Record: 75-76. Pace: 80-82. Change on last season: -9
Elimination number: 8. Playoff odds: Thin.

Well, that game was interesting. Didn't start well, didn't end well, but the middle was segment was pretty good, and, in the end, that was enough.

The top of the first was just bizarre.  Webb only threw 13 pitches, and only gave up a few weak hits, but those, plus an error by Adam Dunn, were enough to spot the Giants a 3 run lead going into the bottom of the first.  It seemed very strange, and left you with the sinking feeling that though we might not be seeing bad Webb out on the mound today, but unlucky Webb.  Factor in how anemic our offense has been lately- they've only managed more than 3 runs twice in our last thirteen games- and I couldn't help worrying about this game.

Fortunately, the team at least fought back.  Drew led off the first with a double, and though we still couldn't get a hit with a runner in scoring position, we at least managed to get some productive outs, as Justin Upton advanced the runner and Conor Jackson brought him in with a sacrifice fly.  Still, the Diamondbacks managed to put together a truly depressing run where they'd gone hitless in 25 straight at-bats with RISP.  And who do we have to thank for breaking up that trend?  Brandon Webb.

Yes, after throwing a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the second, Brandon came to bat with two on and two out, and delivered a two RBI double to deep center.  Drew followed his lead with a RBI single, and Upton hit a two run homer, and we abruptly had a 6-3 lead.  That sudden outburst of hits with RISP- two- means that in that one inning, we matched the total from the five previous games.  That's progress, but since they were the only two we managed all game, it's not a lot of progress.

After the noise of the second inning, the middle portion of the game went pretty quietly.  David Eckstein hit his first home run as a Diamondback, a solo shot that came as a surprise to all of us.  Webb did a good job of keeping the Giants off the scoreboard- the most trouble he ran into was in the third, when Randy Winn and Pablo Sandoval started the inning with back-to-back singles, but Webb got a double play and a strike out to get out of trouble and leave Winn stranded at third.  Stephen Drew had a good game at the plate, going 4 for 5, and CoJack was back from his brief time off- though if you're looking to rest an outfielder's throwing arm, on the field isn't much more strenuous than off when Webb is pitching.  It looked like we were going to have a quiet, easy win tonight.

And then the ninth inning happened.

With a four run lead, Melvin looked over the battered remnants of his bullpen and called forth Doug Slaten to close out the game.  In the words of the Grail Knight, Melvin chose...  poorly.  Slaten walked the first two batters he faced, walking the second batter on four straight pitches.  Somewhere, you could hear the sound of an antacid company contacting Slaten's agent about a possible endorsement deal.  Or maybe that was just the phone in the bullpen ringing.  Tony Pena was quickly sent in to finish off the game, and responded to the call by giving up a triple, and bringing the tying run to the plate.  Fortunately, he ignored the runner on third, and took a cue from Webb, getting three straight ground balls from the Giants to end it.  Gave up one run, but it was enough for the save, and to give the Diamondbacks their third straight win.

[Click to enlarge, in new window]
Master of his domain: Brandon Webb (at bat): +18.4%
Honorable Mention: Stephen Drew: +16.2%; Justin Upton: +14.9%
God-emperor of suck: Doug Slaten -5.7%

So, we end up with blackjack- Webb's 21st win on the season- rather than getting hit with a blackjack, though Webb's own hit in the second inning was the single biggest play of the game, by WPA, and Upton's home run was a close second.

A sporadic thread this evening, just passing 300 comments thanks to a swell in the late innings and post-game.  Fighting the good fight tonight, under the banner of the noble narwhal, you would find: Jim McLennan, foulpole, snakecharmer, TwinnerA, unnamedDBacksfan, DbacksSkins, kishi, TuLoRocks2008, singaporedbacksfan, hotclaws, Zephon, soco, frienetic, Azreous, 4 Corners Fan, mrssoco, and Scrbl.

The Dodgers lost in Pittsburgh, thanks to a truly atrocious seventh inning from Los Angeles, where the Pirates scored eight runs with two outs.  Thanks to that, the Diamondbacks go home only 3.5 games back.  Still a significant deficit, though, and unless the Dodgers well and truly collapse, while the Diamondbacks hit a late surge, our team is still looking at October sitting at home.  And on the topic of purely theoretical playoff chances, if my math is correct, we just eliminated the Giants from contention tonight.

One last game against the Giants tomorrow, and Chase Field will see a second Cy Young candidate in as many nights when Tim Lincecum tries to improve his chances at the award, while Randy goes for career win #295 again.  The Big Unit hasn't had a decision in over a month, let alone a win, but in the end it may depend on if our offense shows up again.  Given how tonight went, Randy may be practicing in the batting cages at this very moment...

Thanks to Kishi for the update: Charmer got a panicked email around 8pm last night, because our cable was out, so there was no hope of me writing the update, or even seeing the game. In fact, I didn't know the final score until I saw it in the newspaper this morning: we did ask for - and got - an in-game update from the tech support lady at Cox, but that was it!

Kinda weird being totaly unaware of the score overnight, but glad we just managed to hold on. It's the first time the standings have gone in our direction since August 29th, when we won the first game of the Dodgers series. Little steps. All we need is for Pittsburgh to beat LA again tonight, and us to defeat Lincecum. I'll bring the narwhals. :--)

Max Scherzer RHP, 0-2, 2.65

Clayton Kershaw LHP, 3-5, 4.50

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Whoops. I was convinced that this game was starting at 5, and had sort of scheduled my day around that assumption.  Well, we're in the top of the fifth right now, leading 3-2, and we've already chased off Kershaw.  Scherzer is looking pretty solid so far.

Apologies for botching this so badly, guys.  Let's get back into first place!

Brandon Webb RHP, 19-6, 3.19

Chad Billingsley RHP, 13-10, 3.13

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Today marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Akira Kurosawa, one of the most legendary directors of all time. Even if you haven't seen one of Kurosawa's films (Rashomon, Ran, The Hidden Fortress) you've seen a film heavily influenced by his work- The Magnificent Seven, Fistful of Dollars, and a little film called Star Wars: A New Hope all take storyline cues from some of his work. The man made some amazing, influential films, and the world of cinema is better for his life and work.

So why do I spend a paragraph on the work of Kurosawa, rather than on the upcoming pitching match-up? Well, because I can't help but look at the game today, and think about Seven Samurai. You look at how this season is shaping up, and where we stand- lead down to a half game, our aces struggling, the Dodgers ready the final strike- and I can't help but feel like this is a fateful showdown. We, the fans are worried about the Dodgers making the move and grabbing the lead in the division for a run at the playoffs.

We need our samurai to show up.

And, obviously, by our samurai, today I mean Brandon Webb. We need him to get back to the Cy Young winning form he showed us for the first 27 games this season, and stop the Dodgers offense cold like he has before. We know he absolutely can do it. There's a difference between a guy who is an ace, and a guy who's just your #1 starter- an ace is the guy who goes out and wins the big games when you need him to. Time for Brandon Webb to remember he's our ace.

But a samurai doesn't fight alone, and Webb isn't going to win this game by himself. That's why we need the bats to get hot today. You'll recall that Chad Billingsley pitched well against us last time, but that's not how it's gone all season. Note, if you will, the fact that the guy is 1-3 against us. Chris Young, Stephen Drew, and Mark Reynolds have both put up good numbers against him- they're a combined 21 for 54, with three doubles, two triples, three home runs and ten RBIs against him. We can hit this guy, and we can beat him. We just need to start getting hits together against him, and he'll fall.

So, things are dire. Bandits on the horizon, a tenuous grasp of first place, and if our samurai fall here, we may not make it through to October. Time to show us what you've got.

Kyle Lohse RHP, 13-6, 3.89

Doug Davis LHP, 6-8, 4.59

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Another afternoon game?  What is this?

After the vast disappointment that was yesterday's game, it's a little difficult to get too charged up over today's outing, particularly looking at the numbers Lohse is putting up on the mound.  However, he is in a slump of sorts.  He's putting together good numbers, but the Cardinals have won only once in his last eight starts.  In that span, he's gone eight innings twice and gotten NDs for his effort.  So it'd be great if we can continue that.

For our number, Doug Davis will take the mound.  After some rough starts at the beginning of August, Doug has looked better his past few go-rounds, giving us our only win in the Dodgers series, though that should properly be attributed to the offense.

Looking at the lineup, I note that Justin Upton is on the bench again- still no word of any diagnosis, but I'd guess the headaches are still bugging him.

Just about ten minutes before first pitch here, so I'll post this quick.  Let's go, D-backs!

Adam Wainwright RHP, 7-3, 3.04

Yusmeiro Petit RHP, 3-3, 2.83

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Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to what we all hope is the first- well, second in a long string of Gameday Threads started by yours truly. 

Backing me up in my campaign to carry my win streak to an unprecedented three games is the pitcher we've all been grumbling about missing starts, Yusmiero Petit.  Petit hasn't pitched a lot of innings this season, but the guy deserves credit for going wherever the team needs him to be- in the starting rotation, out to the bullpen, bounced down to Tucson for a couple of months, and then back again.  And in the meantime, what's he done on the field?  A 2.83 ERA and a WHIP of 0.80.  Thanks to the shuffling of the rotation, this is his first start since SnakePitFest, and he's riding a two game winning stream of his own.  Of course, the Cardinals do have more offense than the Marlins or Astros, though Petit did earn a win against Saint Louis last year.

On the other side, the Cardinals will be sending out Adam Wainwright to end their four game slide.  Wainwright spent about two and a half months on the DL with a sprained middle finger, an uncommon injury outside of New York.  Despite that, he's put up some pretty good numbers, a 7-3 record and a 3.04 ERA.  He's been pretty solid in his two starts back from rehab, putting up quality starts both times.  Adam Dunn may be looking forward to seeing Waintwright on the mound though- he's 4 for 10 with a home run and two walks against Wainwright in his career.   He's the only Diamondback who's got double digits in plate appearances against Wainwright, though. 

In the glorious afterglow of yesterday's game, it's easy to feel shades of optimism about our offense here, particularly with the AP reports trumpeting the fact that Stephen Drew's been hitting .364 in our last 25 home games.  Lately, of course, the bats have been- well, I'm not sure sporadic is a strong enough word here.  In the last ten games, we've scored seven or more runs in three games, and two or fewer runs in five games.  Guess what our record looks like in those games. 

But now is not the day for such worries- now is the day for baseless, absolutely unbridled optimism!  Let's go, Diamondbacks!

Joel Piñero RHP, 6-5, 4.83

Randy Johnson LHP, 10-9, 4.02

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Seems kind of odd to have an afternoon game on a Monday, but it also seems odd that this is the first time we've seen the Cardinals all season, so maybe that averages out.

For the Diamondbacks, Randy Johnson is set to take the mound and work on continuing his impressive post-All Star Break run- he's got a 1.82 ERA over 8 starts since then, and I think we all would like to see him carry that on. For the Cardinals, Joel Pineiro will take the mound. Pineiro hasn't actually started a game since August 16th, but he did have a decent month- four appearances in August gave him three Ws and a three inning save, though the save did come in an 18-3 demolishing of the Braves where he gave up 2 runs in the ninth inning.

A matter of some interest is the Diamondbacks debut of David Eckstein.  Looks like he is playing second base today, as expected.  A tad surprising, though, is his being placed second in the lineup, behind Stephen Drew, since Eckstein normally bats lead-off.  Looks like Justin Upton is making his first start in right field since he's been back from the DL, with Adam Dunn taking position at first base.

The Cardinals are just barely on the edge of still being in contention for the Wild Card, and they didn't help their chances much by getting swept in Houston over the weekend, so they may have little to look forward to other than playing spoiler to someone else's playoff hopes. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks should be well rested for this game- after all, they barely played the past two days, right?

Going into 12- let's win this one!