The wind was blowing out at Wrigley and the D-backs ended up on the losing side of a pitcher’s duel turned slugfest.
Game Summary
Well that escalated quickly.
With the wind blowing out at Wrigley, everyone was expecting a high scoring affair, but until the bottom of the 7th, we instead got a pitcher’s duel. Keyword in that sentence was until. Once Corbin Burnes made his exit after 6 innings of stressful but effective baseball, the Diamondbacks B-bullpen made their entry to this game and the ball started jumping.
Called on to keep the game close at a 2-1 deficit, Ryne Nelson dropped his first true stinker of the season. Nelson loaded the bases before recording his first out of the day, then allowed a Grand Slam and a triple and a single to balloon the Cubs lead to 7-1 through 7 innings.
The Snakes offense didn’t take the rest of the afternoon off, though. Just like the last time these two teams met in Phoenix when the good guys put up an 8-spot in the 8th inning to come back and win, the Diamondback hitters put up a 10-spot to take their first lead of the game! The middle of the order loaded the bases with no outs for Geno who answered the call with a Grand Slam (his second of the year) and they didn’t stop there. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. added a 3-run shot for insurance after Geraldo Perdomo and Randal Grichuk supplied RBI knocks to take a 4-run lead into the bottom of the eighth.
The Cubs, opposite a delicious combo platter of Bryce Jarvis and Joe Mantiply, had their own feast, scoring 6 runs to retake the lead on the back of three homers (1 off Jarvis and 2 off Mantiply) in their half of the 8th.
The good guys would get one final crack at that fortuitous tail wind in the top of the ninth, and Alek Thomas blasted a double that brought Corbin Carroll up to the plate as the tying run with 2 outs, but it was not to be on this day as Carroll popped out to end the game.
After scoring a total of 3 runs through the first 6.5 innings, the teams combined for 21 runs in the final 2 innings, including 16 in that wild 8th. I would love to blame the wind on the bullpen’s struggles today, but these weren’t exactly cheapies that the bullpen was giving up today. Corbin Burnes was able to keep his average exit velocity at 87.4mph, but the bullpen arms yielded average EVs of 93, 102.5, and 94.7! Nelson and Jarvis have been fairly effective to this point in the season so I’m willing to give them a pass, but this is Mantiply’s 4th appearance where he has given up multiple runs (in 8 total appearances) and his third such outing in a row. The cries from the fans had been fairly loud regarding Mantiply and his shaky spot in this bullpen, and after yet another meltdown from him, I’m not sure Hazen can wait for Ginkel or Graveman to be healthy to option him to Reno. What do you guys think will happen? Will the D-backs stick it out with Joe until the return of The Gink? Who will get the call up if Mantiply gets his bus ticket to Reno?
Loss Probability and Box Score
Outside the Box Score
*Since I was driving during the game, I wasn’t able to watch and put notes down, so today’s Outside the Box Score will be a little lighter than normal.
- Corbin Burnes has been struggling with getting Whiffs so far this year, and today was no different. He didn’t a single swinging strike until he struck out the Cubs’ 9-hole hitter to end the 2nd inning. He finished with 7 Whiffs (per Baseball Savant) for a Whiff% of 14%, below his season average of 23.8% which is down from last year’s mark of 28.6%.
- I think we can say Lourdes Gurriel’s cold streak is now over. He hit 2 balls over 104mph today. Including the Marlins series and today, his Hard Hit% (balls in play hit over 95mph) is nearly 50%, compared to his season mark of just 33% through the Brewers series finale.
- Jake McCarthy was in his first game back in action after sitting out the Marlins series due to wrist soreness from a HBP on Sunday and he was striking the ball solidly, but with still nothing to show for it. McCarthy scorched a 103.8mph grounder down the first base line with one out in the 9th inning that would have been a sure double or triple, but Michael Busch made an outstanding defensive play to record the critical 3-unassisted putout.
Player of the Game
Corbin Burnes earns the crown from me on this night. I know it wasn’t prettiest game, but in a day where he really needed to give the bullpen a blow and with the environment stacked against him, this was a very good outing. 6 innings of 2-run ball against one of the best lineups in this early season with the wind blowing out in Wrigley is no small feat. I’d still like to see more swing and miss, but he put up a goose egg in the BB column today which was my biggest criticism of him through his first few starts.
Randal Grichuk gets an Honorable Mention because of his massive 51% Win Probability Added and going 2/2 with 2 R and 2 RBI, but he lost the tiebreaker due to entering the game late.
Comment of the Game
Wasn’t able to enjoy/despise this game with y’all in the GDT, but it was an active one, even for an early game. There were a total of 329 comments in the GDT at time of publishing and several bright red nominees for COTG. Even though it wasn’t the most Rec’d comment of the night, I’m bestowing today’s proud honor on dolphindestroyer for what appears to be a premonition of Geno’s Grand Slam:
Coming Up
The D-backs face the Cubbies in the second game of this three game set tomorrow at 11:20am Arizona time. Zac Gallen will get the ball for the good guys in an attempt to keep today’s loss from turning into a losing streak, and he will be opposed by young Ben Brown, a right-hander who is 2-1 with a 5.09 ERA so far this season.