The Arizona Diamondbacks were met with the early-evening news that the New York Mets had just lost their eighth straight ballgame. Suddenly facing the opportunity to sit just two games back with a win tonight, the Diamondbacks gutted out a 10-inning victory in the kind of ballgame you might expect to see against an opponent with something to lose on every pitch of the game.
Joe Ryan, regrettably, is not doing much to resolve concerns about his full-season longevity. With a history of slowdown with
a full season’s work, Ryan followed up his 2-inning start last time out with a 4-inning start tonight, including a 31-pitch second inning that NOBLETIGER’d the D-Backs, but led Ryan to issue a cursory expletive on his way off the mound.
In his four innings of work, he walked two hitters, struck out just four, and surrendered the two-run shot to Alek Thomas that was Arizona’s only score in regulation.
Well, one good turn deserves another. So said the Diamondbacks in the fifth inning, when they returned Minnesota’s second-inning NOBLETIGER with a NOBLETIGER of their own. For a long while, it looked as though the Twins would be shut out, especially in a deflating 7th-inning sequence. With two men on for Minnesota, manager Rocco Baldelli went to pinch-hitter Carson McCusker.
Representing the go-ahead run, it was an opportunity for the biggest hit of McCusker’s limboic (limboic?) career. Baldelli agreed, because when McCusker reached a 3-0 count, he was given the green light and absolutely crushed one, sending a pitch 102.8 mph off the bat, 402 feet into right-center — a homer in 12 parks, and rocking a .560 xBA, the deep fly nestled securely into an Arizonian glove and counted for nothing more than a loud second out.
(The better rookie story in this game belonged to Cody Laweryson, who made his major-league debut in the middle innings and rocked two scoreless frames, including strikeouts of Gabriel Moreno and Adrian Del Castillo.)
The Twins, for their part, would remain a thorn in the side of the Diamondbacks. They would wind up tying the game in the home eighth, with last night’s hero Kody Clemens knocking in a pair with a bases-loaded single to right. But Minnesota couldn’t bring anyone else home, and after a scoreless ninth, it was a three-run 10th for Arizona off Cole Sands — who continues to deliver increasingly frustrating performances, given the expectation for his role in 2026 — that finally tilted this ballgame.
It’s been a great series so far, even if only half of the involved parties have something to play for. And it should be a fun conclusion to the series tomorrow afternoon, with Bailey Ober getting his chance to play spoiler to the hopeful Snakes.
See you then!
STUDS:
RP Cody Laweryson (2 IP, H, 0 R, 2 K)
LF Austin Martin (2-for-4, R, 2B, BB)
1B Kody Clemens (2-for-4, 2 RBI)
DUDS:
RP Cole Sands (IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K)
The Pohlad Family
