Game Summary
Full recap to post later this evening. For now, hit the comments and enjoy the W!
Win Probability and Box Score
Outside the Box Score
- Ketel Marte came up with Corbin on 3rd and 1 out in the first. He couldn’t cash in the runner but it wasn’t any fault of Marte’s since he smoked a liner at 103mph but the Atlanta shortstop was able to dive catch the ball on the fly, holding Corbin at third.
- Ketel allowed the Braves leadoff hitter to reach on a well-placed grounder between 2nd and 1st. Ketel was able to get to it but when he tried to throw while still in full run from shallow right, he dropped the ball from his hand. Official ruling was a single, though it probably could’ve been ruled an error. Marte later left the game with knee pain likely caused by that play.
- Brandon Pfaadt’s first inning was pretty dominant. 2 grounders that had exit velocities under 75mph and 2 strikeouts on pitches out of the zone. Great start!
- The D-backs were making solid contact against Sale early, even if the box score wasn’t showing it. Through the first 3 innings, 6/9 batted balls were classified as Hard Hit (>95mph). 5 of those were above 100mph.
- Ronald Acuña hit a groundball right at Nolan Arenado at third in his second AB of the game and Nado made a surprising bobble. The grounder wasn’t hit particularly hard, but as Nolan brought the ball up off the ground with his glove, the ball popped up out of his glove. Nado kept his wits though and calmly found the ball, grabbed it out of the air fired across the diamond to complete to put out.
- Ryan Waldschmidt followed up that questionable play from Arenado with an absolutely stellar play in left field. Matt Olson served a line drive toward the left field corner but Waldy made a great break on it and caught the ball in full sprint and full extension before tumbling to the earth. Huge play to save extra bases, especially when the next hitter got a single that likely would’ve scored Olson.
- Domo looking a lot closer to his old self tonight after getting a double and single on a liner hugging the third base line in the 3rd and a single hugging the first base line in the 6th.
- Ildemaro reached with an infield single on a little cue shot that rolled 75 feet. He then immediately stole second base which allowed him to advance to third on a sacrifice bunt by Tawa (not a great bunt but it did the job). Perfect small ball execution; runner at third with less than 2 outs and a ball hadn’t even been hit past third base.
- Ryan Waldschmidt gave himself a chance to get Arizona’s first hit with RISP with 2 outs in the 7th, but the Braves center fielder made a great read on Waldy’s shallow humpback liner to center and made the catch at knee level in a full sprint as he ran in. So close.
- Ildemaro made a fantastic leaping grab of a Matt Olson liner to rob him of a hit to lead off the 7th. Vargie reached full extension and still just got enough glove on the ball to snow-cone it. Even more impressive might’ve been the body control to keep the grip on the ball has his feet came back to the dirt. Awesome play!
- Stepping up to the plate 3/3 in the 8th, Geraldo Perdomo dropped a surprise bunt perfectly hugging the third base line for a leadoff single.
Comment of the Game
A lighter GameDay Thread tonight, likely due to the earlier start time, only getting a total of 215 comments at time of publishing. There seemed to be quite a bit of rec rationing going on early (hat tip to Sighborg) but Timmy Tawa’s late insurance run dinger loosened the recs and kilnborn earned COTG:
Coming Up
The Diamondbacks face the Braves for the second game of this 3-game set tomorrow evening with a 4:15pm first pitch Arizona time and televised on FOX. Grant Holmes (7-4, 3.47 ERA) is the probable starter for the ATL and our favorite hologram, Eduardo Rodriguez (11-4, 2.70 ERA) will get the ball for the good guys.
Scoreboard Watching
Full scoreboard thread to follow but feel free to update in the comments.