Game Summary
Full recap to follow shortly. For now, enjoy the win and discuss in the comments!
Win Probability and Box Score
Outside the Box Score
- Jose Ramirez worked a walk in the first inning against Bratt, which isn’t a terrible outcome considering what he’s capable of with the bat, but then stole second almost immediately. Gabi made an extremely quick throw to give Domo a chance but the ball leaked to the first base side and was just clipped off Gerry’s glove allowing Ramirez to slide in safely. If Gerry was able to corral the throw, Ramirez would’ve been out by a good margin.
- Bratt got his first strikeout of the day thanks to a nice challenge by Gabi, changing a full count to a strikeout.
- Ryan Waldschmidt got the Diamondbacks first hit of the game with 2 outs in the 3rd, then ran into the third out of the inning when he started early for second in a steal attempt, thought better of it and tried to go back to first but the pitcher had plenty of time to pivot off the rubber and pick him off.
- Bratt gave up a leadoff single in the 3rd, then they Stephen Vogt had his leadoff hitter sacrifice bunt to get the runner to 2nd. That was a questionable choice that Bratt exploited by retiring the next 2 hitters to get out of the inning without allowing the runner to score.
- D-backs got 2 straight runners on with 2 out in the 4th thanks to 2 HBP. Both plunks just barely grazed Gabi and Ketel, with Ketel’s needing video review to confirm it happened.
- Bratt walked the leadoff hitter in the 4th, but I’d say only the last of those balls wasn’t a strike. Bratt was dotting the edges of the zone according to the TV box but Gabi couldn’t quite get himself to pull the trigger on a challenge. All’s well that ends well, though, since Bratt got the next hitter to ground into a 5-4-3 double play with Arenado starting the play with a perfect throw on the run to Ketel so he had a chance to fire a strike to first.
- Diamondbacks hitters had a few long ABs against Bibee, but for the most part they were put in a bind by Bibee’s ability to pump strikes in the zone early and so were swinging early and often. After 5 innings, Bibee only had 65 pitches.
- Nolan Arenado made a very nice play on a groundball down the third base line to get a critical 2nd out in the 5th. The Guardians runner at second was able to advance to third on the play, but Torey made the correct call to then intentionally walk Jose Ramirez and Bratt finished the job by getting a can of corn fly out to Kepler. Excellent job by fielding, coaching, and pitching to keep the deficit at 1 run through 5 innings.
- After Gerry went the opposite way to get a bases loaded single and tie the game, Gabi hit a liner in nearly the exact same spot but the right fielder let the ball eat him up and it bounced off his glove and rolled away. Still only got 2 runs home on the play because the runners had to freeze to see if the ball would be caught on the fly, but a big break for the Snakes resulted in a 2-run lead and still only 1 out in the inning!
Comment of the Game
A very light GameDay Thread tonight, likely due to the combination of early start and lack of offense early. Only 116 comments at time of publishing and of the few Sedona Red comments, I’ll choose Snake_Bitten’s response to the offense waking up as COTG:
Coming Up
The Diamondbacks face the Guardians for the second game of this interleague 3-game set tomorrow afternoon with a 4:15pm first pitch Arizona time and televised on FOX.
In a matchup of southpaws, Parker Messick (8-6, 2.59 ERA) is listed as the probable starter for The Land and young Kohl Drake (0-0, 5.00 ERA) will get the ball for the good guys.
Scoreboard Watching
More to come later, but right now it’s looking like a great day in the standings with losses for the Cubs, Pirates, Phillies, Cardinals and Nationals. Only the Marlins have won of the contenders for the WC spots.
