D-Backs' early runs not enough
PHOENIX -- The Diamondbacks sprung for three quick runs, posting that elusive "crooked number" on the scoreboard that they've struggled to find lately.
The problem for Arizona was the offense didn't get back on the scoreboard until the ninth and the Giants struck for two big innings of their own. It all added up to a 9-4 loss for Arizona at Bank One Ballpark on Saturday, the team's fourth straight defeat.
"We got to [Giants starter Noah Lowry] early and had a chance to do even more damage and couldn't," said Arizona manager Bob Melvin. "When a guy settles in like that, he ends up pitching a lot better."
The Diamondbacks knocked around Lowry early, putting up three runs in the first -- matching the total they had managed off the crafty southpaw in 18 2/3 innings this season as well as the total he'd given up in five August starts.
It appeared that Lowry, who was 5-0 with a 0.69 ERA in August, was having trouble finding his footing on the mound as he walked Royce Clayton to start the game and fell behind Alex Cintron, 2-0, while throwing a wild pitch in the process. After Cintron fouled off a bunt try on 2-0, he swung away at the next pitch and skied it into the left-field stands for his seventh homer of the year.
Luis Terrero later added a two-out single for the Diamondbacks' third run, but that would be their last tally until the ninth inning. Arizona had plenty of opportunities in between, but could never translate them onto the scoreboard.
"He started throwing more strikes," Clayton said. "He walked a couple guys, and actually, it looked like he wasn't comfortable, I felt, early in the game. He was getting behind and started going to his breaking ball and started getting it over, and we let him get comfortable before we could knock him out of the game."
The D-Backs put the leadoff runner on base in the third through sixth innings, but each time Lowry was able to pitch out of the jam. Cintron led off the fifth with a double and moved to third when Luis Gonzalez hit a ground ball to the right side.
The Giants took a chance by bringing the infield in on Andy Green, who made his season debut after replacing Troy Glaus in the fourth. Glaus was forced to leave the game after aggravating a season-long knee injury while running out a fielder's choice in the third.
The move worked, as Green hit a sharp ground ball right to shortstop Omar Vizquel. Arizona had its best chance of all, though, the following inning when it loaded the bases with one out and the top of the order coming up.
Clayton battled from an early hole to work the count full. In their previous encounter, Lowry threw Clayton a 3-2 changeup, so the shortstop was looking for the same pitch. This time, though, Lowry reached back and gunned a 91 mph fastball -- about as high on the radar gun as he can reach -- and Clayton couldn't catch up.
"I pulled off it a little bit," Clayton said. "He threw me a 3-2 changeup the time before, so that was in the back of my mind, but that's no excuse. I was trying to pull it off instead of staying up the middle a little bit more, and I wish I had that at-bat over. You can't do anything about it, but that's the run you've got to get across the board, and I just didn't get the job done."
The Giants immediately punished the Diamondbacks for not capitalizing, notching their second four-run inning in the top of the seventh off two Arizona relievers.
"[We] actually have a chance to go ahead and then [it] flips over to the other side where we've talked so many times this year where the momentum flips back to the other side, and now all of a sudden, there's a crooked number on there and we're deflated and don't put up really any fight after that," Melvin said. "We've seen it too many times where we've turned the momentum to the other side."
The other big inning came in the third off starter Claudio Vargas. When Vargas was Arizona's most consistent starter for nearly a two-month stretch, he was limiting his walks and keeping the ball in the yard. But in his last three starts, in which he hasn't been nearly as sharp, he has been plagued by both the free pass and the long ball.
In the third, both came back to haunt him. Randy Winn started the rally with his first of two solo homers. Vargas then issued the first of four walks and allowed a single to J.T. Snow. He got ahead of Moises Alou, 1-2, but missed the location on his fastball and Alou crushed the ball into the left-field stands.
"It was only one inning, but I lost a little bit of my concentration, and when that happened they hit a couple of home runs," said Vargas, who has given up five homers and eight walks in his last two outings. "The one that Winn hit, it was an 0-2 slider and I tried to go back door and the slider found the middle of the plate, and that happened to Alou, too -- I tried to throw the fastball inside and it was over the plate."
Despite a high pitch count early, Vargas maneuvered through six innings allowing just that one big inning -- "He continue to battle; he doesn't care what the score is, tries to give as much as he has," Melvin said -- but it wasn't enough to prevent Arizona's fifth straight loss at home to the Giants.
Source: http://arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com/
The problem for Arizona was the offense didn't get back on the scoreboard until the ninth and the Giants struck for two big innings of their own. It all added up to a 9-4 loss for Arizona at Bank One Ballpark on Saturday, the team's fourth straight defeat.
"We got to [Giants starter Noah Lowry] early and had a chance to do even more damage and couldn't," said Arizona manager Bob Melvin. "When a guy settles in like that, he ends up pitching a lot better."
The Diamondbacks knocked around Lowry early, putting up three runs in the first -- matching the total they had managed off the crafty southpaw in 18 2/3 innings this season as well as the total he'd given up in five August starts.
It appeared that Lowry, who was 5-0 with a 0.69 ERA in August, was having trouble finding his footing on the mound as he walked Royce Clayton to start the game and fell behind Alex Cintron, 2-0, while throwing a wild pitch in the process. After Cintron fouled off a bunt try on 2-0, he swung away at the next pitch and skied it into the left-field stands for his seventh homer of the year.
Luis Terrero later added a two-out single for the Diamondbacks' third run, but that would be their last tally until the ninth inning. Arizona had plenty of opportunities in between, but could never translate them onto the scoreboard.
"He started throwing more strikes," Clayton said. "He walked a couple guys, and actually, it looked like he wasn't comfortable, I felt, early in the game. He was getting behind and started going to his breaking ball and started getting it over, and we let him get comfortable before we could knock him out of the game."
The D-Backs put the leadoff runner on base in the third through sixth innings, but each time Lowry was able to pitch out of the jam. Cintron led off the fifth with a double and moved to third when Luis Gonzalez hit a ground ball to the right side.
The Giants took a chance by bringing the infield in on Andy Green, who made his season debut after replacing Troy Glaus in the fourth. Glaus was forced to leave the game after aggravating a season-long knee injury while running out a fielder's choice in the third.
The move worked, as Green hit a sharp ground ball right to shortstop Omar Vizquel. Arizona had its best chance of all, though, the following inning when it loaded the bases with one out and the top of the order coming up.
Clayton battled from an early hole to work the count full. In their previous encounter, Lowry threw Clayton a 3-2 changeup, so the shortstop was looking for the same pitch. This time, though, Lowry reached back and gunned a 91 mph fastball -- about as high on the radar gun as he can reach -- and Clayton couldn't catch up.
"I pulled off it a little bit," Clayton said. "He threw me a 3-2 changeup the time before, so that was in the back of my mind, but that's no excuse. I was trying to pull it off instead of staying up the middle a little bit more, and I wish I had that at-bat over. You can't do anything about it, but that's the run you've got to get across the board, and I just didn't get the job done."
The Giants immediately punished the Diamondbacks for not capitalizing, notching their second four-run inning in the top of the seventh off two Arizona relievers.
"[We] actually have a chance to go ahead and then [it] flips over to the other side where we've talked so many times this year where the momentum flips back to the other side, and now all of a sudden, there's a crooked number on there and we're deflated and don't put up really any fight after that," Melvin said. "We've seen it too many times where we've turned the momentum to the other side."
The other big inning came in the third off starter Claudio Vargas. When Vargas was Arizona's most consistent starter for nearly a two-month stretch, he was limiting his walks and keeping the ball in the yard. But in his last three starts, in which he hasn't been nearly as sharp, he has been plagued by both the free pass and the long ball.
In the third, both came back to haunt him. Randy Winn started the rally with his first of two solo homers. Vargas then issued the first of four walks and allowed a single to J.T. Snow. He got ahead of Moises Alou, 1-2, but missed the location on his fastball and Alou crushed the ball into the left-field stands.
"It was only one inning, but I lost a little bit of my concentration, and when that happened they hit a couple of home runs," said Vargas, who has given up five homers and eight walks in his last two outings. "The one that Winn hit, it was an 0-2 slider and I tried to go back door and the slider found the middle of the plate, and that happened to Alou, too -- I tried to throw the fastball inside and it was over the plate."
Despite a high pitch count early, Vargas maneuvered through six innings allowing just that one big inning -- "He continue to battle; he doesn't care what the score is, tries to give as much as he has," Melvin said -- but it wasn't enough to prevent Arizona's fifth straight loss at home to the Giants.
Source: http://arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com/
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