A common theme this season with the Arizona Diamondbacks is the “next-up” mentality. Especially when the team is unlucky and a key player is out with an injury. That was the case again when the Dbacks announced earlier today that Lourdes Gurriel Jr. would be placed on the 10-day IL with a calf strain. The Dbacks have assigned Randall Grichuk to start in left field tonight in Gurriel’s place, and Grichuk has taken the offense completely on his shoulders tonight. Grichuk started his big night with a big 2-run home run in the first inning. He followed that up with a single in the 3rd and another home run in the 5th.
Ryne Nelson continued his run as the most consistent starter in the rotation, going 6.2 innings, allowing just 2 runs and striking out 9 strikeouts. Once again, he relied on an electric 4-seam fastball up to 98 mph, the slider, and a hard late-breaking cutter. He also used the changeup well, especially against left-handed hitters. Ryne Nelson’s emergence as a legitimate mid-rotation starter was a huge development this season, and one of the more surprising.
AJ Puk continued his absolute dominance in the bullpen, although Ryan Thompson wasn’t very effective in the 8th inning and allowed a lot of hard contact. He had 8 Giants hit in that inning and allowed 4 runs, shrinking the lead to 7-6. Justin Martinez was then called upon when the Giants had all the momentum and with their tying run on third base, he absolutely blew Matos away with a 101 mph sinker, a 92 mph slider and a 101 mph sinker. An absolute display of dominance. In the 9th inning, after Carroll and Walker were able to score another run, Justin Martinez broke, but he didn’t break. To me, games like this show exactly how far Martinez has grown in his unofficial role as closer. Guys are going to get hits, but it’s about what you can do and the throws you can make when the game is on the line and we are so lucky to have a pitcher like that on this team. There are saves in the statistical sense, and then there are “saves” where you literally save the game for your team, and this game was definitely one of those saves.
Also notable is that Carroll and Perdomo each had two hits in the Dbacks’ offense. In Walker’s first game back, he seemed overwhelmed by his speed as he broke through several hittable fastballs. However, after Carroll stole 2nd base, he was able to get a changeup back up the middle and score the decisive winning run in the 9th inning.
Torey doesn’t have to name the closer, we all know who it is…
Cheers!
