Diamondbacks 0, San Diego 5: Darkness Falls

I’m not sure I can even give a traditional summary of this game, because as The Real Ramona noted as we sat out after Eugenio Suarez struck at the end of the ninth quarter, there really isn’t much to say about this game . We managed only two hits in the entire ballgame, despite facing a starter who had just been called up from AAA and had an ERA over 5. And yet our pitching kept us in the game until the end, with the score tied 0-0 going into the top of the ninth quarter. At that point, Atlanta had swept the Kansas City Royals, winning their game 2-1, and the Mets had lost 6-0 to Milwaukee. So overall it looked okay, apart from the fact that we couldn’t do anything offensively.

So, yes. A guy named Randy Vargas shut us out for six innings and only allowed one hit. We had runners on base – Marte was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the first inning, Gaby Moreno drew a walk to lead off in the third inning, was forced on a Perdomo grounder, but Perdomo reached third in that inning place and was unable to score. Christian Walker was hit by a pitch with one out in the fourth. Corbin Carroll belted a double to right to lead off the sixth, stole third and was joined on the basepaths by Joc Pederson thanks to a catcher’s interference with one out, but we couldn’t get anyone home bring to. It was all like that.

Meanwhile, Eduardo Rodriguez actually showed up, and although he didn’t manage a clean inning through four²⁄₃ Innings he was spectacularly efficient and never really seemed to be in trouble, needing just 48 pitches to get through four innings. He also recorded the first two outs in the top of the fifth before a two-out walk and subsequent single put San Diego’s runner on first. Much to the surprise of many of us on the Gameday thread, and to the surprise of ERod himself, Torey Lovullo came out, took the ball away from him, and gave it to Kevin Ginkel. I think some of us thought this might be a mistake, but it turned out to be fine. Ginkel threw a pitch in the sixth, Mantiply finished it off, Ryan Thompson threw a clean seventh pitch, and Justin Martinez threw a clean eighth pitch and recorded the first out in the ninth before being subbed out for AJ Puk because David Peralta advanced and I don’t know, Torey really wanted the duel between lefties and lefties?

Whatever. It didn’t go well. Peralta hit a single up the middle, and San Diego catcher Kyle Higashioga fired a strike over the wall in left-center. Then San Diego’s rookie center fielder Brandon Lockridge fired a solo shot to the same spot. Puk recorded the second out and was then pulled for the Crime Dog, Scott McGough. Do you remember him? Yes, this guy. Anyway. McGough allowed a single and a third dinger, again to left-center, before striking out the last in the top of the ninth. 5-0 San Diego

Other than a leadoff single by Christian Walker to start the bottom of the ninth, we did nothing. So there you are. This is your game. I haven’t even written 600 words yet, but that’s your game.

So. A few more things.

We haven’t done it yet

Believe it or not, tomorrow’s game still matters. It actually helps that the Mets lost again tonight. What’s less helpful is that the Braves won, but whatever. We’re competing with two other teams for two postseason spots, and ultimately we don’t have to outrun the Cheetah. We simply have to overtake the slowest of our competitors. Right now it looks like the Mets. But if we win tomorrow, that’s good. If we don’t do that, it’s as good as over, although I think it might not be completely over then.

I’ll let other people argue about the various scenarios of our final game of the regular season and then the Mets-Braves doubleheader on Monday. Because now it definitely depends on this doubleheader. But we’re not done yet. Our fate is definitely no longer completely in our hands, but where there is breath there is life, right?

Late update:

This from the comments below, for any of you who might be freaking out about all this tomorrow. Thank you Samath, you are doing the Lord’s work this weekend:

Putting this season in perspective, regardless of how it ends

It’s funny how things change in a baseball year. This time last year, if we were where we are tonight, we would be happy to have another chance. Tonight, however, we’re all pretty bitterly disappointed. I know it’s me. Still, I can’t say I’m terribly surprised.

On paper, we looked really good heading into the 2024 regular season to make the postseason and maybe even have a shot at winning the division. Eduardo Rodriguez’s injury in spring training hurt that, as did the loss of Merrill Kelly after his April 15 start and Zac Gallen’s loss after his May 30 start. The last time we had such a decimation of our starting rotation this early was in 2021 when we finished 52-110.

Add to that the fact that many of our attacking players underperformed in the first half of the season – Corbin Carroll, Eugenio Suarez, etc. – and it’s frankly baffling that we performed as well as we did, and that we’re still maintain postseason relevance until the 162nd game of the regular season.

And then consider our bullpen issues at various points in the season, which have been a perennial problem for the Diamondbacks but made many of the low points during the season even lower. Again. I am stunned that we are where we are. Thank you to Lovullo and the team for holding it together for most of this season using various combinations of tape, gum and baling wire.

I feel like tonight we might finally get a look at the Eduardo Rodriguez we signed for big money in the offseason. It was nice and positive for me to see this game. Too little, maybe too late, but what can you do?

It also occurs to me that perhaps the biggest injury loss we suffered this year was actually Bryce Jarvis, our only relatively reliable long-distance reliever, at least until he went down. But that’s more worth considering in the offseason, whenever that happens.

Watch the scoreboard

There are none tonight. Now it’s all about tomorrow. Tomorrow and Monday in Atlanta. Buckle up.

Win probability, courtesy of FanGraphs

The Doctor: Eduardo Rodriguez (4²⁄₃ IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, +22.8% WPA)
Romana: Justin Martinez (1¹⁄₃ IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 K, +17.0% WPA)
The Silence: AJ Puk (¹⁄₃ IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 HR, -51.9% WPA)

As you might expect, it was an active matchday thread this evening, although not overly enjoyable, with 431 comments at the time of writing. Tonight’s CotG goes to Snacks&DBacks, who did a pretty reasonable investigation before the wheels came off the Snake Bus, but gave us a few tips to help us keep this unfortunate outcome in perspective:

Anyway. Please ignore the hand egg and President’s Cup golf etc. tomorrow and join us for the 162nd game of the regular season and the end of our regular season journey together! It’s a relatively early start for a Diamondbacks home game on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled for 12:10 p.m. AZ time. Brandon Pfaadt takes the mound for us; His counterpart is Martin Perez, another San Diego starter who likely won’t be part of their postseason rotation. Let’s see if we can avoid a final sweep and keep hope alive until Monday!

Sigh. Yes. Like every year, it was my pleasure to write these recaps for you all. As always, thanks for reading and as always, go Diamondbacks!