I came into this game feeling as steeped in negativity and doomerism regarding our offense’s recent struggles as I would imagine the rest of you all have been. It is, after all, a rather remarkable thing we achieved over the previous five games—only scoring six runs across forty-five innings, and having failed to drive a runner in who was in scoring position in something like 30 of those innings. So I made a conscious choice, as I was turning on the game and saying hello to the Gameday Thread, to choose
to believe that the offense would show up today. And much to my relief, and frankly my surprise as the game dragged on, the offense did!
It honestly didn’t look terrific in the early going. We had Brandon Pfaadt going up against a rookie righthander named Ethan Pecko, and on paper anyway we seemed to have the distinct advantage. Lars Nootbaar led off the top of the first with a six-pitch walk, which seemed liek a good sign until he was left standing there as the next three batters flew out to various parts of the Houston outfield.
It looked even more hopeful in the second, with Corbin Carroll—who was bumped down to fifth in the lineup tonight, a move that was long overdue—dunked a ball into shallow center in front of Daulton Varsho and turned on the jets as soon as he left the batter’s box for a nice hustle double. Nolan Arenado then singled on a grounder to left that advanced Corbin to third, giving us runners on the corners with nobody out. But Max Kepler popped out to first on the first pitch he saw, Tim Tawa struck out swinging on three pitches, and Ryan Waldschmidt grounded out to third to strand the runners. It was truly abysmal, especially Kepler’s and Tawa’s ABs.
In the top of the third, Gabriel Moreno hit a two-out double off the wall in left field, but as is often the case with two-out doubles, he remained standing on second base as the final out was recorded. So, in a pattern that has become intensely familar to all of us lately, we had chances and came away with nothing. Boo.
Pfaadt, at least, was doing his job, setting the Astros down in order in the first and the second. He ran into some trouble in the bottom of the third, allowing a leadoff single to Yainer Diaz followed by a Taylor Trammell double to give Houston runners on second and third with nombody out. Rather remarkably, Brandon nearly wriggled off the hook, inducing an infield pop-out and then a strikeoout before intentionally walking AL MVP frontrunner Yordan Alvarez and surrendering Isaac Paredes single to right that drove in two. 2-0 Houston
If I’m completely honest, that was when I started to really wonder. I mean, Pfaadt had been pitching well, and he continued to pitch well after that, but going by our run production in the previous four games, chances seemed good that the game was basically over. Optimism is hard.
We did get a run back in the top of the fifth, thanks to a leadoff single by Tim Tawa, a Waldschmidt squibber back to the mound that advanced him to second, and a Lars Nootbaar single to right that got him to third. A number of folks in the Gameday Thread seemed cranky that Tawa got the stop sign at third rather than trying to score, and I felt that way, too, because it’s not like we’ve been doing the job of getting folks in from third base for quite a few games now. But, after the Astros pulled their starter and went to their bullpen, Geraldo Perdomo came to the plate and hit a fly ball to deep enough in center field that Tawa was able to tag and score. 2-1 Houtson
Of course, we immediately gave that run right back in the bottom of the fifth in a sequence that wound up adding another earned run to Brandon Pfaadt’s pitching line but which really wasn’t his fault. He surrendered a one-out triple to Cam Smith, the Astros’ right fielder and nine-hole hitter, but induced a grounder to short on his very next pitch. Perdomo made a head’s up play and threw immediately to third to catch Smith, who’d started down the line but tried to go back to the base. That put a runner on first with two outs, Pfaadt thren walked Alvarez, and Isaac Paredes doinked a fly ball into shallow center that Ryan Waldschmidt misread off the bat, breaking back toward the warning track before realizing that he really needed to be coming in. He wound up having to dive for the ball, he wound up missing, the ball dropped for a single when it really should have been the third out. 3-1 Houston
A guy named Kai Wei Teng came out of the Houston ‘pen for the top of the seventh, and after striking out Max Kepler—who sucks and shouldn’t be in our lineup again, like, ever—walked Tawa and Waldschmidt to bring Nootbaar to the plate for the fourth time in the ballgame. Teng was pulled for yet anouther Astros reliever, and Nootbaar greeted him with an RBI double to right:
Waldschmidt probably could have scored from third, but once again, the stop sign got thrown up, and two outs later, Ryan was still standing on third. 3-2 Houston
Happily, however, Ketel Marte led off the top of the eighth for us, and while I know a lot of folks still have very mixed feelings about him and his role on the team, he did provide the faithful with a reminder of why he can bea useful guy to have around:
I gotta say, I was really happy to see that, and not just because it tied the game up. But it did, and that’s really the main thing. 3-3 TIE
Josh Hader pitched a scoreless top of the ninth, Jonathan Loaisiga put up a zero for us in the bottom, following zeroes from Ginkel and Morillo in the seventh and eighth, to send us off to extra innings. Ildemaro Vargas, who’d come in to pinch hit for Nootbaar in the ninth, served as our Manfred Man, and Perdomo bunted him to third before Gabriel Moreno singled him home with a line drive out to right center. Brandyn Garcia retired the Astros in order, leaving their Manfred Man stranded, and earning us a much-needed W. 4-3 D-BACKS
Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs
Shooting Stars: Brandyn Garcia (1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 K, SAVE, +44% WPA), Lars Nootbaar (4 AB, 2 H, 1 2B, 1 RBI, +30% WPA)
Twinkle, Twinkle: Ketel Marte (5 AB, 1 H, 1 RBI, 1 HR, +13% WPA)
Black Holes of Suck: Geraldo Perdomo (3 AB, 0 H, 1 RBI, 1 K, -20% WPA), Max Kepler (4 AB, 0 H, 2 K, -13% WPA)
After a fiarly slow start, the Gameday Thread definitely picked up speed once the offense started to, you know, put up some runs and make things competitive, so we finished out the night with an eminently respectable 306 comments at time of writing. Of the comments that aged well and wound up reflecting the final outcome, I’m giving tonight’s Comment of the Game to Snake_Bitten, for this very true observation:
Yeah. I don’t think Ildemaro Vargas could have sent that pitch over the wall in right to tie the game up and give us the chance to win it in extras. So.
Stop by tomorrow as we go for a needed series win. Hologram Eddie goes for the good guys; righty and Colorado Rockies castoff Peter Lambert goes for Houston. First pitch is scheduled for 11:10AM AZ time, and if I’m not mistaken ISH will be doing the guest recap. Hope you can join us!
As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!
Out-of-Town Scoreboard
Yankees 5, Padres 2
Cubs 6, Marlins 5
Rockies 10, Cardinals 7
So that puts us back in sole possession of the third wild card spot, with San Diego trailing us by 1/2 game. Meanwhile, the Marlins and the Cardinals are now four games back, so it seems increasingly likely that we’re not going to need to worry about them in the rearview mirror.
