The D-backs offense put on a rare no-show while E-Rod and the pitching staff put together a rare gem.
Coming in to tonight, I was a little more worried about the Diamondbacks’ pitching than hitting, but it was opposite night at Chase Field tonight as Eduardo Rodriguez tossed one of his best starts of the year and the bullpen was lights out, but the offense couldn’t muster a thing after loading the bases and scoring their one and only run in the 1st inning.
If you’d like a more detailed recap of this one, continue on, otherwise feel free to jump down to the bells and whistles!
Jackson Chourio led off the game with a gapper to left-center, putting a runner immediately into scoring position against ERod. Rodriguez was able to get a quick strikeout of Garrett Mitchell before walking William Contreras in what looked like a pitch around to set up a double play opportunity. He wouldn’t get that double play, but he safely got out of the inning all the same as he got a one pitch flyout followed by his second strike out of the inning to keep the Brew Crew off the scoreboard in the first.
The best first inning offense in baseball got things started with a Corbin walk and Ketel slap-single to center. Joc yanked a changeup down the first base line that the Brewer first baseman was able to glove, but the only out he was able to record was at first. Now, with runners at 2nd and 3rd with one out. C-Walk earned a five-pitch walk to load the bases for Pavin Smith. Pavin lifted a medium-depth fly ball to center and Corbin scampered home ahead of the throw to put the good guys on the board and both Ketel and Christian tagged and advanced a base to keep 2 runners in scoring position. Unfortunately, Jake McCarthy struck out on a check swing to end the threat, but the Diamondbacks forced a 26 pitch first inning and took a 1-0 lead so job well done!
Eduardo Rodriguez got a 3 pitch strikeout to open up the second inning, then fell behind 3-0 on Rhys Hoskins before coming back and striking him out. Brewers speedster Brice Turang cued a grounder through the 5-6 hole to get a 2-out single, but ERod got his third strikeout of the frame and fifth of the game to send the game to the bottom of the second.
Geno and Gerry led off the inning with a fly out and strikeout before Jose Herrera went the opposite way for a full-count single to bring up Corbin. Carroll got a steady diet of curveballs that eventually led to strikeout to end the inning. After the first two frames, the Diamondbacks had made Freddy Peralta throw 49 pitches.
Rodriguez lost Jackson Chourio to a lead off walk in the third, but was able to pick him off/caught stealing before striking out the next two batters to face the minimum 3 batters in an inning for the first time of the night. Through 3 innings, ERod had 7 strikeouts which was already a season-high.
Freddy Peralta kept throwing curveballs to the Snakes’ lineup in the third and it kept working. Ketel struck out and Joc rolled over weakly for a 1-unassisted groundout. Then Christian Walker came up and got a changeup that he was able to lace down the left field line for a 2-out double. Pavin Smith fell down 0-2 in the count before working a walk, but William Contreras couldn’t cleanly catch Ball 4, letting it dribble a few feet behind him. Walker thought the ball was going much further away than it was, apparently, because he took off for third. Contreras pounced back and fired to third base in plenty of time to retire Walker and end the inning.
The Brewers’ leadoff hitter reached for the third time in four innings when Gary Sanchez lined a ball towards Pavin in left. It appeared like a slight bit of indecision early in the route by Pavin led to him diving for the ball and coming up empty, but fortunately the ball bounced off Pavin’s neck and stayed in front of the left fielder to hold the DH to a single. Willy Adames slammed a fly ball toward the gap in left-center, but it hung up just enough for Jake McCarthy to range over and make a good running grab for the first out of the inning. ERod got a line out to Paving for the second out of the inning, but then left a fastball thigh-high on the inner half of the plate to Rhys Hoskins and it got blasted just inside the left field foul pole for a 2-run homer. Rodriguez got a quick infield pop out to finish the inning, but the game had flipped to 2-1 Brewers.
Jake and Geno were retired with relative ease to start the 4th, Suarez struck out swinging at a slider that bounced in front of the plate. Geraldo Perdomo came up with 2 outs and I was just hoping for Domo to put together one of his patented pesky at bats that would keep driving up Peralta’s pitch count. Gerry only worked a 5 pitch AB, but it resulted in a sharp double down the first base line. Jose Herrera tried going the same way, but Rhys Hoskins made a very good snag of the grounder to retire Herrera and keep the D-backs from equalizing the score.
The leadoff man once again reached to start the fifth, this time in the form of an infield single by the 9-hole hitter. Jackson Chourio worked a full-count before flying out right to the yellow line on the wall in left where Pavin Smith was able to make a leaping grab. The Brewers tried to give the Diamondbacks an automatic out by sacrificing the runner to second, but Eduardo decided he didn’t want any free outs and yanked his throw to first, allowing the hitter to reach safely and put runners at first and second with 1 out. Then the Brewers cranked up with TOOTBLAN machine for their second time of the game: Garrett Mitchell strayed too far off first and Herrera executed an excellent back-pick that led to a run down between both runners going to second and third. In the wild sequence that followed, the Brewers ended up with exactly the scenario they were trying to put themselves in with the sac bunt, runner on second and 2 outs. Now with the open base, William Contreras got the four fingered free pass to set up the force out at any base and that immediately came in handy. Gary Sanchez rocketed the first pitch he saw to the right of Perdomo who made a nice backhand and then got Contreras out at second to end the inning with no damage.
Carroll got aboard to lead off the home-half of the fifth via line drive single to center. Ketel followed with a hard hit grounder but right at the Brewers’ second baseman who easily turned the 4-6-3 DP. Pederson was next in the box, and he and Walker tried to ignite a 2-out rally with a single and walk. Pavin gave a fastball a ride to the deepest part of the park, but it fell harmlessly into the centerfielder’s glove in front of the overhang in right-center to end the threat.
Ryan Thompson came on in relief of ERod in the sixth and got an easy 1-2-3 inning with 2 Ks. Thompson was getting a lot of bites on his slider going away outside the zone tonight and this was one of the better performances he’d had in a while. Hopefully a sign of things to come as we head down the stretch of the season.
The Brewers went to their bullpen in the sixth as well, calling on old Diamondback Joel Payamps who matched Thompson’s line with a perfect 6th and 2 strikeouts.
The Everyman, Joe Mantiply, came in and the Brewers’ speedy lineup put him to the test right away. Brice Turing tried to drag a bunt into the void between the mound and first base but Joe made a great play to reach to grounder and toss to first straight from his glove to record the first out of the inning. Then the Everyman got a strikeout and weak ground out to end the frame and get the D-backs bats back to the plate.
The Brewers brought in a lefty for the bottom of the 7th who got Hosey to strike out on a check swing for the first out of the inning. Corbin rolled over a Sinker for an uninspiring groundout to first and Ketel grounded out to third to end the inning.
The Everyman came back out for the 8th but walked the pinch hitter for the Brewers 5th lead off hitter to reach on the night. Torey made the quick walk to the mound to get his lefty and brought in Justin Martinez to face the heart of the Brewers’ lineup. Contreras chopped out weakly to Geno, but it was hit slowly enough that the D-backs couldn’t turn a double play so the Brewers now had a big insurance run in scoring position. The Brewers sent up a lefty pinch hitter to counter the young Snakes’ flamethrower and Jake Bauers worked an excellent at bat, fouling off pitch after pitch and not biting on anything out of the zone, but full credit is due to JMart for not giving in and continuing to pump strikes, culminating in a 103mph heater blown right past Bauers for the second out of the inning. Then the dangerous Willy Adames came to the plate and a JMart sinker blistered his bat and forced a weak ground out to Ketel to end the inning.
Joc Pederson led off the 8th for the D-backs and just missed a fastball, getting under it to result in a lazy pop out to left. Christian Walker walked after a good battle with the Brewers’ setup man to bring up Pavin Smith and he resorted to old Pavin with a GIDP to shortstop to end the inning.
AJ Puk came on for the 9th inning and looked a little wobbly command-wise, ended up loading the bases with 2 outs on a walk, double, and intentional walk. The intentional pass to Chourio brought up the Brewers third 2-hole hitter of the night, lefty Sal Frelick. I didn’t give Frelick much of a chance to do anything against Puk, but he hit a frisky-looking liner that was slicing away from Pavin down the left field line, but it hung up just long enough for Smith to glove it and bring the D-backs up with 3 outs to get at least 1 run.
Devin Williams, the Brewers’ All-World closer, came on to try and secure the first game of the series for the Brew Crew. A McCarthy flyout, Geno strikeout, and Perdomo flyout ended the game and sent the hometown fans (my dad, the birthday boy among them) to the parking lots disappointed.
Happy birthday, Dad!
Loss Probability
Courtesy FanGraphs
Players of the Game
Want to highlight the entire pitching staff here, tonight. First, Eduardo Rodriguez tossed 5 innings with a season-high 7 Ks, allowing 2 runs off a single poor pitch but otherwise was able to navigate traffic and keep his team in the game early. The bullpen combined for 4 innings and 5 strikeouts (each reliever had at least 1) while only allowing 1 hit and no runs. I’ll also add that the pitchers did a VERY good job holding the speedy Brewers’ runners on. Milwaukee came into the game third in all of MLB in steals, and they couldn’t muster a single successful steal on the night, even running into an out on a pick off/caught stealing. Good work, men! Hopefully we can count on this kind of pitching through the end of the season and into October!
Comment of the Night
The GDT wasn’t highly populated tonight, but still managed to accrue 264 comments this evening. Very few Sedona Red comments, but two of the highest rec’d comments were about the return of Good Ryan Thompson, with COTN going to Dano_in_Tucson:
Coming Up
The D-backs will be back at it tomorrow at Chase against the Brew Crew. First pitch scheduled for 5:10pm Arizona time with Brandon Pfaadt on the mound for the good guys and being countered by righty Tobias Myers.
Scoreboard Watch
Another rough Friday for the Snakes. The Mets and Braves both won (beating the Phillies and Dodgers, respectively) and the Padres won 5-0 in the Bay. With those results, the Padres jump back to 1st Wild Card, the D-backs fall back to the 2nd spot with a 1 game lead over the Mets for the 3rd Wild Card and 2 games up on the Braves for the first team left out of the dance.