A flicker, but is it enough?

After getting walloped 31-7 through 4 straight games and generally depressing the fanbase, the Diamondbacks roar back and give us a pair of back to back victories that never really seemed close, both games where we got the Dodgers starter out of there in impressive time- Lowe got pulled after 3, and Houlton only lasted 2 innings. Meanwhile, Vargas was given another cushion to start with- we've given him at least a half dozen runs in his past three starts. In comparison, in our past 15 games, we've had 6 or more runs five times- a start by Webb on the 23rd, last night, and the three starts from Vargas. That's an edge that I'm sure he appreciates. Or he better.

I missed Saturday's game, as I was working outside, but I got to hear last night's. And my only question is why does this team only show up one out of every four or six games? We've shown that we can dominate good pitchers, but we just can't bother at times, or so it seems. If we could only get some consistency in here, this team would be much easier to follow. I mean, even if they were consistently awful, we wouldn't have the flares of hope like these games.

My sympathies go out to JD Drew, who's got a broken wrist- ouch. Three hit batters last night by Halsey, which I hope shows some contention of the inside corner of the plate, rather than control issues. I assume that since Halsey wasn't tossed after hitting a second batter or a third, the umpire thought there was some valid issues there.

All Star selections were announced today, and the Diamondbacks will be sending Luis Gonzales as their representative. Congratulations to him, but he wouldn't have been my first choice. I'd love to see Craig Counsell out there- he may not be pounding out 45 home runs a season, but he's on pace for 100+ runs this season, which is respectable. He's having one of his best seasons offensively, and he's got some solid defense, too. I would definitely prefer to have him on the roster than Cesar Izturis, the NL's third short-stop on the roster. On the pitching side, I certainly wish Brandon Webb was up there. Give these stats a bit of a gander:

GS K/9 WHIP BAA ERA
18 5.23 1.40 .272 3.32
16 6.65 1.32 .268 3.24

So which one of these pitchers is in the All Star Game? The first, Livan Hernandez. Because his record is 12-2, versus Brandon Webb's 8-4. In most every other pitching stat that matters, Webb is leading Hernandez, sometimes by just a small margin, but leading regardless. But, as in the Rookie of the Year debate, Webb gets shunned due to his record. Unfortunate. He at least still has a distant outside chance to get elected as the last member of the team, but I don't have enough faith in the internet voting public to think he'll get the nod. But I've put in my votes. Hope they'll help.

We've got the Cardinals in town tonight to start a four game set, and we face Matt Morris. We'll see how it goes.