Lourdes homered in his return to the lineup, the bullpen was nails, and the Diamondbacks got a big win to gain some space in the Wild Card race.
Tonight was the first time in what felt like forever that the Diamondbacks could make some ground in the Wild Card race. Early on, many participants in the GDT had one eye on the D-backs and one eye on the out of town scoreboard. The Phillies were taking it to the Mets early and the Marlins were clinging to a 1-run lead over Atlanta for most of the night. Nervously, we watched the Marlins close out the Braves while the Phillies finished off the Mets while the Snakes led the Brewers by 4. Cautious optimism in the Thread turned to dread as Gallen went from cruisin’ to implosion in the 5th.
Gallen had been one of the best in baseball at limiting the long ball, giving up only 10 homers in his 26 starts prior to tonight. In that fifth inning, Gallen gave up 3 dingers over the span of 5 batters to turn change the complexion of this game. Fortunately, the best run-scoring offense in the league did its thing to pick up their starting pitcher. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. led off the top of the ensuing inning with an El Kabong Dong to give the D-backs the lead back, and the rest of the team tacked on a couple more runs to make it a 3-run lead that the bullpen made stand up over 4 effective, if not always stress free, innings of work.
As always, if you’d like a more detailed recap of this one, continue on, otherwise feel free to jump down to the bells and whistles!
After Corbin popped out to the pitcher to start the night, Ketel got the Diamondbacks on the board with a solo shot just over the outstretched glove of Brewer right fielder Sal Frelick. From the wide shot, the ball definitely looked like it was hanging up and many in the GDT were convinced it was going to get robbed just like Corbin’s last week. Fortunately Ketel had just enough juice to get it out and give the Snakes a 1-0 lead. Joc followed with a single to right, but TOOTBLANd his way to the third out of the inning when he broke for second while Brewers’ starter Colin Rea was still holding in the set position. Rea was alerted to the attempted thievery and got Joc into a brief run down before officially recording the Picked Off/Caught Stealing to end the inning.
Zac Gallen took the mound and was coming in hot to start the night, sitting 96-97 with his fastball rather than his typical 93-94. He had a little bit of bad luck right off the bat when both of the first two Brewers he faced fisted/punched singles the opposite way to put speedy runners at first and second and nobody out. Gallen was able to get the dangerous William Contreras to whiff at a Curveball in the dirt, then got Garrett Mitchell to meet the exact same fate. During the Mitchell at bat, the Brewers executed a double steal to put both runners in scoring position for the MLB leader in 3-run homers, Willy Adames. Gallen didn’t Adames much of an opportunity to do damage, though, walking him after six pitches to bring up Rhys Hoskins with the bases loaded. Rhys weakly grounded out to Geno at third and the high wire was successfully traversed by Gallen in the first, but it took him 27 pitches to do it.
Lourdes Gurriel was the batter during Joc’s nincompoopish steal attempt, so he led of the top of the 2nd inning in his return to the lineup. He got himself a gift of a swinging bunt for single to celebrate his return. Pavin “Prime Time” (hat tip to Webb_Gemz) Smith got into an awesome 9-pitch duel with Rea that eventually ended in Prime Time getting locked up on a Sweeper right down Broadway. Geno added to the lucky-hit parade in the second with a humpback line drive off the end of his bat the fell harmlessly in front of Jackson Chourio in left. That brought Gabi up and he worked a six pitch walk to load the bases for everyone’s favorite 9-hole hitter Gerry Perdomo. I was expecting a long, Pesky Perdomo at bat, but he jumped on an early splitter from Rea and lined it to right for an RBI single. 2-0 good guys! Corbin then got his turn with the bases loaded and lifted a fly ball to deep center field that was able to score Geno from third and allow each of the trail runners to also tag and advance. Ketel got a shot with runners in scoring position and 2 outs, but he struck out looking on a pitch right on the edge of the zone to end the inning, but the offense put up a pair of runs to give Gallen a 3-run lead.
Zac’s fastball lost a little juice from where it was in the first, sitting at 95 instead of 96-97 in the first frame, but it was plenty effective as he got a 1-2-3 shutdown inning. Gallen was still spraying the ball around the zone a bit and the Brew Crew hitters were showing plenty of patience to make him toss another 15 pitches in the inning, but zeroes on the scoreboard are better than the alternative.
The heart of the D-backs order came up in the third and couldn’t muster a thing. After Colin Rea’s long second inning, he bounced back nicely to only throw 8 pitches in a 1-2-3 third.
Zac Gallen induced two weak fly outs by the top of the Brewers order to start the third, but William Contreras roped a single up the middle to extend the inning for Garrett Mitchell, but Mitchell struck out for the second time of the night, this time watching a knee-high 96mph fastball cross the plate for strike 3.
For the second inning in a row, the D-backs went down quietly. A 13-pitch fourth brought Rea’s tally for the night to 67 pitches. Gallen answered Rea back with an 11-pitch fourth, his shortest inning of the evening. He struck out Willy Adames on a fastball well into the left-hand batter’s box and then got two weak groundballs to the right side of the infield for his second 1-2-3 inning.
Geraldo Perdomo led off the fifth inning and was forced to switch batter’s boxes due to Milwaukee bringing in lefty DL Hall from the bullpen. Hitting from the right side of the plate, Gerry snaked a grounder through Gabi Lane for a leadoff single. Corbin then launched a fly ball to the wall that young phenom Chourio leapt up and nabbed the ball before he crashed into the wall and crumpled to the warning track. A brief inspection by the Milwaukee trainer led to Chourio being able to stay in the ball game, but it was a scary moment for Brewer fans and baseball fans while we waited to see how serious Chourio’s injury might be. After the eventful first out of the inning, Ketel came up batting from the right hand side and laced a double just inside third base that scored Perdomo all the way from first to make it 4-0 Diamondbacks. Joc and Walk made the final two outs of the inning rather unceremoniously and brought Gallen back to the hill.
Gallen got Gary Sanchez to ground out to short to start the fifth, but then gave up his first run of the night on a solo home run to Joey Ortiz well into the left field stands. Gallen rebounded by inducing another weak ground out before Jackson Chourio came up and grounded a ball into the hole between short and third. Gerry was able to range over and get the ball, but there was no way he was going to be able to get the speedy rookie burning down the first base line. Now with a runner on first, Gallen got ahead of Williams Contreras 0-2 before ending up giving up a LONG fly ball to straight away center field to make the score 4-3. On the very next pitch, Garrett Mitchell, he who had looked foolish on each of his first two ABs of the night, went oppo on a long homer of his own into the bullpens. Coming into the game, Zac Gallen had only allowed 10 homers in 26 starts. Now, three homers into the outing, the bullpen cranked up and Strom came out for a talk. Fortunately, Gallen settled and got the last out of the inning, but we were now in a brand new ballgame tied at 4 apiece.
With the home crowd buzzing, Lourdes Gurriel stepped up to the plate and promptly clanged a fly ball off the concourse in left field for a go-ahead El Kabong Dong! Pavin struck out looking on a full count for the second time of the night, but the Rattle of the lineup followed that up with back-to-back singles to get the Brewers to dip back into their bullpen for the second time of the evening. Perdomo came up still batting from the right side and Pesky Perdomo showed up, working an 8-pitch walk to load the bases with one out for Corbin and the top of the lineup. Carroll smashed a Curveball into the dirt that rolled slowly to first, but it was too slow for the Brewers’s defense to do anything with it other than record the out at first as all the runners advanced and Geno scored. With first base open, Ketel got the four fingers from the Milwaukee dugout and reloaded the bases, this time for pinch hitter Randal Grichuk. The red-hot Grichuk worked a 9-pitch walk to bring home another run and keep the line moving. Christian Walker got his chance with the bases loaded but struck out to end the threat. Still, D-backs were back out in front 7-4!
Kevin Ginkel got the call to take the mound in the bottom half of the sixth and gave up a full count single to the first hitter he faced, then gave up an ‘excuse me swing’ single to Geno at third to have runners at first and second an nobody out. A Strom mound visit followed and it appeared to calm the waters well enough as Gink got an infield pop out, weak ground out and a ‘blow him away’ strike out to end the inning without any damage.
On the the 7th, and Lourdes led off against Brewer right-hander Joel Payamps, and Gurriel worked a full count walk to get things started before being pulled for a pinch runner (Jake McCarthy). McCarthy was quickly erased as Pavin rolled over a Sinker to the second baseman, leading to a force at second base but it was hit too slow for them to double off Smith. Geno then came up and struck out swinging wildly at some truly poor pitches before Gabi put a fork in the inning by weakly grounding out to third.
In the bottom of the 7th, Torey made the somewhat eyebrow-raising choice to bring in Justin Martinez. JMart dispatched Jackson Chourio on a slow chopper to Gerry, then induced another slow grounder out of Contreras, but it was hit so poorly that it just died in the void between the mound and shortstop resulting in an infield single. No matter, though, as Martinez blew away Garrett Mitchell and Rhys Hoskins (with an Adames single sandwiched in between) to get out of the 7th unscathed.
Gerry and Corbin led off the 8th for the Snakes with a pair of pop outs into foul territory. Those uninspiring efforts preceded a Ketel Marte bunt (yes, BUNT) single that caught everyone by surprise. No idea why Ketel would decide to bunt there, but he sprinted down the line and turned around smiling at the end so more power to him, I suppose. That brought up Grichuk and he struck out looking at a Fastball that was dotted perfectly on the upper-outside corner to end the frame.
In the Brewers half of the 8th, Ryan Thompson made his way from the bullpen and worked a perfect inning thanks to some rather good defense. Geno got first crack in the inning, fielding a slow grounder but short arming the throw. Thankfully, our Gold Glove first baseman was able to scoop the throw off the bounce in the heel of his glove for the first out. Then Jake McCarthy got a chance on a liner smoked to the left-center gap and he displayed excellent jump, closing speed, and spatial awareness to reach up and snag the would-be extra base hit before it hit the warning track. Finally, Geno got his second chance of the inning, fielding another slow roller, but with a speedy runner, he smoothly gloved, transitioned and threw on the run to get the third out of the inning.
The D-backs offense didn’t offer anything in the top of the 9th outside of an absolute missile off the center field wall by Prime Time Pavin for a two-out double. That brought up AJ Puk for the save opportunity against the top of the Brewers’ order. AJ wasted no time and made short work of the first two hitters, striking both out on a total of 7 pitches. Puk then got Contreras into an 0-2 hole before he rolled over a grounder to third, but Geno was playing so far back and the ball was hit so slowly that it very likely would have been a hit unless Geno made a spectacular, barehanded play. Geno did not. Still, no matter as AJ Puk bore down and struck out the Brewers’ right-handed pinch hitter to end the game. Twice, in fact, but I won’t harp on the absolutely missed call on the first should-be strike 3 too long as it all ended well.
Great team win for the D-backs on a night that the Mets and Braves both lost. On to the next!
Win Probability
Courtesy FanGraphs
Players of the Game
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. led all Diamondbacks in WPA at +20.0% in his first game off the IL. He was 2-3 with a HR, 2 R, and a BB. Happy to have the return of the El Kabong Dong!
Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo both had stellar nights at the plate, combining to go 5-7 with 2 BB, 3 RBI, and that one HR by Ketel in the first inning.
Finally, The Bullpen was outstanding tonight. Kevin Ginkel navigated some traffic, not necessarily self-induced, to work a scoreless 6th, JMart responded to coming in a couple innings early with outstanding stuff, Ryan Thompson benefited from some excellent defense, and AJ Puk was an absolute monster to close the game out.
The Diamondbacks need to be solid in all three phases of the game if they want to make any noise in the playoffs this year, and this game was a good blueprint of how they need to play come October.
Comment of the Night
The GDT was extremely active tonight, bringing in comments from both the D-backs game and the other NL Wild Card games. A total of 453 comments this evening at time of writing, but surprisingly few Sedona Red comments. COTN will go to Worleybird27 for his observation while nervously watching Ginkel walk the high-wire right after the D-backs retook the lead:
Coming Up
The D-backs will face the Brewers in the penultimate game of this series and their season series tomorrow afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 4:10PM. Probables are Merrill the Mainstay against right-hander Aaron Civale.
Scoreboard Watch
As mentioned earlier, both the Mets and Braves lost tonight, giving the Diamondbacks sole possession of the 2nd NL Wild Card. The Snakes have a 1-game lead on the Mets and a 3-game lead on the Braves. The Padres are beating the White Sox 2-0 in the 7th currently, so fully expect those results to hold and them to keep a 2-game lead over us for the 1st Wild Card.