The game started off most inauspiciously. The Diamondbacks sent the consistently inconsistent Eduardo Rodriguez to the mound in this game to decide the season series between the Giants and the Diamondbacks. It didn’t take long for everyone to see the ugly version of Eduardo Rodriguez as the first four batters reached. By the end of the top half of the first, the Diamondbacks were staring down the barrel of a four run deficit and they hadn’t even had a chance to take some warm-up swings yet. The Giants did not
have anormal starter slated for tonight. Instead, they went with a bullpen game for the second game of the series. The Arizona half of the first started off oddly. Geraldo Perdomo struck out, swinging wildly at a pitch so far in the dirt it hit his back foot. The carom got away from the catcher Knizner and Perdomo sprinted safely to first. Alas, Ketel Marte followed that up with a routine groundball double play and then Corbin Carroll struck out on a pitch well outside the zone. All indications were that this was going to be a very long night for Snakes fans.
The second inning went much smoother for Rodriguez and it looked like he might be settling in. The only problem was, he was settling in with plenty of loud, deep fly contact. That’s a dangerous way to make a living at Chase Field. Then the Diamondbacks got things going. Gabriel Moreno started things off with a solid double. That was promptly followed by a Blaze Alexander liner to right that put runners on the corners. Adrian Del Castillo then stepped in and crushed a slider that hung over the middle of the plate, knee high for a three run home run. Alex Thomas then singled to keep the pressure on. But, Tristan Beck dialed up yet another double play groundball and then retired Jake McCarthy on a grounder to second.
Rodriguez managed to get Chapman to ground out meekly and that brought up Wilmer Flores. Flores promptly took Rodriguez deep to left center field, showing off why hard hit flyballs are so dangerous at Chase Field. Rodriguez then went line out, single, groundout in rather comfortable fashion. Perdomo then lead things off again in the bottom half of the inning with a stinging double. Unfortunately, he was stranded there as the next three batters were unable to do anything productive.
Through the next two innings, Rodriguez allowed only one base runner, a lead-off walk in the fifth inning that was promptly erased by a double play ball of his own. The Snakes went to work in the bottom half of the inning, playing small ball. Vargas hit a seeing-eye grounder for a single. Jake McCarthy then sacrificed him over to second. Marte drove Vargas in with a single to right. Carroll then singled to left to score another run, tying the game at five. Moreno then gave the ball a long ride that was caught in front of the pool in right. Blaze Alexander then hit the ball even farther, but still out under the home run porch in right center.
The Arizona bullpen then took over for Rodriguez. Despite the ugly score line, Rodriguez did his job. He kept the team in the game. If not for the major misstep of the first inning, he looked like vintage Rodriguez. The rest of the night, the Diamondbacks continued to get the first batter of the inning on but had trouble getting that runner home. There were a handful of odd plays that defined the rest of the game. In the seventh inning, Marte led things off with a line shot into center that he turned into a head-first diving hustle double. Corbin Carroll then followed that up by nearly taking the pitcher pout of his shoes with a liner up the middle that put runners on the corners. With a massive hole in left field, Moreno smashed a line drive down the third base foul line. Unfortunately, Matt Chapman was up to the challenge and snagged it, preventing two runs from scoring. Then, the first of the odd plays involving Wilmer Flores came up. With runners on the corners, Blaze Alexander grounded to Flores at first. The contact play was on and Flores, after making the move to first for the force, threw home and gunned down Marte at the plate on what was a far closer play than it had any business being. The Giants thought they had managed to survive another inning through yet another double play. However, Flores’s footwork at first was sloppy and he missed the tag of the base, straddling it like a second baseman turning a double play instead of pushing off the bag with his plant foot. The eventual scoring was Marte being out at home on a fielder’s choice. Carroll was still at second. This brought up Jordan Lawlar. He too grounded towards Flores. Flores did not miss tagging his base a second time.
There was a moment of worry in the eighth inning. After an Alek Thomas single and a Vargas sacrifice, Jorge Barrosa flied out. Then, Geraldo Perdomo took a sinking fastball in his left kidney and went down hard. He gutted it out and took his base, but there was understandable concern. The runners were stranded when Marte grounded out.
In the ninth, things got interesting quickly. Corbin Carroll started things off with another hard-hit single. Before he could steal second or even make San Francisco’s closer feel uncomfortable, Gabriel Moreno took a four-pitch walk. Blaze Alexander then came up and, with the speedy Carroll at second, elected to lay down the third sacrifice of the evening for the Diamondbacks. Newly inserted Patrick Bailey came out from behind the plate to field the ball and threw a strike to first. Wilmer Flores was crashing the plate, so the second baseman, Casey Schmidt covered first, except that he took his foot off the bag in order to field the ball, despite the perfect throw. This resulted in the bases being loaded with nobody out and Jordan Lawlar again coming to the plate. In his previous at-bat, Lawlar continued to have his weakness against breaking balls readily exposed. It looked like it might be more of the same in this at-bat as well. But then, Lawlar nubbed a weak grounder out into the triangle between the mound, first, and second. That pushed Carroll home across the plate and became Lawlar’s first walk-off of his career.
Final thoughts: The Diamondbacks refuse to say die. They fell behind early and then chipped away while the pitching settled in. Tonight, they hit the ball with authority time and again, especially Corbin Carroll. Unsurprisingly, they found runs via the long ball. But the real damage was done when the team shifted gears and started playing small ball. They successfully executed three sacrifice bunts that resulted in pushing runners into scoring position and of those three, one resulted in no out actually being recorded. Ketel Marte looked more locked in/motivated this evening than he has recently. Jordan Lawlar continues to improve at the plate, having himself a productive night after coming in as a later-game pinch hitter. Blaze Alexander continues to look vastly improved at third and is starting to look like a legitimate candidate for the position moving forward, though that still leaves the team needing to find more reps for Lawlar. The bullpen combined for four clean innings tonight, slamming the door on the pesky Giants. Though, it should be noted that Ryan Thompson was doing his own tempting of fate, allowing long flies to deep left that the ballpark contained.
All-in-all, a very good win of the complete variety. Tomorrow, the Diamondbacks look for a series sweep. Brandon Pfaadt is slated to take the mound for the Diamondbacks. He will be facing off against future Hall of Famer, Justin Verlander. First pitch is at 12:40 Arizona time.
The Great: Corbin Carroll +22.5%
The Good: ADC +13.3%
The Ugly: Eduardo Rodriguez -26.1%
Endnote: The New York Mets clobbered the San Diego Padres earlier in the evening, meaning that the Diamondbacks remain 1.5 games behind them for the final wild card berth. Arizona has 10 games left on the season to try and make up that gap.
