West side, dawg.

See, I have mixed emotions about west coast games. They always start too late, but, on the other hand, it means I can put up a rather late post and be before the game. Yes, no one shall notice my lengthy absence. *shifty eyes* Yes, none shall be the wiser...

So, in my lengthy, never-to-be-mentioned-again absence, let's look at how the Diamondbacks did: 4-3, splitting a series with San Francisco and then taking two of three from Detroit. In the meantime, we finished interleague play 7-10, giving us the pathetic title of "Best Interleague Record in the NL West - 2005." The rest of the division combined for a 20-40 record. We've loitered right around the .500 mark, currently a game over, and are three games back from San Diego. Given where we played last year, this isn't a bad seat to have on the night of June 28th.

It's actually odd that I haven't posted, since I've been able to follow more games lately. I got to listen to most of the series with Detroit, and would have followed more of the San Francisco series if not for the interuption of a small vacation. But the games I've listened to, I've been decently happy with how we've played. Obviously not perfect, but I think Sunday's game showed what this team can do against a top-notch pitcher if we get everything clicking on the same night.

And now we face San Francisco. Division games are always important, and the NL West has had a terrible record on the road this year- our's is the best record at 2 games under .500. San Francisco got mauled on Sunday, and I'd love to be able to tear in to them while they're off balance.

In non-baseball news, I did get to see the preview for Serenity last Thursday. That was exciting, and I've definitely got something to look forward to in September in case the D-backs can't swing a trip to the postseason.

Ah, done with a half dozen minutes to spare. Excellent.

Just a short post...

Okay, we lost again yesterday. Another good pitching performance trashed because our offense couldn't get a few runs in. It's rather frustrating.

But I'm just going to link to this article and let it speak for itself. A bit bizarre, really. First, the whole Darth Vader thing, and also this:

"We've got to get that ball into the infield to keep that second run from scoring," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said sternly.

Sternly? Wow, he must really be upset here. Some people best be treading lightly in the locker room for the next few days.

We're off to San Francisco, as we fight to keep from dropping below .500. Hopefully, we'll be able to do so.

Hmm.

Okay, first off- ten run innings? Not funny. Giving them up two games in a row, definitely not funny. This game was somewhat disappointing because, again, we had defensive errors get to us. We've been so solid on defense this season, and I'm really hoping that certain members of the team (Not that I'm talking about Royce Clayton specifically) aren't going to make it a habit of giving up more errors.

But last night's game was even more frustrating. Brandon Webb puts up another great game (8 innings, 3 runs) and we can't get enough support for him? The offense had been pretty good on this trip so far, but just took last night off, it seems. It seems like the motto of the season thus far is "Firing on Six of Eight Cylinders."

Also worrying is the fact that Ortiz has gone on the DL. Sayith Bob Melvin: "We're calling it a rib strain, but we're not exactly sure what it is. It has been bothering him for a couple of starts." Which is a bit worrisome. Well, two points of worry- first that they aren't sure what it is, and second that that statement seems to imply it was bothering him in Chicago, where he gave what was one of his best start of the year so far. We've also taken this moment to send Matt Herges down to Tucson (finally) and recall Koplove (good) and Brandon Medders. I don't know too much about him, but I was friends with a guy in high school who had the last name Medders, and he was a good guy. So, I have hope.

Our game today is already underway, thanks to the trickery that is time zones. After two, no score, but Estes has given up two hits, while the D-Backs have struck out three times. Hopefully, we'll be able to get some offense going and give Estes a shot at the win.

If you've got some free time, check over at Random Fandom where Stefan and Jim from AZ Snakepit have a discussion up about the D-Back's off-season moves.

What matters is...

Well, the good news tonight is the play went well. It was the last dress before opening- hooray for having connections, means I saved $15 on a ticket. Only hitch that they had was one slip of a line in the last act and a fire alarm during the second intermission. All in all, an enjoyable evening, except for the piercing wail of smoke detectors. And the costumes were lovely.

As for the game... Well. To be honest, I didn't expect too much. There were too many 'ifs' in the equation for me to really expect them to pull out a third win against the White Sox. The team met my expectations for the series- I thought they'd either get swept or take two out of three. Glad they decided to take the route of sarcastic optomism.

But some good things to be salvaged from this all. The Diamondbacks still managed to put together 6 runs, which is not an unpleasant total, and off of a pretty good pitcher, too. Garland only gave up six runs in 30 innings for the entire month of April. Meanwhile, Tony Clark picked up his 11th home run- imagine what this guy would be doing if he was playing every game. So while it wasn't a resounding victory, I'll go for the considerate "Did okay, I s'pose."

Day off tomorrow, and then in to Cleveland. I think we could do some damage to them, so hopefully we can take some momentum from the first two games of our series here.

Not bad

Wow, you'd never guess that this was the same team, huh? Three games against the worst team in the league, outscored 28-21. Two games against the best team in the league, and we're up 18-5. Bwah?

Yesterday I was back to the listening to the game, and they sounded great. We gave up 4 runs, all on home runs. We were getting hits, producing runs, keeping our eye on the ball, following through, walking it off, all that advice that you keep getting when you're on a losing streak. Vazquez pitched another great game, only giving up one walk. Cormier gave up his bullpen-pact mandated home run to the first batter, and the locked out the next three. We certainly looked like a team that is contending for division champions, for once. And with LA and San Diego stumbling a bit, we're still in it.

Tangentially, Eric Gagne went back on the disabled list today, and there is some speculation that his season might be over. Without a solid closer, the Dodgers start to become less of a threat.

Looking ahead a bit, we hit Cleveland on Friday, and then a four game set in San Francisco. Cleveland's been running rampant through the NL West the past week, going 6-1 in their past seven games. But they're just a couple games over .500, so I think we can do some damage against them. And I think our set in San Francisco is going to be important. If we want to take the division, we need to make a statement against a division rival.

I won't get to see tonight's game- going to see a play (oh, culture!) but I'm hoping Ortiz can have another good start. We're facing a good pitcher tonight- Jon Garland is trying to pick up his 11th win of the season- but I'm strangely optomistic about it. If Ortiz can keep on his pace from last game, and the bats don't take a night off, we could have a shot at this one. Hopefully it goes well.

Go Diamondbacks!

Confusion aplenty

So, plenty of confusion on my part today. First off, I was expecting to see the Diamondbacks on ESPN today. Turn on the TV ths evening, and- we get the Braves and the Rangers. While I appreciate Major League Baseball showing off one of my brilliant Interleague matchups (that payment is in the mail, right?) I wasn't terribly impressed. But, confusingly enough, a familiar voice is broadcasting on our Fox Sports Net. We normally get FSN Rocky Mountain , but for some reason were treated to a FSN Arizona broadcast for the evening. It wasn't scheduled in the TV listings, so I'm hoping that there haven't been multiple occasions that I've missed.

But, to be honest, my confusion didn't end there. I was a bit curious- who were these guys in the Diamondbacks uniforms? After barely sneaking one game past the team with the worst record in the league, we cruise to an easy victory against the team with the best record in the league? Estes, who's given up 10 earned runs with 11 innings pitched in his last two starts, giving us a complete game? That might have been out of a sincere desire to keep the bullpen from botching his excellent start, I can't blame him for that. But still. He faced no more than four batters in an inning for the entire game. Impressive.

As a sidenote: I do enjoy checking the game score on ESPN. I only recall parts of the formula sometimes, but I just like being able to look at one number and gauge the starting pitcher's game.

But our offense was pretty solid today, too. Clayton and Clark went hitless, but Clark got a sac fly for our first run, and is still batting .359. But everyone else got a hit, and Gonzales, Glaus, and Green all gave us a home run for our troubles. Our defense, even in troubled times, remains pretty solid, and today it didn't let us down.

So, I guess my question lies in this- where the hell was this team over the weekend?

The answer that comes to mind is my dad's- who, honestly, probably should be writing a baseball blog of his own somewhere, and by 'blog' I mean 'column' and by 'somewhere' I mean the Sporting News or something. If I can get him to write a baseball blog, and my mom to write a football blog, then we'll have something to read. And my family can publish a fairly biased but very enthusiastic sports magazine.

Anyway, the answer that comes to mind is my dad's- the fact that the Diamondbacks have a tendency to play to the level of their opponent, unfortunately so at times. When they face a last place team, they play like they're playing a last place team. When they play a first place team, they frequently play like they're playing a first place team. It leads to a very uneven set of performances. Which can be very true at times. They seem to be prone to slacking off against "gimmee" teams, and that means they lose, which means they hit a slump. But tonight was good. And we've had some good offensive work in the past week or so.

So, I think I'm going to position myself at "Cautiously Optomistic" for right now. Looking at the last turn through the rotation, we've got some really good starting pitching going. Except for Halsey's 6 inning, 6 earned run game, I think we should have won all of those games. Good starting pitching and good offensive production are on board right now, and solid defense has been a product we've been putting out there all season. If the bullpen will get in line, I think we can do something here. We've shown signs of being a good team all year. We just need to get everything working at the same time.

Oh, and, before I forget, Lance Cormier for NL Rookie of the Year!

Royal mistake

Well, that didn't go too well. A mauling at the hands of the Royals on Saturday, and then a good game by Brandon Webb wasted because we couldn't get anything going, and then played back and forth in the 10th and 11th until the bullpen decided to let it all go in the 12th. Grand. I slept through Saturday's game, fighting off a cold, and I wish I'd done the same for the end of Sunday's. Bleh.

And we're headed in to Chicago today for a three game set against the team with the best record in the league. One of two things is gonna happen here- we'll either leave Chicago a game under .500, or we'll hit a patch of spite and take two out of three. Probably the first one, though.

Congratulations to the fans in Colorado who finally got to see BK Kim on a good game. 6 innings, 8 Ks, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs. Not bad. He did hit two batters, but didn't give up any home runs.

As a sidenote, we now have two D-backs relievers with ERAs over 50- Greg Aquino at 54.00 and Edgar Gonzales at 108.00. Granted, they have less than two innings pitched between the two of them, and 12 earned runs, but I'd like to think that, give the chance, I could keep an ERA in the mid to upper twenties for a couple innings. Of course, I'm assuming that the batters will be mystified by my 'slow pitch softball' speed, my repertoire of mock Shakesperan insults, and my dance of joyous victory every time I managed to get the ball near the catcher. And, of course, my initimidating use of O Fortuna as I walked to the mound.

I better go. The Diamondbacks might be calling to recruit me as I type.

What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports?

Okay, I am officially confused.

I'll start with where I was right- Russ Ortiz did have a pretty decent night. Granted, he was staked a biiiig lead, but he still pitched seven innings, only gave up three runs, and, at the plate, went 2 for 3 with a walk and a ground rule double. I'm pretty happy with that prediction.

But now I'll move on to where I was out done. Jim "Oracle of Delphi" McLennan over at the AZ Snakepit made this comment in his game discussion thread: we could easily end up seeing a score like 12-11. Well played, Clerks.

Alright, on the up side- we put on a pretty good clinic offensively. 20 hits, 10 for extra bases. The G-Force tonight was doing exactly what they were there for- combined, they went 8 for 13 with a walk, 6 runs, 8 RBIs, 2 doubles and 3 home runs. Nice work guys. Except for Jose Cruz Jr., who went hitless, every starter had two or more hits, including the starting pitcher. Not bad.

And all too necessary, as our bullpen again decided that their job is to take whatever lead we have and demolish it. The score was 11-3 when the 8th inning started. They blew an 8 run lead. Edgar Gonzalez started the cavalcade of fun by giving up 4 runs in a third of an inning, giving him an ERA of "######", according to ESPN's box score. I'd calculate it as 108.0. At least it wasn't infinity, eh? But I'm certainly glad we brought him up instead of Mike Koplove.

Sidenote: my heart goes out to Royals fans. Having a pitcher injure himself during warmups? That's unfortunate.

The most confusing part, potentially, is the guy we had pitch the tenth, who earned the win. Bruney? Don't you traditionally give up three runs between leaving the bullpen and reaching the mound? I'm confused and more than a little worried.

Some nice hitting by the pitchers, tonight- in addition to the numbers Ortiz put up, Greinke went 1-2, with his hit being a home run. If only Ortiz had gotten a few more feet off of his ground rule double, we'd be swamped with ESPN Sportscenter info graphics telling us the last time that a game had both starting pitchers hit a home run. *sigh* Instead, we can only dream of such a world...

Oh, and congrats to Greg Maddux who hit a home run against the Red Sox today. He now has 71 career RBIs. I was going to make some joke about how his last home run was during the last Cubs-Red Sox series in 1918, but it's actually his fifth career home run. His last was in 1999, and he hit two that year.

On the East Coast, we've also got the Yankees who are slowly slinking back in to the kind of record they were looking like at the beginning of the season. 2-8 in their past ten, apparently the stress is finally getting to Joe Torre. Reportedly, at least. So far as I can tell, he's just a refurbished "Hall of US Presidents" model from the last time Disneyland remodeled- has anyone seem him ever show any emotion? Or recite the Gettysburg Address? Either one would fairly conclusively prove or disprove my theory.

We've got two more games left with the Royals, and I would honestly love if we can just nail one down, take a good lead, and keep it. Can we look in to that? Thanks.

I'm going to steal an idea from the good folk at Random Fandom. He's been posting music in his playlist. Interesting idea, but I'm not that big in music. I listen to it a lot, but the list doesn't rotate enough for it to be worthwhile for anyone. So, instead, I'll go with books.

Read Today
Finding Serenity edited by Jane Espenson
Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman
Sandman: The Wake by Neil Gaiman

In the Queue
The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

Today was a visit to the library, so I've got these and more books waiting. The two Sandman titles are graphic novels, so I tore through them quickly. Finding Serenity is a series of short essays, great for quick reading. Guns, Germs, and Steel is a book I came across when I was browsing a bookstore four years ago with my dad, and both of us were interested, but not enough for a hardback. I'm finally getting to read it- did you ever get a chance, Dad? And Dorian Gray was a product of me thinking "I've never read any Oscar Wilde. I think I should." What amuses me is that my older sister had the same thought and picked up the same book recently. We'll see how it is.

Well, I've obviously got a busy weekend ahead of me. Hope you do too. Go D-backs!

Better

This is apparently rerun week in the High Desert. Or some sort of baseball version of Groundhog Day. Pretty good game, but we made it frustratingly close at the end there. But a win is a win, and I'll let it go at that.

Kansas City comes in to town today, and Russ Ortiz is starting the first game of the series. I have to say, I've got a good feeling about this one. I think that he's got a good shot at coming out of his slump today, and showing that he's still got some fire left. I say this with absolutely no reasoning or fact behind it, naught but a good-sized handful of optomism. Head out there, and show us what you got, Russ.

Little of consequence

Well, that went about as expected. Which doesn't make it any more fun, but at least makes it less surprising. At least tonight we're starting a pitcher who we recognize, right?

I'd like to apologize to everyone for taking the easy way out yesterday, and going with the obvious Santana joke. I should know better than that. Though, in my defense, ESPN has twice headlined a game summary with Santana references. That person is at least getting paid for that.

I'm going to wrap this session up early, as I was up late last night trying to get tickets for a preview to see Serenity, and I feel my typing aptitude right now reflects that fact. But I was able to snag the tickets before they sold out, so maybe my feelings of luck will transfer over to the Diamondbacks tonight. We're doomed to lost our fifth series in a row, but we've only been swept once this season, in Washington, and it'd be nice if we could keep it that way. Kansas City comes in to town tomorrow, and they've won 6 of their last 8 going in to the closer at San Francisco, but they might be over-achieving. Might be nice if we could put a stop to it and pick up a few wins before we hit the road.

Yikes

I think I played the game last night pretty well. Listened to it early on, turned it off part way through, did some grocery shopping, had a nice dinner, and then watched a movie.

I'm not even sure that I should write this post, because it's not all that much different fromyesterday's, only we lost. I mean, even some similar numbers show up- we were outscored 7-3 after the fifth. And I'm wondering about what's going on with Estes- he apparently decided to try to barehand a hit in the 6th and then left right afterwards. The radio broadcasters seemed to think that the ball was going to be an inning ending double play before Estes interrupted it, so that's two runs that we didn't need to give up. And from reading the accounts of the 9th inning, I think I'm glad I didn't listen in.

All in all, a frustrating game. And tonight doesn't look terribly promising either. Claudio Vargas starts for us. For those of you unfamiliar with his ilustrious season so far, he's started four games, pitched 12.1 innings, given up 15 earned runs, and gotten 5 strikeouts. Just the guy a team with a beleaguered bullpen needs to have on the mound. Meanwhile, the Twins put up their ace, the band Santana. Great. Because we need them to have more guys out on the field.

In closing, though, let's focus on the brightside: The Diamondbacks still lead the NL West.

Alphabetically, I mean.

Yes and no...

Well, in one way, that was an improvement. Any time you guys score ten runs, I can't complain too much.

And yet... We still almost lost it. Even with the win, we had an poor stay in Philly, and not just because the room service was bad. Bruney continued to keep on his pace by looking very uinimpressive, giving up 4 runs in 2/3s of an inning. Webb wasn't comfortable out there. We were outscored 7-3 after the second inning. The team continued to look out of sorts, like there's some factor that still needs to be filled in. Maybe it's something on the field, maybe it's something in the clubhouse. It's hard to say, but something needs to happen to get them out of this mental funk.

If you've watched a game in Denver this season, you kind of have to wince when you hear about Clint Barmes and his unfortunate tumble down the stairs, and not just because a broken collarbone sounds painful. The Rockies haven't been tearing up the league so far, and you just know that losing the man who led the team in runs, RBIs, and OPS is just going to hold them back more. I forsee the Denver crowds just getting more angry at this, and they've shown themselves to be none too patient in what I've seen. I expect BK Kim to be burnt in effigy within a month.

The Twins come to town, in another classic match-up between natural rivals. Who can forget the epic struggles we've fought back and forth, storied battles that will forever echo through the Halls of Baseball Valhalla? No, wait, sorry, I keep confusing the Twins with the Black Armies of the Dark Lord Sauron. I think everyone makes that mistake a lot. But remember when Gonzo faced off with the Ring Wraiths? That was cool.

I've been giving it some thought, and I think I've come up with a few suggestions for team matchups I'd like to see in interleague play. They may not have the geographical ties they try to give us (Kansas City at San Francisco, anyone?) but they would add spice to the game.

-Seattle and Florida - this series starts to tonight, and really triggered the thought process. The Mariner Housewife and I had similar considerations about this- this is not just two unrelated teams from across the country playing a fairly unimportant series, this is the struggle of man against nature, of the sailor against the uncaring sea, of fisherman against fish.

I also suggested that it was because their names were similar. But either one works.

-Chicago and Detroit - in this vicious battle, nature turns upon itself, and that time honored question is answered- who would win in a fight, a bear or a tiger? Mankind has wondered for eons, and now baseball can finally give us the answer.

-Tampa Bay and San Diego - Our struggle turns to a more spiritual light here, as we no longer face mortal concerns. Rather, we have the forces of evil, the Devil Rays, fighting against the armies of God, the Padres. Does this mean that Tampa's closer is the Antichrist?

-Kansas City and Washington, New York and Cincinnati - We return to earth and let political worries be settled the way they were meant to be- with baseball! Our American Revolution is fought in a microcosm, as the Royals and the Nationals duke it out. And then we'll settle the Cold War our way, when the Yankees face down the Reds.

-Atlanta and Texas - Remember the days of the Wild West? When settlers traveled in covered wagons, bands of indians roamed the plains, and lawmen tried to civilize a rough region. We'll travel back to this rough-and-tumble time, when the Rangers fight off the Braves!

So, Major League Baseball, how about it?

Bleh

The move has gone smoothly, but one of the unfortunate side-effects has been that I've had some trouble posting here again. We've got internet access at home (whee, high speed) and I've had the freetime, but I just haven't been able to. I've probably started posts a half dozen or more times, but I just can't seem to get them to go anywhere. I feel like I've been knocked out of my groove.

And maybe that's why today seems like less of a challenge. Because, if there has been a single theme for this weekend's set, it has been being knocked out of the groove. Three games in less than 24 hours, and we drop all three of them. Our starting pitchers give up 18 earned runs in 17 innings? And our best starting performance is allowing 4 runs in 7 innings, by Russ Ortiz? What confusing, mixed-up Bizarro Land have we wandered in to here, folks?

But it's not Bizarro Land, unfortunately. We were swamped by the problems we normally have- 26 runners left on, Glaus and Green go a combined 1 for 20- and we just don't seem like we did much to win these games. Granted, the lousy call on the home run today is infuriating- why would you reverse a call like that, against the laws of physics? It was a stupid call, and since the Phillies won by a run, it's especially annoying. But the fact is that it was one play, and we had more than enough time to fight back. But we couldn't.

If anything, I suppose the lesson this weekend is that we need to try harder. The Diamondbacks in the field and myself in the blogging schedule. In the spirit of my little league coach, we all need to buckle down, keep our eye on the ball, and maybe we can make something happen here.