Archive for April, 2009

It is true.  Major League Baseball has scheduled road games for the Arizona Diamondbacks this season.  As much as they’ve grown comfortable living at home for the first 18 out of 21 games, it was bound to happen.  Save for one short road jaunt to San Francisco against the Giants, the Diamondbacks will finally get to take to the road for eight games in three cities. It starts tonight in Milwaukee against the Brewers.  Max Scherzer will take to the mound against Jeff Suppan tonight.  If things go south fast, which they could as the Brew Crew have won seven [...]

Nope. Not looking like it. Carlos Zambrano and the Chicago Cubs are making it look pretty easy right now in the bottom of the 4th leading 7-1. Dan Haren’s masterpiece last night in a 7-2 victory seems like ages ago at this point. Alfonso Soriano and Mike Fontenot went yard again. However last night their later taters were the only runs last night. Not tonight. Jon Rauch has entered the game. Enough said. Chicago Cubs 7 – Arizona Diamondbacks 1 in progress Bottom 4th 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Cubs 0 0 3 [...]

Brandon Webb’s stay on the DL will be lasting a bit longer.  After a set back this week, he will now not be allowed to even pick up  baseball for three weeks.  After that, he’ll need to play catch, throw off a mound, have some bullpen sessions, maybe a rehab start or two.  It could be six weeks or more before you see Webb back on a major league mound.  Here is a video I found of him warming up last week in San Francisco.  Take a good look, it might be your last for awhile.

Make that five out of six.  Series that the Dbacks have lost so far to start the season.  After falling 5-1 to the Giants Friday and 5-3 on Saturday, the Dbacks assured themselves of another losing series. The story seems to be more of the same.  Here is my top ten list of reasons why the Dbacks are not winning. Hitting, or lack thereof. Hitting coach Rick Schu needs to go. Relief pitching, more specifically Jon Rauch and Doug Slaten Poor Baserunning Lack of timely hitting.  Can’t get the big hit with runners in scoring position Eric Byrnes Justin Upton [...]

Today it only took seven innings for the Arizona Diamondbacks to score for Dan Haren, who once again pitched a brilliant game.  After he was pulled for a pinch hitter, Ryan Roberts came up and delivered a single to right center field to score Chris Young and give Arizona a 1-0 lead.  The lead eventually climbed to 2-0 on a Conor Jackson walk and the game ended that way. Those two runs soured what was an otherwise great start by Colorado Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa. The bullpen behind Haren did its job, with Tony Pena pitching a scoreless [...]

In a game where the offense showed up for the second consecutive game, the Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen took the field in the sixth inning with the Dbacks perserving a three run lead.  It didn’t last long. The Colorado Rockies bats woke up and it was all downhill from there. The usual suspects are to blame for another poor outing by a bullpen that is more fit for Class A ball than the majors. It all started just fine, with the Dbacks getting to Rockies reliever Glendon Rusch and taking a three run lead after a two-run homer by Mark Reynolds [...]

Ok, that’s a little better.  Just a little. The Arizona Diamondbacks offense made a showing tonight at Chase Field as they defeated the Colorado Rockies 6-3.  Starter Jon Garland was much better this time out as he went 6 2/3 innings, only giving up two runs, one earned.  For a change, the offense came along for the ride. Mark Reynolds hit a solo home run and Miguel Montero showed some life by banging a three run homer into the pool in right center field. Chad Qualls closed things out with a solid ninth. Now that the Dbacks have put together [...]

Well, at least we won. Finally a strong starting effort does not go wasted, although it took until the ninth inning to put any doubt into this game.  The Arizona Diamondbacks, behind eight solid innings from Doug Davis, defeated the San Francisco Giants on Saturday afternoon 2-0. Chris Young splashed a double into deep left field to score two runs in the top of the ninth to finally break the Arizona scoreless streak.  Of course, it took getting to the Giants bullpen to get it done.  Giants starter Tim Lincecum was brilliant once again.  He struck out 13 batters. Davis [...]

For the third straight outing for Dan Haren last night, he was above average yet failed to receive any assistance from the offense.  The Dbacks offense seems to be on an indefinite vacation.  It might be just me, and I’m sure it’s not, however maybe the Dbacks need to do something about it.  Whether it’s sending someone down to Reno (Justin Upton?), waiving a player (Eric Byrnes?), or trading a player (Chad Tracy?). Something has to give.  There is no reason why Dan Haren should have been pulled from last night’s 2-0 loss in San Francisco in the 7th inning [...]

The Arizona Diamondbacks have found a little offense over the past couple of days.  Too bad for them, the pitching continues to remain terrible with a few exceptions.  After last night’s heroics by Eric Byrnes in the 10th inning to defeat St. Louis 7-6, there would be no such joy today as St. Louis defeated Arizona 12-7.  At one time St. Louis led 6-0 and Arizona at one point had closed the gap to 7-5, however the bullpen could not hold the powerful Cards offense and could not keep the game close. Jon Garland (1-1) must have woken up on [...]