Record 68-71. Pace: 79-83. Change on 2024: -10.
Probably the most salient point about tonight’s game is that I now know how to spell “pyrrhic” without having to look it up in the dictionary. The D-backs took a heck of a beating tonight. Not particularly in the box score, where they only time the Rangers led was in the tenth inning. But it seemed that Arizona trainer Max Esposito had more trips out of the dugout tonight than any of the team’s batters. Ryne Nelson had a comebacker ping off his leg. Gabriel Moreno took a foul ball to a part of his anatomy
nobody should have to. Reliever Juan Burgos had to leave the game after another comebacker – a play that scored both winning runs for Texas.
But the worst and most significant injury happened without any contact at all. Blaze Alexander was making his MLB debut in center, and with two outs in the top of the sixth, land mammal Rowdy Tellez lined one to the left-center gap. Alexander and Lourdes Gurriel both closed on the ball, and Blaze made a nice diving play for the out. But it appeared that, in changing direction to avoid the scene, Gurriel may have done something to his knee. He went down immediately, in obvious pain, and while he was eventually able to stand up, he took a cart off the field, his head in his hands (below). As I write, there’s no word on his condition, but it didn’t look good.
The game had been going so well too. Nelson started off with a 1-2-3 first inning, with a pair of strikeouts. Then Ketel Marte came to the plate and cranked a 3-1 pitch from former Diamondbacks Patrick Corbin over the fence for his 24th home-run. Then Geraldo Perdomo repeated the result on the very next pitch for a 2-0 lead (both below) Sadly, we were denied the sight of some Corbin on Corbin violence, as Carroll flew out. But it wasn’t far short: an exit velocity of over 100 mph, and a distance of 353 feet. Still, as starts go… I also hadn’t realized Corbin (Patrick) is now in his thirteenth major-league season. He left Arizona seven years and 196 starts ago.
The home-run parade continued in the second inning when Tyler Lockler got off his slide with a two-out homer, his third of the year. However, that was the last D-backs hit until the bottom of the sixth, at which point I was looking up whether a team had ever had 3+ hits, all home-runs. The answer is yes: 18 times, in fact. The record belongs to the Cleveland Indians in 1989 – coincidentally, against the Texas Rangers. Cleveland had six hits, all of which left the yard, in a 7-3 win. That became moot in the sixth. Corbin (Carroll) singled, stole second and third, then scored on Alexander’s first career triple, and Blaze came home on a Gabriel Moreno double.
That gave Arizona back the lead at 5-3. The bottom third of the Rangers order had hurt Nelson, a two-run homer from their #8 hitter first pulling Texas within one, and another homer in the sixth tied things up. Nelson did get through six, making this a “quality start” by the narrowest of both definitions. He allowed four hits and a walk with seven strikeouts, and it seemed he was mixing up his pitches more than normal. That wasn’t particularly the case – his four-seamer was still 65%. But he almost abandoned the cutter tonight, throwing it just three times. Those pitches went to his curve instead, and he got seven whiffs on twelve swings off it. Last time in Milwaukee, he got just one whiff on the curve.
After he left, it was over to the bullpen, and it went well in the seventh and eighth. Ryan Thompson, fresh off the IL, worked a 1-2-3 inning, then Andrew Saalfrank repeated the medicine. That took us to the ninth, where Andrew Backhus got the save situation. A single and RBI triple (by Jake Burger, a land mammal with four in his career: thanks, Alek!) put the tying run at third with one out, and Jake Woodford came to the mound instead. He got a swinging strike for the second out, which is where home-plate umpire Chad Fairchild must have [REDACTED PER SBN LAWYERS]. Because Woodford came within one strike of ending the game, despite apparently blown strike calls to both Kyle Higashioka and Cody Freeman. Both reached base, the latter after a game-tying RBI single.
Juan Morillo pitched the top of the tenth, and despite a lead-off walk, got a K and a groundout on a lovely play by Geraldo Perdomo, which survived a Texas challenge. So he had a chance to escape with a zero. But Morillo served up a cookie to career .149 hitter Alejandro Osuna, who hammered it back up the middle at 108.6 mph, off the pitcher’s arm and into foul territory. One run scored, the second came home but was called out by Fairchild at the plate. Texas had used their challenge, right? Well, apparently, this call was so egregiously terrible, crew chief Bill Miller immediately decided the Rangers deserved another review anyway, and the call was overturned. Fairchild should be sent to work T-ball games.
Not that it would have made much difference, because to nobody’s great surprise, the D-backs were unable to get even the Manfred Man home – not helped by more Fairchild incompetence – and racked up their 10th extra-inning loss. Much though I did enjoy the subsequent meltdown of the “FIRE LUVOLLO” crowd on social media, this was a tremendously annoying contest, mostly due to the stuff on the edges, like the injuries and shit-tier officiating. It all leaves me fairly glad I won’t be recapping the next two Monday games, because this was perhaps the least pleasurable one I’ve had to write up this year.
Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com
Not Chad Fairchild: Gabriel Moreno, +13.4%
Chad Fairchild: Juan Burgos, -29.1%%
Chad Lite: Backhus -24.7%; Vargas, -19.1%
There was not much of an update after the game from Torey regarding Gurriel. “Right knee pain”, no diagnosis right now, and he will have imaging tomorrow. Burgos will too, though imaging at the ballpark didn’t show anything. As for the GDT, my overall demeanor was not helped by being locked out of my own Chading site with a redirect error for most of the second half. But comment of the night to VW Beetle: eighties musical references are almost an automatic winner if I’m recapping!
Back tomorrow, with the game at a normal time of 6:40 pm, since we will all be returned to wage slavery. In the spirit of the comment above, fingers crossed we will simply be having a wonderful Crismatt time in that one…
