Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Mike Zagurski (49) pitches during the game against the Washington Nationals in the ninth inning at Chase Field. Image: Jennifer Stewart-US PRESSWIRE

Transactions: The Dbacks were forced to make a few moves over the weekend that saw Josh Collmenter head to the disabled list with ulcers and a recall of right hander Brad Bergeson from Triple-A Reno. They also had to place Willie Bloomquist on the DL with a back issue that has hampered him for a couple weeks now. To fill his roster spot they promoted infielder Jake Elmore to make his major league debut for the club. The other move was a matter of choice as they [finally] designated Mike Zagurski for assignment while recalling right hander Bryan Shaw.

Record Notes: The team is playing .500 ball lately and still sits one game above .500 on the season at 58-57 but lost a game to the first place Giants and now trail them by five games. They have won three series, lost three series, and split three [four game] series in the second half of the season.

*With their 9-1 loss on Friday night, the team fell to 1-39 in games in which they scored two or fewer runs.

*With their 6-5 loss on Saturday night the team dropped to a major league worst 8-17 in one run games on the year and have lost five straight one run affairs.

GOOD: Patrick Corbin put together another impressive start on Sunday working seven innings while allowing just four hits and two earned runs. He didn’t walk a batter, collected seven strikeouts and at one point retired sixteen straight Nationals hitters. The 23 year old rookie has been excellent in August posting an ERA of 1.89 and a 2-0 record in nineteen innings of work.

*Bryan Shaw returned to the Diamondbacks bullpen Saturday night after being demoted on July 20^th and he didn’t disappoint striking out the side in the seventh inning. J.J. Putz came in during the ninth on Sunday and retired the final two hitters to record his 13^th consecutive save and 22^nd overall.

*Aaron Hill’s bat livened over the weekend as he collected a pair of doubles and his first homerun in 20 games. He also drove in his first run in the month of August.

BAD: Trevor Cahill was mediocre yet again on Friday as he surrendered two homeruns and four earned runs over six innings of work. Cahill has failed to win consecutive starts in nine consecutive appearances now dating back to June 3^rd. He has given up at least three runs in seven of those nine starts.

*Paul Goldschmidt began the series 0 for 9 on Friday and Saturday before finally breaking through with a clutch performance on Sunday as he went 2 for 4 with three RBI’s and a stolen base. Goldie is mired in a 3 for 20 mini-slump right now but hopefully Sunday’s effort will get the first baseman rolling again. His eleventh stolen base on the year leads all National League first baseman and is tied for the most in MLB at his position.

UGLY: Takashi Saito suffered another abbreviated outing on Sunday lasting just 1/3 of an inning while giving up three hits and a pair of runs before being pulled. In his last three outings the right hander has working just 1 1/3 innings while allowing six hits and four earned runs including a homerun. His ERA has skyrocketed over 6.00 (6.14) and his struggles are coming at an inconvenient time as the team is making a “push” for a playoff spot.

*Mike Zagurski was again hit hard on Friday night allowing four earned runs on four hits- three doubles- as pitching coach Charles Nagy and Gibby let the left hander grind his way through one of the worst innings he’s thrown all season- he allowed four earned runs in 2/3 inning on June 20^th. With the game virtually out of reach everyone was forced to watch the 29 year old painfully battle hitter after hitter and without a reliever warming up. The outing sent Zagurski’s ERA over 6.00 on the year (6.18) and prompted his demotion to Triple-A Reno the following day. The Dbacks now have zero left handed relievers in their bullpen with Zagurski’s demotion and the Craig Breslow trade at the deadline.

*Chris Johnson came back to reality during his first series at the friendly confines of Chase Field. He collected just one hit in eleven at bats and misplayed a couple balls being credited with his 16^th & 17^th errors on the year. Since he blasted a pair of homeruns against the Pirates last Tuesday, the third baseman is just 4 for 20 (.200) with six strikeouts. He did still knock in two runs over the weekend pushing his RBI total as a Diamondback to 18 in just 13 games. While the offensive downfall isn’t concerning considering how well he has been, the defensive mishaps are something the defense [and pitching staff] cannot afford. He has already committed four errors in his time as a Diamondback.

*Team Defense. What a horrible display of fielding once again this weekend as the club tacked on another three error game Saturday night on their way to committing five errors over the three games. It was their second consecutive series with five errors and they now have eleven errors in just their last eight games. Still, even with their recent struggles on the field the defense sports the tenth best fielding percentage in all of baseball at .984- the MLB leading Mariners have a .990 percentage.

NOTES: *Arizona State alumni Jake Elmore made his major league debut on Saturday night as a pinch hitter coming to the plate with runners on first and second and one out. It was a quality at bat as he saw four pitches before flying out to right field for the second out.

*The Dbacks have seen some difficult opponents in their last five series with the Mets, Dodgers, Phillies, Pirates and Nationals finishing 9-8 during that span. All but the Phillies are either the division leader or contending for at least a playoff spot with under 50 games to go. In the Phillies series the team was dealt the hand of Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee in the final two matchups, two of the toughest starters in baseball when they are hitting their spots. As the team travels to St. Louis to start a three game set Tuesday night, they will be faced with yet another tough opponent that has fared very well against the Dbacks as of late.

*Ian Kennedy will take the hill tomorrow evening to try to rectify his poor outing against the Pirates and take game one that will kick off their nine game road trip. In Kennedy’s first start against the Cardinals earlier this summer he was hit hard in the first two innings allowing six earned runs on two homeruns but was able to shut down their offense after the second to throw seven complete innings.

Now bring on the Cardinals!!

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

 Sidenote: This awesomeness kicks off Wednesday in Long Beach, CA: http://vimeo.com/40057950

Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Stephen Drew (6) (right) shakes hands with third base coach Matt Williams (9) after hitting a home run against the Philadelphia Phillies during the second inning at Citizens Bank Park. Image: Dale Zanine-US PRESSWIRE

Record Notes: With the loss on Sunday the team dropped its record to 55-53 and fell four games behind the Giants as both the Dodgers and Giants swept their opponents over the weekend.

*The offense was shutout on Saturday 4-0 marking the sixth time this season they have been shutout- all after June 4th.

*Of their ten losses in the second half, in eight of them the offense has plated two or fewer runs. It was the 37th time in their 53 losses that they were held to two or fewer runs.

*With Sunday’s 5-4 walk-off loss the Dbacks fell to 8-15 in one run games- a year ago this team was 28-16 in one run games.

GOOD: Starting Pitching. All three starters put together quality starts over the weekend and have now had six straight quality starts going 4-1 in those games. There were a couple mental mistakes that cost them including a bases loaded walk in the fourth by Joe Saunders to make it 2-0 on Saturday and on Sunday when Trevor Cahill threw a wild pitch with runners on second and third to cut his lead to 3-2 after the Dbacks put up three runs in the top half of the second inning.

*Ian Kennedy won his fourth straight start on Friday night hurling six innings and allowing just two earned runs. Kennedy retired just one batter via the strikeout marking the first time he was credited with a win and recorded just one strikeout since he did so against the Mets on July 19th, 2010. He had one strikeout against the Cardinals in April 2011 but lasted only three innings while getting pounded for nine earned runs. It was also his fourth straight quality start improving his record in the second half to 4-1. Two side notes about Kennedy that shows he still isn’t the ace we grew accustomed to last year: he hit his tenth batter on Friday night matching a career high set in 2010 and also allowed his 19th homerun on the year matching last years total. His career high for homeruns allowed is 26 set in 2010.

*J.J. Putz recorded his 11th straight save on Friday night closing out a perfect evening where the relievers threw three shutout innings without allowing a hit. It was Putz’s 20th save on the year marking the second consecutive year with 20+ saves. After a dismal start to his season that saw his ERA balloon to over 10.00, the closer has not allowed an earned run since June 19th when he took the loss against the Mariners allowing two ninth inning runs- a span of 13 consecutive scoreless innings.

*Chris Johnson is making sure his series against the Dodgers wasn’t a fluke as he added another RBI single on Friday and smashed a two run homerun off of Cliff Lee on Sunday. He is hitting .381 with three homeruns and 10 RBI’s in his first six games as a Diamondback.

BAD: Aaron Hill has cooled off over the last couple weeks and has not recorded an RBI in his last six games while benefiting from only one multi-hit game in his last thirteen efforts. He also hasn’t homered in his last fourteen games.

*Jason Kubel continues to struggle as he is now 6 for his last 38 (.158) with 16 strikeouts and just one RBI. He hit his first homerun in his last eight games- a solo shot- on Friday night but is clearly not seeing the ball very well with his high strikeout count and low walk count (6) during the stretch.

UGLY: I’m convinced Gerardo Parra is the worst base runner on the Dbacks. He just may be the fastest Dback but he is certainly not the smartest base runner on the team. The situation: Saturday night trailing 2-0 in the eighth- after Halladay dominated the team all night- was replaced by Josh Lindblom who then retired the first two batters of the eighth (both strikeouts) before walking Parra on four pitches. Drew is up- last two at bats: single and a double- and on a 1-1 count Parra takes off for second (with a red light) and is caught stealing to end the eighth. True, Parra on base doesn’t automatically mean that he scores and the team comes back to tie it but it certainly doesn’t leave any opportunity for a guy who was swinging the bat well. Again, poor decisions keep running the Dbacks out of innings- this time it just may have cost them the game.

*Mike Zagurski failed to make it through the eighth on Saturday night as he allowed two of the first three hitters to reach base with singles before being pulled for Matt Albers- his first appearance as a Dback- and Albers couldn’t close out the inning either allowing a two out single and Zagurski being credited with the run making it 3-0 heading into the ninth. It was the second time in Zagurski’s last three appearances that he failed to make it out of the inning.

NOTES: Paul Goldschmidt hit his 16th homerun on the year Sunday afternoon- his third in the last six games- and is the last man standing with a .300+ batting average on the ballclub. Just over one week ago there were four hitting .300 or better.

*Stephen Drew connected on Sunday for his first homerun of the year and first since June 29, 2011. It was also Drew’s first RBI in his last eleven games. Still, Drew is swinging the bat very well despite his average.

*Henry Blanco was hurt in Sunday’s eighth inning and has been placed on the 15 day DL with a sprained thumb. He left the team to return to Arizona for an MRI Monday- Blanco believes there is ligament damage which could end his season.

*To combat the injury, the Dbacks have signed 34 year old catcher Wil Nieves off of waivers from the Rockies.

*Justin Upton hit his 100th career homerun on Friday night and later that evening his older brother B.J. Upton mashed his 100th career homerun into the seats. Upton led the Dbacks with six hits against the Phillies over the weekend.

*David Hernandez left with an injury to his calf after being hit with a line drive Sunday afternoon but it isn’t believed to be serious and may be available as early as Tuesday night.

*The Diamondbacks travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates Monday night for the start of a four game set. The Pirates are a N.L. best 33-16 at home this season while the Dbacks are 25-29 on the road.

Now bring on the Buccos!!!

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

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!!

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