning streak, and he will be opposed by righty Nick Martinez who is 3-6 with a 3.89 ERA.