Diamondbacks 3, Royals 9: Oh, There Were Fireworks
Eduardo Rodriguez came in to this game riding a bit of a hot streak, but three batters in to the game, it was obvious that hot streak was over. Throughout E-Rod's less than 5 innings of pitching tonight, he seemed to alternate between pitches nowhere near the zone and meatballs right down Broadway. The results of such a performance were predictable. 9 runs, 8 earned, and 3 home runs allowed. All of this came with the Royals riding a significant offensive skid, coming into Phoenix with a week long homer-less streak. Well, as was pointed out in the GDT, if your offense is having a rough go of it, Chase is a great place to 'get right.'
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The bullpen once again did an excellent job in a low leverage situation (for the year, D-Backs pitchers have a 3.07 ERA in low leverage vs a 4.73 ERA overall), not allowing a single run and never facing more than a single runner above the minimum in any inning. The offense, also did their best to keep this a low leverage affair. After getting 2 runs back in the first, the offense was silent, squandering an opportunity or two but mostly not able to string multiple hits together and build an inning. The Diamondbacks will have a short turnaround with the early game tomorrow, so thankfully we won't have to dwell on this one very long.
The game result not being what we'd wanted, I still hope everyone enjoyed the fireworks and barbecue!
Loss Probability and Box Score
Courtesy FanGraphs
Outside the Box Score
Eduardo Rodriguez gave up a home run three batters in to the ball game. Who was to blame? The broadcasters, of course. Bert had just finished saying how the Royals had the least amount of homers in the league to date and hadn't hit a home run in a week. The broadcaster jinx lives and I'll never be convinced otherwise.
Ketel Marte got a leadoff single to start the offense for the Diamondbacks in the first, but it was about as well placed (read: lucky) as a ball could be. He popped up the first pitch about halfway down the right field line. It had an expected BA of .030 according to Baseball Savant, but it landed equally about a foot between the first baseman, right fielder and foul line.
The Diamondbacks played some small ball to cash in their first 2 runs of the game. After Ketel reached on a pop up, Domo walked and both runners were moved up 90 feet on a swinging bunt by Lourdes Gurriel. Domo and Ketel came home on the combo of a sac fly by Geno and groundball single through the right side of the infield by Josh Naylor (on the first pitch, of course).
In the second inning, the Royals loaded the bases in front of Bobby Witt on what should have been a sacrifice bunt. Blaze Alexander, starting at third for Geno tonight, fielded the ball cleanly but had to double pump on the throw when Ketel wasn't near first trying to cover from his usual spot at second. Blaze did deliver a clean throw, but Ketel clanked it and everyone was safe. The merry-go-round continued from there as the Royals plated 3 runs in the inning.
The broadcaster jinx came back in a good way, though not as impactful as in the first inning, when Bert was recounting how Tim Tawa was grinding through an 0-for-24 stretch. Tawa promptly singled up the middle.
Diamondbacks squandered a scoring opportunity in the third when they had runners at the corners with no outs and the heart of the order at the plate. Geno hit a fly ball to medium right field and Domo tagged and started home before slamming on the brakes. They throw ended up about a third of the way up the third baseline, so I'd like to think that Domo would've been able to score on that, but Geraldo decided to wait it out and while staying at third with still less than 2 outs. Unfortunately, Naylor hit into a double play and no runs scored in the inning.
E-Rod nearly had Witt retired to lead off the fourth. Witt foul tipped a pitch into Herrera's mitt, but Jose couldn't hang on to it. Witt singled on the next pitch, then came home on a Sasquatch dinger.
Tim Tawa made a stupendous play to end the fifth and retire Bobby Witt for the first time in his first 4 at bats of the evening. A sinking line drive to straightaway center very well could have dropped in for an RBI single, but Tawa made a headlong dive and gloved the ball just inches above the turf.
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Player of the Game
I'm deciding to leave this space for the player most responsible for the game's outcome. In a win, that will continue to be the best player. In a loss? Well, tonight that person was Eduardo Rodriguez. With a loss probability of over 50%, he was singlehandedly responsible for the loss and then some. Looking at the numbers, he was still getting Whiffs and hitters to chase at close to his season-long numbers, but the EV was much higher than is typical for him. Michael McDermott made an AI-assisted observation in the GDT that it appeared E-Rod's struggles tonight may be mechanically based. Maybe they were, and I hope if it was it is something minor and identifiable as the Snakes can't afford any of our remaining healthy pitchers to be pitching at less than their peak for an extended period.
Comment of the Game
More participation in the GDT than I expected, with all the extracurricular activities happening this evening. A total of 269 comments at time of publishing. Only a couple Sedona red comments and both were introductory posts so no COTG tonight. Still, it was an enjoyable thread with some interesting sidebars (apparently India is playing a cricket series with England). Win or lose, the best place to watch a D-Backs game is right here on the Pit.
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Coming Up
The Diamondbacks face the Royals in the second game of this interleague series tomorrow with a 1:10pm Saturday start time for the second week in a row. Ryne Nelson gets the ball for the good guys tomorrow and he'll be opposed by right-hander Michael Wacha who is 4-8 and has a 3.62 ERA. Will we stop our losing skid?
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