Diamondback Journal

PHOENIX — Pack your bags because we are heading back to Miller Park for a game five.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have tied the best-of-five series two games all after dropping the first two in Milwaukee.  Nothing like playing in front of your home crowd.

Earlier in the evening, St. Louis defeated the Philadelphia Phillies to send their series to a fifth game, as just one series ended without the pivotal game five; the series between Texas and Tampa Bay which ended in four.

For the second straight game, Arizona’s bats were lighting up Chase Field as the D-backs hit a second consecutive grand slam.  That grand slam was one of four on the night for Arizona hitters.

Since coming home, Arizona is seeing the ball like it’s a beach ball.  In the first two games at Miller Park, the D-backs had a batting average of .212, but at home they are batting an impressive .342.  Kind of sucks they have to leave Chase Field.

Arizona is having all this success because they are jumping out in front of Milwaukee early, making them play catch-up from the first inning on.

In game three, Arizona grabbed a 2-0 lead after the first, in game four a grand slam by Ryan Roberts and a solo blast by Chris Young in the first put Arizona out in front 5-0.  All Arizona had to do the rest of the game was keep the foot on the accelerator as Milwaukee did make an effort at a comeback, but the deficit was too much to overcome.

In addition, Arizona won this game because they kept both Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder in check, limiting them both to a combined 2-for-8 night.

However, this game could have been closer than most would believe if they did not watch the sixth-inning.  Trailing 7-3, the Brewers had the bases loaded with one out and Cory Hart at the plate.  Cory Hart swung at the first strike from relief pitcher, Bryan Shaw that appeared to be on its way out of the park for a game tying grand slam.  However, it just missed as Gerardo Parra caught it on the warning track for a sacrifice fly.  The Brewers failed to score another run that inning trailing 7-4 before Aaron Hill got that four run lead back on his solo home run in the bottom half of the inning.

After the stretch, Chris Young hit his second home run of the night, a deep blast to the fans in left field to give Arizona a 10-4 lead.

Milwaukee made things interesting as Carlos Gomez hit a two-run home run in the eighth to cut some of the deficit, but Arizona’s bullpen stopped any sort of rally the Brewers had in mind.

Despite J. J. Putz walk to Jerry Hairston to start the ninth, he retired the next three batters which included Braun, Fielder, and Rickie Weeks to end game four and send everyone back home to pack for the winner take all in game five.

Game five will be a rematch of game one with Ian Kennedy taking the mound Friday afternoon on plenty of rest.  Kennedy has been the D-backs go to guy in these kind of situations all season and they look to him again.  This time to pitch Arizona to the NLCS with a date against the Phillies or Cardinals.

PHOENIX — Wow. That is all I can manage to say at the moment about this Arizona Diamondbacks club.  Could Arizona really have to late-inning comebacks against the same time in the same series?  Guess so.

Arizona has tied their win mark from the end of last season when they went 65-97, they are now 65-53 with a full-game lead on the San Francisco Giants.  I for one did not expect this team to go from last to first with a seriously good chance of winning the division in less than a year.  But the Diamondbacks’ seemingly continue to find ways to win games despite the odds.  I hate to make predictions with both San Francisco and Arizona each having 44-games remaining to close out the regular season, but the more I blog about both teams, the more I feel as if Arizona will take the division as the surprise/sleeper team of the year.

San Francisco, as good as they are on the mound with Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong, and Brian Wilson, they are just awful when standing at the plate.  They rank near the bottom in almost all the major offensive statistics and currently have a -13 run differential.  Pitching can be compared to defense in the NFL in the saying that defense wins games.  But defense on the field cannot lead to runs and that is where San Francisco struggles as opposed to the division leading Diamondbacks.

Arizona can hit the ball, there is no question about that.  Their batting average (.250) is not impressive but they score runs (541) which is good for 7^th in the Majors.  That also gives the Diamondbacks a plus-22 run differential.

That Arizona offense showed up again against the worst team in the majors, the Houston Astros (38-80) who are forty-games under .500.  The Diamondbacks were down 5-1 entering the eighth before they scored seven unanswered runs to defeat the Astros, giving Arizona a full-game lead over the defending champions.

The Astros’ seemed all but poised to win this game and spoil Arizona’s hopes of claiming the division by a full-game as they piled on the runs in the middle frames.  Carlos Lee had an RBI-single in the third to give Houston a 1-0 lead.  In the fifth, the first three batters all reached base safely and J. D. Martinez brought in two-runs on a double.  Lee lined-out to bring in another run to put up a three-spot in the inning.

Arizona got a run back in the bottom half of the frame on Willie Bloomquist’s RBI-single, but, the Astros’ got their four-run lead right back as Jason Bourgeois tripled to lead-off the seventh, coming home Jose Altuve’s RBI-single.

The rally began in the eighth when Bloomquist was issued a one-out walk, scoring on Ryan Roberts double.  After a Justin Upton groundout, Miguel Montero singled home Roberts to cut the Astros previous lead in half, now trailing 5-3.

In the ninth, Arizona had a man on base, but also had two-outs and were down to their last strike with Paul Goldschmidt being the Diamondbacks last prayer.  After running the count even 2-2, Goldschmidt fouled the next two pitchers he saw before slamming a pitch to the left-field stands for a two-run game-tying homerun that sent the game into extras.

The offense was able to remain hot due to J. J. Putz quick mow down of Houston in the tenth, retiring all three batters he faced in eight-pitches.

In the bottom half, Roberts and Upton hit back-to-back singles leading to Chris Young’s one-out, three-run game-winning homerun to give Young his fifth career walk-off and the Diamondbacks’ a full-game lead on the San Francisco Giants.

Both the Giants’ and Diamondbacks’ open up a three-game series with NL East foes as the New York Mets visit Phoenix and the Giants’ travel to south Florida to take on the Marlins.  The Mets’ series starts a span of four series between Arizona and the NL East.  Arizona will go on a ten-game road trip following the Mets’ series, visiting Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Washington respectively.

This spring, MLB has coordinated with A&E to produce the Arizona Diamondbacks 2001 World Series Collector’s Edition DVD set.  There’s no anniversary but that shouldn’t have stopped anyone from producing a boxed set for one of the greatest World Series ever.

The contents are pretty simple to describe.  You just get every minute of this great series.  Games four and five are tough to take for Diamondbacks fans but these games are incredible to watch with the Yankees hitting two run ninth inning homers before winning the games in extra frames.  You also have the whole backstory of 9/11 that makes this series that much more important.  And then, of course, you have that awesome game seven ninth inning come back.

There are a ton of extras as well.  You get some highlights of the NLDS as well as the trophy presentations.  You also get to listen in on Luis Gonzalez after his big hit in game seven along with some spots from a few other players.  The sleevestat feature is pretty cool too and you get a ton of background information on what’s going on while the game is being played.  This is definitely a must buy for any Diamondbacks fan.