Diamondbacks offense overwhelms Giants, bails out Drake

Game Summary

The Diamondbacks offense had scored 8 runs in their last 4 games combined, but came out and ambushed Giants starter Blade Tidwell for 6 runs in the first 3 innings of the game. They then added another 4 against the Giants bullpen, but 10 runs was not enough to turn this game into a laugher because Kohl Drake, fresh off the Reno Express, had another rough outing.

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The Diamondbacks got things started off right with a leadoff homer by Lars Nootbaar, a direct contrast to how last night’s game started with a leadoff dinger for the Giants, and that kicked off an offensive night that saw all but 2 D-Backs starters get a hit and the entire team combined for 12 hits and 2 BB. Nootbaar led the way finishing a triple short of the cycle, but Tim Tawa (3 RBI), Nolan Arenado, and James McCann also had multi-hit games. Ildemaro Vargas also got a 2 RBI base knock, turning his bat into kindling in the process. A total effort from the lineup, including great situational hitting indicated by going 4/7 with RISP and a Sac Fly, was sorely needed because the starting pitching was less than ideal.

Kohl Drake wasn’t terrible tonight, but his final line of 5 ER across 4 IP is terrible. It was great to see Drake consistently throwing strikes for much of the night, but he really had issues getting the third out of the inning. Of the 5 runs Drake allowed, 4 came with 2 outs. There was a pair of 2 out homers accounting for 3 of those runs and the 4th came home via 2-out double to score a runner who was at first thanks to a HBP. The only run Drake didn’t give up with 2 outs was an inning of perfectly executed small ball by the Giants. The Giants were really good at maximizing their scoring opportunities early on in this game because it never really felt like Drake was in a stressful situation.

What is probably going to catch a lot of comments will be the bullpen usage tonight. Part of this is on Drake for not being able to soak up more innings when then the offense staked him to a 6-2 lead halfway through the 3rd inning, but I suspect many will find issue with Torey’s bullpen usage on the day before a double-header. It’s not like we have Pfaadt and E-Rod going in this twin-bill tomorrow, either. The Merrill and Bratt the probable starters, we would reasonably expect the bullpen to need to cover 9+ innings tomorrow. After tonight, I hope that’s not the case.

The bullpen did well tonight, but Torey threw every pitcher who didn’t toss in last night’s loss (with the exception of J-Mart), plus burning Loaisiga for the second night in a row. Unfortunately, the pitchers who went tonight weren’t economical with their pitches, so now we’re looking at the prospect of all of these guys having to come back out at some point tomorrow after throwing 20+ pitches. The good thing is, unless there are some nagging injuries that the staff is protecting, everyone but Loaisiga will probably be available tomorrow. I was certainly hoping that Drake could’ve gone back out for the 5th to try and shave one more inning off the bullpen’s load tonight, but Torey managed the game in front of him first, which is likely the correct call, and he came away with W today. Tomorrow may be interesting, but that is tomorrow’s problem. Tonight, the Diamondbacks got a win and gained ground in the Wild Card.

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Win Probability and Box Score

Outside the Box Score

• Lars Nootbar has had a rough go of it at the start of his Diamondbacks tenure, but he got tonight started off with a bang when he deposited the first pitch of the game all the way in the D-Backs’ bullpen, 432 feet from home plate! 

• Jordan Lawlar showed good range and athleticism to make a foot-first sliding catch in left-center to record the first out of the game for Kohl Drake.

• Drake only needed 10 pitches to record his first 3 outs, but one of those pitches was an inner-third slider left thigh-high to Bryce Eldridge who sent it to the concourse above the right field wall for a game-tying solo homer, nearly splashing it into McCovey Cove. An efficient inning, but not a shutdown inning.

• Jung Hoo Lee led off the second with a seeing eye single past Ildemaro Vargas, then stole second just barely beating the throw from McCann before getting moved to third by a weak ground out to first base. That set up the Giants with a runner at third and less than 2 outs and they cashed in with a sac fly to right. Drake did nothing wrong, the Giants just did everything perfectly that half inning to get a run across.

• Lars doubled into the right-center gap in his second AB of the game. The exit velocities on his first 2 hits were 109.9 (HR) and 110.3 (2B).

• Corbin Carroll’s homer in the third came after he fell down in the count 1-2, worked his way to a full count, then smashed a middle-middle fastball to dead center.

• Nolan Arenado’s double in third was a bouncer that was ruled to bounce over third base in fair territory even though it landed in foul territory. Earlier in the game, the same umpire, standing about 10 feet behind third base on the foul line, had to duck underneath a high chopper down the line that he ended up ruling foul. Torey called him out on it from the dugout, and I think that the umpire was cognizant of that the next time a similar situation presented itself. Tony Vitello, the Giants manager, was tossed in between innings arguing that foul ball call.

• Tim Tawa’s 3-run homer, following the Arenado double, was a bomb into the left field bleachers that flew 419 feet.

• Kohl Drake came out in the bottom of the third, after being given a 4-run lead, and struck out the first 2 hitters and got up 0-2 on Rafael Devers before losing Devers to HBP, then letting him score on a Bryce Eldridge double to the wall in left-center. So close to shutdown inning, but “close don’t count in baseball. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”

• Kohl’s 2-run homer allowed in the 4th was set up, once again, by a 2-out free pass. Drake got the first 2 outs fairly easily, but then walked the 7-hole hitter on 5 pitches before allowing a first pitch homer just inside the left field foul pole to the next hitter. 

• Corbin earned a leadoff walk in the 5th, but then the Snakes’ 3-4-5 hitters all popped out to varying depths to render it harmless.

• After Gerrardo Carrillo walked the first batter he faced on 4 pitches, he struck out Devers looking on a full count Sweeper that appeared to be well outside the strike zone. Devers brought his hand up to his chin as if he were about to challenge, then decided against it and kept his hand pressed against his chest on his walk back to the dugout. A lucky break for the Snakes.

• More fair-foul shenanigans struck in the top of the 6th when Tim Tawa popped up into no man’s land down the first base line. Rafael Devers almost made a great over the shoulder catch but the ball hit off the heel of his glove. The play was made right on top of the foul line as Devers was sprinting into foul ground and the call was immediately fair ball. Very, very close, but we’ll take it.

• Ildemaro Vargas got a 2-RBI base hit on a broken bat bleater into shallow right field. The bat was completely sawed off and the exit velocity was in the mid-sixties, but it did the job.

• Ildemaro Vargas (and the coaching staff) can be credited with the third run that crossed the plate in the 6th inning for the Snakes. Lars Nootbaar smoked a single into right field which was being manned by JH Lee. Vargas was just reaching second when Lee fielded the ball but he obviously knew that Lee was unlikely to throw him out at third so Vargas made the hard turn and cruised into the extra base without a throw. Corbin paid that aggressiveness off with a sac fly to score Ildemaro right after.

• There were quite a few challenges in this game, with the Giants accounting for 5 by themselves through the first 5 innings and they had a 100% success rate. They finally missed their first challenge in the 6th inning challenging a called ball that was confirmed to miss by 0.1″.

• Geraldo Perdomo’s stolen base in the 7th was thanks to a VERY early takeoff from first. The catcher started to try and get the pitcher to step off, but the pitcher didn’t see it in time and proceeded with the pitch. Domo was in standing up without a throw. He then came around to score on a McCann RBI single.

• After the Giants runner at first base reached second on an errant pickoff throw in the 8th inning, Geraldo Perdomo gifted the Giants an extra out and runner when he misfired on what should’ve been a 6-3 putout for the 2nd out of the inning. Instead there were runners at the corners and 1 out. 

Comment of the Game

A light Friday night GameDay Thread with a total of 173 comments at time of publishing. Very few Sedona Red comments tonight which made COTG is fairly easily awarded to VW Beetle for his comment after Lars got our Friday night started off right:

Coming Up

The Diamondbacks face the Giants twice tomorrow to finish out this four-game set and the season series. The first game in the twin bill will start at 1:05pm and the second will start at 7:05pm. During the game, the broadcast speculated Merrill will be starting the nightcap and Mitch Bratt will be taking the mound in the first game. During the postgame coverage, it was announced that it will actually be Merrill getting the ball first and Bratt coming out for the late game. I’m not positive of the strategy one way or the other, perhaps it is just more likely that Merrill gives the Snakes a good outing and then Torey will know exactly who he can play with and how far he has to push Bratt if things aren’t going well.

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Scoreboard Watching

Not a bad night on the NL Wild Card scoreboard:

• Cubs lost to the Reds at home. They are now 1 game ahead of Philly for the 1st WC and 4.5 games up on AZ.

• Phillies beat the Angels thanks to a 2 out Grand Slam in the 9th. The Phillies remain in the 2nd WC and are 3.5 games up on AZ.

• Padres lost to the Rays and are now just a half-game ahead of AZ for the final WC.

• Marlins lost to the Nationals and are now 3.5 GB of AZ.

• The Cardinals beat the Pirates are still 4 games back of AZ.