July 30, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Chris Johnson (28) watches his grand slam home run in the fifth inning at Dodger Stadium. Image: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Record Notes: The Diamondbacks improved to 54-51 with the sweep. Their road record improves to 24-27 and they are three games over .500 for the first time since April 17^th when they were 7-4. With the Giants losing to the Mets on Wednesday the Dbacks gained two more games on the N.L. West leaders and now trail the Giants by 2 ½ games making it very much so a three team race.

Transactions: With the trade deadline now passed the Dbacks will have to make a run with the guys they have in their clubhouse now as Kevin Towers wasn’t able to make the blockbuster trade he had in the works up until the last few minutes before the deadline. He made one trade on July 31^st that has many a head scratching as he shipped lefty reliever Craig Breslow to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for right handed reliever Matt Albers and 36 year old journey man Scott Podsednik. Albers is actually enjoying the best year of his career with a 2.29 ERA in 40 appearances but sports a career ERA near five at 4.78 in 277 games. Podsednik has barely played in 2012 collecting just 62 at bats.

The move makes little sense because it seems as though Podsednik will report to AAA Reno to add ‘outfield depth’ if needed for the club- even though they have A.J. Pollock and Adam Eaton- and Albers replaced RHP Brad Bergeson who was recently acquired as well. Breslow was one of the more reliable relievers in the Dbacks bullpen and he was a lefty. In a league that puts so much emphasis on matchups and the value of a left hander coming out of the pen it is a surprise to see Towers deal Breslow when these are the guys he got in return. Furthermore, that leaves us with one left handed reliever in roly poly Mike Zagurski who has been anything but consistent and frankly the only reason I can see he still has a job is because he’s left handed.

GOOD: Paul Goldschmidt was unbelievable in this series and finished 8 for 12 with two homeruns and five RBI’s. Both homeruns came in the top half of the first inning on Monday and Tuesday. Monday’s was a three run bomb off of Aaron Harang and Tuesday’s was a two run shot of Chris Capuano. Both set the tone of the game right out of the gate and gave the starting pitchers room to be more aggressive before they even took the hill. On Wednesday he made an unimpressive bunt pop out to the catcher by Justin Upton turn into a crucial heads up play. Take a look at the play. Miguel Montero was next and he lined a ground ball up the middle to score Goldschmidt making it 1-0, easily making Goldschmidt’s heads up play the play of the game.

Goldschmidt is now 12 for his last 23 with five multi-hit games in his last six contests.

*Chris Johnson made his debut as a Diamondback on Monday night and instantly had opportunities to make an impact with his new club. In the third inning with one out Johnson came to the plate with the bases loaded only to ground into an inning ending double play. Oddly enough- and lucky enough for Johnson- he came to the plate with the bases loaded again in the fifth inning and didn’t miss this time driving a 2-1 pitch into the left field seats for a grand slam and making it a 7-0 game. Talk about getting a monkey off your back. From that point on the 27 year old was locked in finishing 6 for 11 with a double, two homeruns and seven RBI’s. He also didn’t strikeout once in the series.

*Miguel Montero was wreaking havoc on Dodgers pitchers as well finishing 4 for 9 with two homeruns and six RBI’s. He also walked four times and didn’t strikeout once. He is 14 for his last 30 with four homeruns, twelve RBI’s and nine walks. His on base percentage is an impressive .394- good for third among all major league catchers.

*Goldie, Johnson & Miggy combined to go 18 for 32 with six homeruns and eighteen RBI’s in the three game series against the Dodgers. Now that’s impressive.

*Starting Pitching. Just when the team needed it the most the starting pitching stepped up in a big way. In their 20 innings of work they surrendered just two earned runs and one first inning homerun all series.

* Trevor Cahill set the tone working out of a first inning jam where he induced an inning ending double play after walking the leadoff batter and allowing a single. It was the first time in seven starts he didn’t allow a first inning run. He kept the ball down all night and had great movement on all his pitches creating ten groundouts to two flyouts including a pair of double plays.

*Wade Miley followed that up with an even better performance going eight strong innings while giving up just three hits and a first inning homerun. At one point the rookie retired 12 straight hitters and 18 of 19 to finish his start. Miley improved to 12-6 with an ERA of 2.98.

The finale saw rookie left hander Patrick Corbin return to the club and he surrendered just two hits over six shutout innings. Corbin worked out of a jam in the first and second innings as the Dodgers had runners on first and second in each frame only to leave them stranded.

BAD: Jason Kubel has cooled off considerably as of late and finished 2 for 12 without an RBI in the series. He is now 2 for his last 20 with eight strikeouts and hasn’t recorded an RBI in seven games. Still, he finished July with a club record [for the month] 11 homeruns and recorded 22 RBI’s- the second straight month with 20+ RBI’s.

*Justin Upton was less than impressive again in this series finishing 2 for 13. He didn’t walk once in the series and hasn’t walked in five straight games. In the last eight games the right fielder is just 5 for 27 (.185) with three RBI’s. He hasn’t had an extra base hit during that span as well. It’s scary to think that the team is hitting this well without the help of Upton or Chris Young but there hasn’t been much to show us that anything will change soon. Teams are still pitching Upton way outside and inducing hard ground balls to short as a result with Upton not taking the pitch the opposite way.

UGLY: Stephen Drew is getting his at bats right now on a consistent basis and with Willie Bloomquist nursing a sore back he will likely be out there all weekend as well. Unfortunately the shortstop is struggling mightily and was just 1 for 9 in the series and is now just 3 for his last 25 (.120) dropping his season average to .193. To be fair, when you watch the games you see Drew hit line drive after line drive that just isn’t finding grass- something that he isn’t going to change in his swing- and hopefully something that will just start falling for him.

NOTES: The best part about this sweep- besides the fact that it is L.A.- is that this Dodgers club was rolling coming off a three game sweep of the Giants and everyone on their club is playing and healthy. When the Dbacks took three of four at Chase Field just before the All Star break the argument was we did it without Matt Kemp or Andre Ethier but this series included Kemp, Ethier, Hanley Ramirez and Shane Victorino. And no, we didn’t face Kershaw this series but last time we faced him the offense ruffed him up for five runs in 5 1/3 innings. Basically what I’m saying is we own the Dodgers. Enjoy it now and hope they keep it rolling.

*With the first inning homerun against Miley on Tuesday it plated the 36^th run allowed by the Diamondbacks in the first inning- the most runs they’ve allowed in any inning.

*The Diamondbacks started the second half playing 20 games in 20 days and finished 12-8. They have an off day today to travel to Philadelphia before they will play a game on ten straight days making it 30 games in 31 days to open the second half of the season.

*Ian Kennedy will take the hill on Friday night in Philadelphia to try to keep pace with the other Diamondback starters. The team will face Roy Halladay on Saturday and Cliff Lee on Sunday before traveling to Pittsburgh for a four game set.

Now bring on the Phillies!!

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Paul Goldschmidt put the D-backs up on the board quickly in the first inning with a three-run bomb to center field, scoring Gerardo Parra and Aaron Hill, putting the snakes on top 3-0.

Newly acquired third baseman Chris Johnson joined the D-backs on Monday night to make his debut with the team. After grounding into a double play with the bases loaded in the top of the third inning, Johnson was hoping to redeem himself in the top of the fifth inning with a similar situation. After the Dodgers intentionally walked Arizona catcher Miguel Montero, Chris Johnson faced L.A. starter Aaron Harang with the bases loaded. With two outs and a 2-1 count, Johnson blasted a hanging slider to deep left field for a grand slam, scoring Hill, Jason Kubel, and Montero, to put the D-backs up 7-0.

July 30, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Trevor Cahill (35) throws against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first inning at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona’s offense was feasting of Dodgers’ pitchers all evening, as the 1-4 hitters went 9-18 with five runs scored as the D-backs got on base frequently all night long. The team went 4-10 with runners in scoring position.

Los Angeles would add a couple runs later in the game, but that would not be enough to overcome a strong outing by Arizona starter Trevor Cahill. The Arizona starter allowed only six hits and one earned run through six strong innings pitched. With the victory, Cahill picked up his ninth victory of the season, and lowered his E.R.A. to 3.75.

Arizona starter Wade Miley takes the mound tomorrow evening in game two of the series in Los Angeles.

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Takashi Saito (48) pitches during the game in the eighth inning at Chase Field. Image: Jennifer Stewart-US PRESSWIRE

Record Notes: With the loss on Sunday the team again fell to .500 at 51-51 trailing both the Giants and Dodgers by 4.5 games for the division lead. Their home record fell to 30-24 but the team is still 7-3 in their last ten and have been playing good baseball overall.

*In their two losses against the Mets, the offense was held to just one run in each game. They are now 1-36 when scoring two or fewer runs. In six of their eight losses in the second half they have been held to one or fewer runs.

*They have scored at least five runs in all of their nine wins since the All Star break- three of those with double digit runs.

*They scored 61 total runs in their seven wins during the ten game home stand. In their three losses the team managed just four runs. A bit of a Jekyll and Hyde team really- at least that’s been consistent all year.

*Through July 29th 2011 the team was 57-49 after losing their first game of a series against the Dodgers in L.A. They would win the next two in the series and take two of three from the Giants in San Fran the following series.

Transactions: Kevin Towers has been trying to plug-and-play the third base position all season long from Ryan Roberts to Josh Bell to Willie Bloomquist to John McDonald to Ryan Wheeler. On Sunday it was announced that the Diamondbacks acquired Astros third baseman Chris Johnson for outfielders Marc Krauss and Bobby Borchering- both minor league prospects (AA). The 27 year old Johnson is hitting .279 with an OBP of .329 hitting 21 doubles and 8 homeruns. His downfalls this season have been his strikeouts (92) and his errors (13). Hopefully moving from one of the worst teams in baseball the last few seasons to a contender can bring a new fire to Johnson down the stretch and help solve the problems at third base. The subsequent move that will create a roster spot has not been announced yet. Towers said he isn’t done looking to improve this year’s team with the trade deadline looming on Tuesday.

GOOD: Bullpen. The bullpen was lights out in this series allowing just one earned run over 11 1/3 innings while striking out thirteen. J.J. Putz recorded his 19^th save on Saturday striking out the side- his tenth straight successful save. Brad Bergeson allowed his first run as a Diamondback on Sunday but has been a nice addition so far. Takashi Saito’s presence in the bullpen has proved valuable already as he had a pair of scoreless appearances against the Mets.

*Aaron Hill recorded a hit in each of the four games but his defense was what made the second baseman so valuable in this series with plays like this – and this.

BAD: Starting Pitching. There are couple good and bad points here. The bad points include fifteen earned runs allowed in 24 2/3 innings including five homeruns (5.58 ERA). Only Saunders made it through seven innings of the four starters in the series despite taking the loss Sunday. In three of the four games the starter for the Dbacks allowed two earned runs in the first inning as well. Only Kennedy didn’t allow a first inning run. The good news is that even in the two losses, the starters still pitched well enough to keep their team in the game with a chance to win.

*Wade Miley took the loss on Thursday night allowing nine hits and three earned runs over 5 1/3 innings. While the three runs really isn’t that bad of an outing the Mets were hitting hard line drives off the rookie from the first batter in the game to the last and he was just plain out-dueled by Mets rookie Matt Harvey who mowed through the Dbacks in his major league debut. Miley dropped to 11-6 on the year and has now allowed 19 earned runs in his last 28 1/3 innings including 5 homeruns (6.09 ERA). Previous to that Miley had been almost unhittable allowing just 4 earned runs in 30 2/3 innings with a single homerun allowed. Hopefully August will bring the left hander some better luck.

*Ian Kennedy was good but not great in his start Saturday as he failed to make it out of the seventh (although I personally think Gibson pulled him too early) for the first time in three starts and allowed three homeruns- all solo- to Ike Davis in the game. It was the first time Ian has allowed three homeruns in a game since June 11, 2011 against the Marlins and first time a single player has accomplished the feat. He has also allowed two homeruns in a game four times this season for a total of eighteen in 2012. A year ago he surrendered nineteen all season. The ace did strikeout nine Mets marking the third time this season he has recorded nine or more strikeouts and first since June 5th against the Rockies. He collected his ninth win in the game marking the first time Kennedy has been over .500 since he was 3-2 on May 8th.

UGLY: Offensive Strikeouts. The offense was fanned a total of 42 times over the four game set including 16 times on Thursday facing Matt Harvey in his debut as he collected 11 on his own. In their last seven games the team has had at least eight strikeouts in six of those and recorded double digit K’s on three occasions.

*3-4-5 Hitters. If we take out Friday’s offensive explosion where these hitters did combine to go 5 for 12 with 4 runs, the heart of the lineup was just 6 for 31 (.194) in the other three contests- two losses- with 14 strikeouts. Given the way Kubel, Goldschmidt and even Upton have been hitting lately this is more of an interesting stat than something to really be concerned with.

*Stephen Drew continues to falter at the plate and finished the Mets series just 2 for 12 with 4 strikeouts and 2 runs scored. He is now 6 for his last 36 (.167) and hasn’t connected on his first long ball yet either- a span of 79 at bats in 23 games.

*Jason Kubel has been one of the hottest hitters in the major leagues over the last two months but he was just 2 for 14 in this series with zero RBI’s and seven strikeouts. He surpassed the century mark in K’s on the year (101) and has now gone four games without a homerun or RBI. While that doesn’t sound like a long streak- and it really isn’t- it is the longest Kubel has gone without a homerun since the end of June and the longest without an RBI since he went from May 1-12th without knocking in another Diamondback. Tells you how impressive the left fielder has been for the ballclub huh?

NOTES: Josh Collmenter allowed five earned over his six innings on Friday but did collect the win. It took him 30 2/3 innings before that outing to accumulate five earned runs. Collmenter is 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA in July as of Sunday.

*Third Baseman Ryan Wheeler collected his first major league double and RBI in the second inning Saturday.

*Fast Willie Bloomquist Homerun Watch continues beyond another series as he’s now gone 77 games and 304 at bats without a homerun. It’s coming though- soon too. Drew may be taking over the reins for the homerun watch this week or at least joining Willie in the ranks.

*The team will begin a ten game road trip starting Monday night against the L.A. Dodgers who are now tied for first after sweeping the San Francisco Giants over the weekend. The Dodgers haven’t allowed a run in their last two games outscoring the Giants 14-0. Trevor Cahill will take on Aaron Harang to try to get the Dbacks back to the top of the N.L. West for the second consecutive year heading into August.

Now bring on the Dodgers!!!

Follow me on Twitter at @ndougherty313 and our team at @venomstrikes.