Diamondback Journal

SAN DIEGO — Each win continues to be crucial for the Arizona Diamondbacks as baseball nears the end of the trade deadline.  San Francisco made their move, grabbing Carlos Beltran from the New York Mets and away from the Philadelphia Phillies.  Arizona now must respond with a big acquisition of their own to keep pace with the Giants as they currently sit three games behind.

If Arizona does not make a move for an extra arm in the bullpen or a bat to take some pressure off Justin Upton, the Diamondbacks will fall apart in the last weeks of the season and San Francisco will run away with the division.  Both Ian Kennedy and Upton cannot be relied upon each start for the remainder of the season to produce big hits or strong outings.

As long as Arizona keeps winning like they currently are heading into the final hours of the trade deadline, they will only sell themselves more to a player looking to win a division title and play in October for a title than riding a losing streak.

Since losing the first game of a series with the Colorado Rockies, the Diamondbacks have dominated on both sides, scoring 29-runs and allowing just 7-runs during their current four-game winning streak.  Arizona will send out Daniel Hudson (10-6) against the Padres in the series finale of a possible sweep.  Arizona closes out the month of July with an important trip to Los Angeles where they need to get a big player before the trade deadline concludes, but more so for the ever more important series with the Giants in San Francisco that follows.

While Kennedy did not have his best start, he was lucky enough to have Upton’s big bat there to back him for win number 12, which ties him for 4^th on among all active pitchers.  Kennedy only pitched six-innings, but Xavier Nady’s two-run blast to the stands gave both Arizona and Kennedy the lead they would come close to surrendering.

Upton would go deep twice in this meeting.  In the fourth, he sent a ball that just made it over the left-center field wall.  And in the sixth-inning, Upton tied the game with authority, sending his 20-homerun to the third-level deck in left-field, a 428-foot shot.

San Diego held a brief lead of 2-1when Will Venable tripled to score Orlando Hudson and Cory Luebke in the fifth.

However, in the seventh, after Miguel Montero’s leadoff walk, Nady’s two-run homerun would turn out to be the eventual game winner for Arizona.

Despite a solo shot by Luis Martinez in the seventh-inning cut the lead down to one (3-4), Arizona’s pitching would not surrendering another run from that point on.  Diamondbacks closer, J. J. Putz, entered the ninth, striking out the first batter.  Hudson though managed to get on with a single to center.  With Martinez at the plate again, the Padres just ended the game with poor baseball logic. Martinez struck out and Hudson was caught stealing on a strike ‘em out throw ‘em out to end the game.

PHOENIX — With the Arizona Diamondbacks seemingly falling further behind the division leading San Francisco Giants, and already dropping the middle games of a four game series with the Milwaukee Brewers, it was time to release the hound, or in this case, Ian Kennedy.

But he would have to face off with the Brewers ace in Zach Greinke who has not been that intimidating since the end of May.  Kennedy though knew both his teammates and the fans were counting on him to deliver another stellar outing to keep Arizona within striking distance of the Giants.

Yet again, Kennedy proved why he has emerged as the club’s ace, blanking the Brewers for seven-innings and the bullpen continuing to do the same with the help of a few long balls.  Greinke was a one man show, doing all the work for himself on the mound with an absent offense that compiled just six-hits.

Arizona only managed seven hits, but three of those hits led to Diamondbacks runs as they exited the park.

Justin Upton and Miguel Montero both homered in the fourth-inning to take a 2-0 lead.  In the eighth, Kelly Johnson cracked a two-run blast to left to increase the lead further at 4-0.  The win allows the Diamondbacks to split the series with Milwaukee and keep them only four-games behind the Giants.

If Arizona is to make any kind of run for the NL West crown, it will have to start Friday night when the Colorado Rockies visit for a weekend series.  Friday’s game is the start of a 15-game stretch between divisional foes with a key series in San Francisco that begins August 1^.  With series victories, the Diamondbacks could easily knock out the rest of the division of any second-half surge and possibly climb past the Giants for first.

PHOENIX — Even after a few days away from the diamond the Diamondbacks are still continuing to struggle, losing their third straight to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Arizona, who at one point was leading this division, now find themselves 4 ½ behind the division leading San Francisco Giants.

The Dodgers Matt Kemp once again became the villain he was at this year’s All-Star Game when NL Capt. Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers chose Kemp over Arizona’s Justin Upton for the Homerun Derby.  Kemp evidently forgot which day the derby was, sending a two-run blast into the seats that was probably not kept as a souvenir by a fan this go-around.

In addition to the two-run homerun, Kemp added two more RBIs in the seventh to further push the Dodgers past the Diamondbacks, and further make him an enemy at Chase Field with a four-RBI evening.

Kemp also did no favors to himself as he did not get the fans on his side early in the game when he threw out Willie Bloomquist at the plate to close out the inning and prevent an early lead for Arizona.

Los Angeles scored first in the second-inning on a solo homerun by Juan Rivera for an early 1-0 lead.  In the fourth, Rivera again was the difference maker by keeping the inning alive as he singled with two-outs, scoring later on Dioner Navarro’s RBI-single.

It seemed as though Dodgers were in the driver’s seat for this game, leading 4-0 entering the seventh, and starter Clayton Kershaw throwing a three-hitter.  But, Arizona would make a rally in the inning, but fall just short as Kemp’s two-RBIs in the top half would cap off the win for the Dodgers.

Miguel Montero’s RBI-single and Xavier Nady’s three-run homerun would get Arizona four-runs back, but would still be two-runs short of Los Angeles.

It appears what might have been the surprise division winner of the season is slowly beginning to fade.  For a while, Arizona seemed as if they would give the defending champs a run for their money by staying within striking distance till the very end.  But with each loss putting them farther behind, and the Giants confidence in repeating as NL West champs, it seems that Arizona is becoming less of a threat for a divisional crown than we anticipated a few weeks ago.

However, the victory for the Dodgers keeps them rolling as they closed out the first half on a four-game winning streak, and opened the second half continuing that streak.  While the Dodgers do not seem to have enough fire power to crawl back into divisional contention, they can maybe salvage a part of their season by reaching the .500 mark.

ST. LOUIS — All-Star Justin Upton and starter, Joe Saunders led the Arizona Diamondbacks to a victory despite play being halted twice during Thursday’s four-game series opener against the first-place St. Louis Cardinals.

With severe weather in the area at the start of the game, play was suspended for an hour, but it did not seem to affect Saunders who threw five scoreless innings.  However, with another rain delay following the start of the sixth, Saunders night was complete.  He allowed only one-hit in his five shutout innings.

Arizona opened up the offense, scoring first in the second-inning to take an early 1-0 lead.  Chris Young led-off with a single, advancing to third on a throwing error by David Freese who tried to throw out Xavier Nady.  Sean Burroughs sacrifice-fly to deep center brought Young home for the first run.

Maybe it was a 50-minute rain delay that Upton needed, because as soon as he stepped into the batter’s box following the delay, Upton sent a two-run homerun to left that further increased Arizona’s lead, 3-0.

St. Louis finally got on the board in the bottom half of the inning; Matt Holliday’s double scored Freese from second as the Cardinals now trailed 3-1.

But that double would be the last hit St. Louis would acquire as Arizona’s bullpen did not allow another hit to the next twelve Cardinal batters.

In the seventh, Ryan Roberts brought home Gerardo Parra, who had doubled earlier in the inning, for the Diamondbacks fourth run of the game.

Cardinals manager, Tony La Russa, let his starter, Kyle McClellan, finish the inning despite allowing the fourth Arizona run to cross home.

David Hernandez came into the ninth for Arizona and got the next three Cardinals batters out in order for his sixth save.  The 4-1 win keeps the Diamondbacks just two-games behind the NL West leading San Francisco Giants as we head into the last weekend prior to the All-Star break.

It is now just days until the best day in baseball and summer occurs, as the 82^nd All-Star Game on Tuesday at Chase Field in Phoenix is right around the corner; where did the first-half of baseball season go?  The always entertaining and surprising State Farm Homerun Derby will take place the Monday before.  With the best talent coming from both leagues, it should be a great game to watch even though the American League seems to possess a stronger roster.  But we will leave it up to the players to determine the outcome of which league will receive home-field advantage in this year’s World Series.

OAKLAND — The Arizona Diamondbacks have enjoyed the past 24-hours.  Chris Young began it by driving in all four-runs against the Oakland Athletics for their final Interleague series of the season, just falling a triple shy of the cycle.

This morning it was announced that Justin Upton is the lone Diamondbacks representative at the moment which Arizona hosts this year.  Pitcher Ian Kennedy will try to join Upton at the summer classic as he vies for a final roster spot in the coming days.

Despite Upton having one of his poorer efforts at the plate Saturday, Young was their to bail out his teammate with a three-for-four day that saw all four-runs cross home off his bat.

Willie Bloomquist led things off in the first for Arizona with a single to center and Kelly Johnson also singled to position Bloomquist at second.  Upton then proceeded to go down on a called strikeout before Young’s single to right brought Bloomquist in for a 1-0 lead.

The Diamondbacks scrapped out another run in the third-inning as Kelly Johnson’s leadoff walk was rewarded by Young’s RBI-double for a score of 2-0 in favor of Arizona; it was Young’s 23rd-double of the season.

Two-innings later in the fifth with a swing of the bat, Young was now a triple away from the cycle as he sent a 2-run homerun to left that would be the eventual game-winner.

Arizona starter, Joe Saunders, pitched an impressive seven shutout innings against the Athletics, but was pulled in the eighth after he allowed a walk to Adam Rosales and a single to Jemile Weeks to start the inning and both would later come around to score as both runs would be charged to Saunders.

But, those previous seven-innings were not prefect by any means as Saunders allowed seven-hits before entering the eighth.

Diamondbacks relief-pitcher, Yhency Brazoban, did not start off things well as he was called for a balk with Scott Sizemore batting which advanced both runners an extra base.  Following the balk, Sizemore grounded out, but was able to drive in a run and advance the other base runner to third with just one-out.

However, Coco Crisp was called out on strikes and it was now up to Hideki Matsui to keep the inning alive and drive in another run, which he was able to accomplish on a line-drive single to right.

But that would be all for Oakland as their next four-batters were retired easily.

Arizona will look to take the series this afternoon from Oakland and earn an 11-7 record in Interleague play this season as opposed to their 6-9 record a season ago.