Diamondbacks 3, Miami 2: Fish for Dinner!

All right. This is the first full day of my summer vacation, and also my first time recapping a Jordan Montgomery start. Monty was going up against some guy named Sixto Sanchez for Florida Miami, who’s trying to bounce back from serial injuries over the past few years and who is, apparently, quite good at his job once he gets out of the first inning. However, given that his ERA going into tonight was sitting at 6.41, this tells us something about how bad the dude is in the first inning. So it was important to get to him early. Check.

It became even more important given how the Marlins hit against Monty in the top of the first. Dane Myers led off with a double to right, and was driven in one out later by a Josh Bell single to left. Another single followed before Monty settled down and recorded the second and third outs on only six more pitches. It honestly wasn’t a bad first inning for Monty, in terms of efficiency—even with all the traffic, he only needed 16 pitches to get through it. But he had dug himself a shallow hole. 1-0 Miami

But Sixto Sanchez was as described, and we were able to get to him. Corbin Carroll went down 0-2 to lead off the bottom half of the first, before drawing a six-pitch walk. Ketel Marte then struck out, with Carroll stealing second on the third strike. Joc Pederson smashed a hard liner that sadly was hit directly at Marlins 2B Otto Velez for the second out. Then, happily, Christian Walker ran the count full before doubling to right and driving in Carroll. Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. then launched the second pitch he saw from Sanchez deep to straightaway center. Jack Sommers, who was hanging out in the Gameday Thread tonight, let us know that the ball would have been a home run in 15 out of 30 MLB parks, but it hit high off the wall at Chase, driving in Walker and allowing Gurriel to advance to third on an error by Miami CF and former Diamondbacks acquaintance Jazz Chisholm, Jr. Sadly, Jake McCarthy couldn’t get him home, but we’d hung 28 pitches on Sanchez and taken the lead. 2-1 D-BACKS

And that’s your video highlight for the game, because, well, the offense didn’t do much after that. We did tack on another run in the second, thanks to a leadoff single by Eugenio Suarez (!!!), a walk by Tucker Barnhart, a sacrifice bunt by Kevin Newman that advanced the runners into scoring position, and then a rocket by Corbin Carroll that only reached the warning track but allowed Suarez to tag and score. Apparently, also, that ball would have also been a home run in 5 out of 30 MLB ballparks, but sadly not at Chase. But still. 3-1 D-BACKS

Meanwhile, Jordan Montgomery settled down nicely, retiring the Marlins in order in the second and the third, before pitching through some traffic again in the fourth and the fifth, on a single and a walk in the fourth and two singles in the fifth. He managed to put up zeroes, and continued to work efficiently, and no damage was done, so it was fine.

Alas, however, Sixto Sanchez had finally settled down after the top of the second, and put up zeroes on us in the third, fourth, and fifth, pitching around two singles but only needing 30 pitches to get his work done.

Monty, meanwhile, was only at 64 pitches after five, so he came on to start the sixth and promptly surrendered a Jake Burger leadoff double into the gap in right center, Burger’s third hit in as many at bats. one out later Chisholm hit one off the center field wall that should really have been a triple, but Jazz stood in the box for a bit, admiring it and waiting for it to go over the wall before realizing it wouldn’t, and then starting to run. It was an easy double but he tried to take third, and the umpires initially called him safe, despite a solid through from Jake McCarthy to relay man Ketel Marte, who then threw a strike to Suarez at third. Chisholm looked like he beat the throw, but he also overslid the bag, and Suarez kept the tag on him. The safe call was overturned, Chisholm was out, and despite Monty giving up another single to the next batter, he managed to escape the mess with only one Miami run crossing the plate. 3-2 D-BACKS

Then it was a battle of the bullpens, and theirs performed better than ours, allowing no baserunners aside from a HBP to Jake McCarthy in the bottom of the sixth. Ryan Thompson pitches around a leadoff single in the top of the seventh, and recorded one out in the bottom of the eighth before giving up a double to old friend and Marlins’ 3B Emmanuel Rivera. Mantiply relieved Thompson, and struck out Chisholm and Tim Anderson, relieving Rivera of any need to move from second base. And then Paul Sewald came out for the top of the ninth and slammed the door, retiring the Marlins in order on only nine pitches thrown. And that’s your ballgame.

Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

Eel Roll: Joe Mantiply (²⁄₃ IP, 2 K, +16.8% WPA); Paul Sewald (1 IP, 1 K, +16.7% WPA), Jordan Montgomery (6 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, +13.5% WPA)
Krab-with-a-”K”: The offense, collectively (3 R, 5 H, nothing after but the McCarthy HBP after two outs in the fourth, -2.2% WPA)

It was a nice and lively Gameday Thread tonight, with 173 comments at time of writing. Lots of Sedona Red to choose from, but I’m going with VeeLoh’s report from the stadium, because democracy, and because I’m happy, that, after recapping a win last week, they got me a win tonight:

Join us tomorrow if you can for the rubber match against these fish in the desert. Those fish send lefty Ryan Weathers to the mound, while the Diamondbacks give Blake Walston, just called up from Reno, his first major league start. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 AZ time. Hope to see you!

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!