Tuffy Gosewisch hit his first career home run, the only highlight in another D’backs loss to the Cubs. Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
The Arizona Diamondbacks thought that maybe visiting the almost equally dreadful Chicago Cubs could put an end to their season long slump. Instead, it is the Cubbies who have started to turn their season around. Game two of this four game set belonged to the home team as Chicago blasted Arizona by a score of 9-2. An error by Martin Prado, playing second base for the first time this season in the fourth inning poured on the gas and Brandon McCarthy lit the match when he served up a three-run homer to Mike Olt three batters later.
The game started out reasonably well for the Snakes. McCarthy allowed only a run through the first four frames, striking out the side in the second. Once again, the D’back bats went silent as this time Jason Hammel did the honors in shutting down the offense. He had retired the first 14 batters he faced before Gerardo Parra singled with two outs in the fifth. It fell apart in the bottom of the inning when before the error, Luis Valbuena led off by singling after a ten pitch at-bat. After taking second on a ground ball out, Prado made his error putting runners at second and third. Here came the flood that would make Noah proud. Nate Schierholtz drove in Valbuena with a sacrifice fly, Starlin Castro singled and then Olt put one in the seats. The Cubs tacked on four more runs in the eighth by cuffing around Randall Delgado (who pitched two perfect innings in relief of McCarthy before this) J.J. Putz (who took the brunt of the abuse) and Joe Thatcher (who gave up the final hit).
I suppose at this point with these mounting defeats, I should point out the D’back highlight of the day. Tuffy Gosewisch hit his first career home run leading off the sixth inning. Paul Goldschmidt delivered an RBI single in the ninth inning to finish off the scoring. It also capped another dreary outing of Arizona Diamondbacks baseball.
Next game is Wednesday at 11:20 PM MST. Wade Miley takes the ball for Arizona against Jeff Samardzija looking for his first victory.