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This Arizona Diamondbacks team is on pace to do worse than last year. And last year was a dumpster fire. I can’t think of anything about this team that has been consistently good. The bullpen has always been in question and now the offense has disappeared. Its going to be a long summer. azcentral.com:

For the first four weeks of the season, the Diamondbacks possessed one of baseball’s better offenses, a unit that seemed to have at least two or three hot hitters on any given day. Lately, they would settle for two or three tepid hitters. they are hitting just .234 with an average of 4.1 runs per game. In this stretch, they have scored three runs or fewer 14 times. They have lost 13 of those games. Overall, they are 1-22 in games in which they have scored three runs or fewer.

I don’t know what to expect for the rest of this season. It funny, because it really doesn’t take much to better than last season. Our pitching really has to improve, the hitting will come around, I hope. From azsnakepit.com:

Nearly two months into the 2010 campaign, and the Arizona ball club is already behind last year’s disaster.  It’s Memorial Day weekend and is tied for fourth in games behind first place (8.5).  Do things get better from here, is it all just bad luck?  Or is the team performing about as well as we can expect, which means the next 4 months will be an exercise in frustration? They certainly could get better, but I’m not sure if that’s likely anymore.  As much as we might have mocked pythag as the D’backs dodged a bullet in 2007 to get to the playoffs, reality isn’t just knocking on the window anymore, asking to be let in.  It’s planted a pipe bomb and blown its way.  The Diamondbacks’ winning percentage is .417; pythag predicts (based on runs scored and allowed) that the winning percentage should be .415.

Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt is going to be calling the plays this year for the Cards. Why? Because he loves it and he’s the head coach, thats why. From azcentral.com:

“Whisenhunt called plays in 2007, his first season with the team, and last year. Former offensive coordinator Todd Haley called plays in 2008, then took the Kansas City Chiefs head coaching job in 2009. With Haley gone, Whisenhunt resumed calling plays and plans to do it again this year. Passing game coordinator Mike Miller and assistant head coach/offensive line/run game coordinator Russ Grimm also have considerable input. Whisenhunt’s long-term plan is to hand the play-calling job to an assistant, probably Miller, because Whisenhunt views it as repaying a debt. Former Steelers coach Bill Cowher gave Whisenhunt a chance to call plays by naming him offensive coordinator, and it gave Whisenhunt a big boost in becoming a head coach.

I have a feeling he  is going to be calling a lot more running plays than in years past. Not just because Matt Leinart is QB, that is a good reason, but because our running game looks better than it’s looked in years! From revengeofthebirds.com:

It’s no secret that the Arizona Cardinals offense will be headlined by a new-found rushing attack in 2010. Kurt Warner is enjoying retirement in Arizona and will spend next season watching his former team on television. That means that head coach Ken Whisenhunt will rely on backs Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower to lead the charge for the offense. The Cardinals have consistently featured a high-octane passing offense in the years that Warner was at the helm. Now with him gone, the young running backs will need to keep the gas pressed and the wheels moving. The duo of Wells and Hightower, or “Beantower” as some of you may call it, will see a significantly greater amount of reps then they did last season.

Not a good day at the office for the Diamondback’s Dan Haren. Haren was our ace, the guy that rights the ship and gets a W. Not lately, not against the Rockies Thursday. Haren got the Loss and the Dbacks got swept. From arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com:

D-backs manager A.J. Hinch didn’t want to pin the entire blame on Haren, but his continued struggles no doubt must concern the team. Haren, who gave up eight runs in 6 1/3 innings, is now 5-4 with a 5.35 ERA and has allowed 16 home runs already this season, including four in each of his last two starts. He gave up 27 all of last year and just 19 in 2008. “I’m struggling, obviously pretty bad,” Haren said. “Obviously I’ve had a lot of trouble keeping the ball in the yard. It’s obviously frustrating. It’s tough to deal with. I’ve never dealt with anything like this in my career. Hopefully I’ll come out of all this a better pitcher.”

This has been a tough year for Dan Haren performance wise. He has been very inconsistent, maybe he can pull it together for the second half of the season. From azcentral.com:

Though he was articulate as usual, Haren seemed somewhat subdued when speaking with reporters. “Obviously, I’ve had a lot of trouble keeping balls in the yard,” he said. “It’s obviously frustrating it’s tough to deal with. I’ve never dealt with anything like this in my career. Hopefully I come out of all this a better pitcher.”

This is going to be a fun Memorial Day weekend, lots of drinking, lots of pool time. Everybody be safe out there!

Everybody is a little bit sick from that ending. A Totally and completely undeserving win for the Lakers. The Suns had valiantly dug themselves out of a hole only to come up short in the end. From azcentral.com:

For most of the night, the Suns played a brutal game. They survived on guts, gifts and clutch shooting from Steve Nash. They were given a reprieve on a lucky shot from Jason Richardson, a moment so absurd that it drew a smirk from Jack Nicholson. Yet for all the determination that accompanied the late rally and postgame comments, the Suns also are stuck with the knowledge that Game 5 could’ve been theirs had they not lacked the required aggressiveness and effort. Now, they are back on their heels. The Suns missed nine free throws, and a wonderful opportunity. They yielded 19 offensive rebounds, including one they’ll never forget. Robin Lopez was held scoreless, the kind of statistical line the Suns could tolerate when Jarron Collins was the starting center. And in the end, they still hadn’t shown the ability to win in Los Angeles.

Steve Nash played like an MVP should with 29 points and 11 assists. Hell of an effort, he really wanted this one. The Suns got dominated on the offensive boards 19-12, and turned the ball over 15 times and that killed us. It’s amazing we were able to fight our way back into this game. From NBA.com:

Steve Nash, who had 29 points and 11 assists, drilled key basket after key basket and continued to find his teammates. At one point down the stretch, he had nine of the team’s 11 points. “I was just determined to try to win,” said Nash, who helped the Suns rally with a 19-10 run before Artest’s game-winning shot. “It was a crazy game.” But Bryant and Derek Fisher, who had 22 points, answered backed with timely buckets of their own. Whittling away at the Lakers’ 18-point lead, the Suns were down just 101-98 in the final minute. After Pau Gasol’s missed dunk with 20.9 seconds left, Nash brought the ball up and fired a 3-pointer. Long. Richardson took his shot. Long. Then Channing Frye controlled the rebound and gave it right back to Richardson, who banked in a 27-footer to tie the game with 3.5 seconds left. “I knew he was going to make it,” Frye said.

We had the momentum going into that Overtime. Most of the Lakers players and all of the Laker fans were in shock that we had tied it up. But in the end it was a freak play that won it for the Lakers. From valleyofthesuns.com:

And just like that Ron Artest, a player who had not scored on an offensive put back all series and had made just a single shot all night in eight attempts, shockingly became the hero in this 103-101 Game 5 victory that puts the Lakers up 3-2. The tough part for the Suns to swallow is that they forced Kobe into a ridiculously tough shot that not even he had a prayer at knocking down — and then when the ‘D’ forced an air ball it ended up benefiting the Lakers in the end. “He just got through,” Jason Richardson told reporters. “I looked and turned and he was already heading over that way. I thought the ball was going to hit the rim. I didn’t know it was going to come up that short.” Added Jared Dudley, “Ron was in the right place at the right time.”

And that’s whats so heart breaking. We played like crap for most of the night and still had a chance to win a game 5 on the road. If the Lakers are supposed to be that much better than us they should have won by 20. This kind of loss makes you want to drink. And not that, “have a few beers at the end of a tough day” drinking, I’m talking about shit-faced, don’t even know my own name drunk!

When I read this I couldn’t help but to feel incredibly proud. Pat Tillman is a true hero. Tillman has already been posthumously awarded Purple Heart and Silver Star by The US Army , received NFL’s Distinguished American Award and now will be inducted into The College Football Hall Of Fame. From azcentral.com:

In addition to Hall of Fame enshrinement, Tillman will be honored posthumously at an ASU football game this fall. Tillman was elected to the ASU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008 and his number 42 was retired in 2004. He is one of five Sun Devils whose numbers are retired.

Pat Tillman’s name will be added to an impressive list of former Sun Devils already in the College Football Hall Of Fame. From fanster.com:

Tillman now joins former Sun Devil coaches Dan Devine, Frank Kush and John Cooper and student-athletes defensive back Mike Haynes, wide receiver John Jefferson, offensive lineman Randall McDaniel, linebacker Ron Pritchard and quarterback Danny White as representatives of Arizona State University in the College Football Hall of Fame. In all, ASU has nine former football coaches or student-athletes in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Ubaldo Jimenez is pretty awesome. He has a MLB leading 0.88 ERA. Mmm… I dream about those kind of ERA’s. He is “as advertised” and the Dbacks couldn’t cope. From azcentral.com:

Jimenez always has had the fastball in the high-90s and a knee-buckling curveball, but he has refined his command and improved his secondary pitches, and the end result has been devastating for the rest of baseball. “He’s just developing into a good, young pitcher and he’s tough to hit,” Reynolds said. Jimenez allowed just six hits and a walk in his eight innings.

And it’s not like our offense has been on fire the last few games. We had our chances with a Mark Reynolds three run homer but a late Rally couldn’t get the job done. Its times like these I fall back on an old stand by that always gets me through. Erin Andrews. She’s finding new ways to amaze me. You know what. Erin Andrews didn’t win. But I think America won. Thank you Erin Andrews.

How many people get cut off at these games? I have to imagine Arena Football crowds are pretty hard drinking. Anyways. The Rattlers (3-3) are going to be in Utah this Friday playing the Blaze (1-5). The Rattlers are coming off a 52-48 win at Iowa. Danny White used to be the head coach of the Utah Blaze. The team barely looks recognizable to him. From azcentral.com:

“Since leaving Utah as head coach two years ago, Rattlers president and offensive coordinator Danny White has seen the Blaze franchise torn apart and pieced back together. There is different ownership and only one player left from the 2008 squad – wide receiver Aaron Boone. “They’re even playing at a different arena,” said White, who will make his return Friday when the Rattlers (3-3) play the struggling Blaze (1-5). It won’t have the same feeling for White as it did when he returned to US Airways Center as coach of the Blaze after leading the Rattlers to five ArenaBowls.

The defense really showed up in last weeks 52-48 victory over the Iowa Barnstormers. From oursportscentral.com:

“The Rattlers recorded three big sacks in the game, made three defensive stops, blocked an extra point, and pressured Iowa quarterback Ryan Vena nearly every time he dropped back to pass as the Rattlers set a new season-low in points allowed. The Rattlers, who are now back to .500 at 3-3, held Iowa (3-4) to just 89 yards in the first half and 221 total in the game.

If it ain’t one thing, it’s another. The Dbacks offense hit a dry spell against the Rockies, 4 hits off of 5 pitchers. From azsnakepit.com:

“The first five innings for the Arizona offense could be described as “down in order, or waste a chance.” It’s like a carnival game where the only prizes are arsenic and mix tapes featuring Troy Tulowitzki walk-up songs. The first and third innings were the wasted variety — a runner in scoring position with the middle of the lineup given a chance, only to come up woefully short (Upton and Jackson were the culprits there). The second and fourth were the “ho-hum, let’s make Jhoulsysdcjusdocaoisjc Chacin look like a Cy Young winner” type, with some pretty bad at-bats leading to the side being set down in order on less than 10 pitches.”

The bullpen did well enough to give us a chance. I guess thats the silver lining right? Right. From azcentral.com:

“For a change, there were no hiccups from the Diamondbacks bullpen, which got scoreless appearances from Esmerling Vasquez (two innings) and Aaron Heilman (one inning) to keep the game at 3-2 heading into the ninth. “That’s the adjustment we need to make,” Hinch said. “When we’re close like that, our pitching staff gave us every opportunity to score a couple of runs, but we just couldn’t do it.”

The bench, the reserves, our Saviour’s, what ever you want to call them, they came through big time! The Phoenix Suns bench out scored the Lakers bench 54-20. And that was the game. Once again our All Stars were sitting on the bench in crunch time as the Suns reserves put on another great show! From azcentral.com:

“The Suns bench outscored the Lakers reserves by 34 points. “We believe in our bench and although they weren’t scoring (earlier in the series), I thought they played well,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. “I thought they were better defensively than they were offensively – and they were great offensively.” Channing Frye snapped his rut of 18 consecutive misses and hit four 3-pointers for a 14-point, six-rebound game. Jared Dudley hit three more 3s and added a 3-point play that burned Bryant in his 11-point, six-rebound game. Goran Dragic (eight points, eight assists) and Leandro Barbosa (14 points in 17 minutes) brought too much speed for the Lakers and Louis Amundson (seven points, seven rebounds) had more energy than the Lakers’ frontline.”

How about Channing Frye. I was so happy to see him hit his first three pointer of the series. The crowd went wild, like it was a game winning three! Our bench is wild! It’s crazy to think the starters didn’t come back into the game until there was like 3 minutes left. In the first minutes of the fourth the Suns Bench went on a 18-3 run! And that was against the Lakers starters for the most part! It has got to be disheartening for Lakers fans to watch our bench win the game for us. It is no secret that is the strength of this team. From ktar.com:

“Amare Stoudemire led Phoenix with 21 points. Nash, playing with a broken nose, made just 3-of-11 shots but had 15 points and eight assists. But it was the backups who stole the show, making 20-of-32 shots, including 9-of-20 3s. “We believe in those guys and they really believe in themselves,” Gentry said. “I thought they were much better defensively than they were offensively, and they were great offensively.”

Its a series now. We’ll see how far this zone defense takes us. We need to take this confidence back to LA and win another on Thursday! Oh BTW Goran Dragic had the play of the series. DRAGON!!

So everybody jumped all over Amare Stoudemire when he mentioned Odom had a lucky game. Its beginning to look like he did. But you know what didn’t get half the media coverage? Andrew Bynum talking about playing the Celtics in the NBA finals. This was before game 3 BTW! From withleather.com:

“Apparently, Andrew Bynum wasn’t aware of this, because he’s already anticipating a Finals rematch with the Boston Celtics. “Man, it’s going to be amazing to play against those guys again. Especially having lost. We’re going to have a lot of fuel, a lot of ammo to throw at those guys. They’re definitely a great team. They’ve got great veterans on their squad. We know that. So we already are getting prepared. The first step is closing out Game 3. And after that we’ll be focusing on Boston, looking at them play, watching how they’re playing Orlando, and try and pick up as much as we can. –Orange County Register.

Nice. Andrew Bynum is only slightly better than Kwame Brown who was one of the worst players ever to wear a Lakers uniform. I hope that found its way to the Suns bullitin board! We need to do more of the same in game 4. Rebound and continue to aggressively get to the basket. As for the zone defense? It’s working so far.  azcentral.com:

“I stayed up (Saturday night) watching game film (from Game 2) and was like, ‘This zone is not going to work. I mean, if our second unit is sitting out there picking us apart . . . Kobe and those guys are going to pick us apart,’ ” Suns guard Jason Richardson said. “So I was like, ‘There’s no way we’re going to win the game with that zone.’ And then we came out and were really aggressive with it, and it actually worked. We shocked ourselves.” It worked enough. The Lakers’ 4-for-19 second quarter gave the Suns the lead and 5 1/2 fourth-quarter minutes without a field goal helped put the Lakers away. In between, the Lakers feel like they figured it out for a 37-point third quarter, only to revert to sloppy passes and quick jump shots in the fourth. “The zone invited us to settle from outside and we never really got the ball to move where we want it to go,” said Lakers forward Pau Gasol, who still went 11 for 14 from the field. “It’s a mistake that tends to happen when you’re facing zone, especially when you’re not used to facing zone.”

Nice try guys. Looks like Oregon State pulled their shit together and got one on us. From azcentral.com:

“Oregon State (28-21, 10-14) jumped to a 5-0 lead in the first two innings, fell behind 6-5, rallied for four runs in the seventh inning and held on to keep its postseason hopes alive. ASU starter Jake Borup, in his shortest outing of the season, lasted just 1 2/3 innings. He gave up six hits, including a two-run homer by Adalberto Santos and five runs. “Down in Tucson (six days earlier) his slider really good and sharp,” Esmay said of Borup. “Today it was a little flat. That’s why we took him out.” “We just picked a tough time to not get a knock in the ninth,” Esmay said. “I was proud of our guys because they battled all day long. To go down 5-zip, and you look at it and it’s the last swing of the bat you get beat. That tells you that your guys responded and got after it.”

Man Kole Calhoun hit his 13th homer of the season and was named Pac-10 Player Of The Week. Awesome. I just realized we moved up to #2 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll. Thats cool. Is it going to be a photo finish in the race for the Pac-10 title? It’s between UCLA and ASU and the Season has only three games left. From fanster.com:

“UCLA is playing great baseball. The Bruins have won nine straight conference games, and are nipping at the heels of ASU in the race for the Pac-10 Championship. The Devils have a two-game lead with three games to play. Especially this late in the season, it’s tough for a player not to scoreboard watch. But the Devils need to make sure and just take care of their own business. It can be a significant distraction when you’re checking your computer or your cell phone on a road trip to see how the UCLA vs. WSU series is going.”

This weather is killing it! It was like 80 today. The Dbacks certainly enjoyed themselves while they where home. Winning 4 out 5 was nice while it lasted. Gave some confidence to the team that desperately needed it. The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Blue Jays again on Saturday, 8-5. However we came up short against the Blue Jays in the series final on Sunday to the tune of 12-4, ouch. From arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com:

“The key to Arizona’s 4-0 start to its 4-1 homestand: An offense averaging more than nine runs per game. Toronto’s starter, Shaun Marcum (4-1), and relievers Shawn Camp and Scott Downs made sure that didn’t happen again. Justin Upton’s two-out RBI single in the opening inning gave the D-backs a short-lived 1-0 lead. Chris Young and Augie Ojeda added RBI singles in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively, and Young smacked a ninth-inning solo shot, his seventh. But the D-backs’ deficit was already too much to overcome. “Playing the American League and facing a pitcher we had never seen kind of got to us,” said Young, also one of Marcum’s eight strikeout victims. “We didn’t really know what his go-to pitches were necessarily. You’re kind of just getting thrown out [there] and figuring it out as you go, and we didn’t figure it out in time.”

Cool, this team has the parts, it just a matter of putting it all together. Maybe it won’t be such a long summer after all.

Amazing what a little home cooking can do for you. We remember the 3rd quarter of game 2 when the Suns showed they could score against this Lakers team. We understood scoring wasn’t the problem. It was finding a way to get some stops when needed. Our zone defense was a lot tighter, it seemed to paralyze the Lakers offense when Kobe wasn’t in the game. And having the toughness of Robin Lopez in the middle of the lane makes a big difference. He always has his game face on. I mean, ALWAYS. Reminds me of how Kurt Thomas always looked like he was about to snap your neck. Love it. From azcentral.com:

“Center Robin Lopez said the Suns were more focused defensively than in their two losses in Los Angeles. “We wanted to be more aggressive and build the defense from the inside out,” he said. “After that practice, a lot of us came together and talked out what we were doing wrong and figured it out. A lot of it was communication. A lot of it was just stepping up on the drives.”

So yeah, the offense looked a lot better this game as well. We were super aggressive at getting to the basket. That was a big deal because our three point shooting sucked, (5-20, 25%) that bad, and I couldn’t imagine us winning game shooting three’s like that. It was the interior play of Lopez and Stoudemire that made up the difference. They got to basket or got fouled or both. Robin Lopez had 20 points. And Amare? Amare Stoudemire responds to criticism better than anybody I know. Stoudemire used his speed and quickness to dominate Pau Gasol, like he used to when Gasol played with the Grizzlies. From valleyofthesuns.com:

“On the other end, Amare Stoudemire turned in his signature game of the postseason by scoring a career playoff-high-tying 42 points, his first 40-point playoff game since 2005. STAT was a beast from the start, when he earned as many free throw attempts in the first 3:22 (seven) as he did in all of Game 2. Stoudemire attacked the rim with ferocity, getting Los Angeles’ entire front line in foul trouble (Lamar Odom ended up fouling out), and playing with an intensity missing in Games 1 and 2. “Well, he had a pretty sensational performance,” Steve Nash said. “I’m just proud of him. He made some incredible plays. But he was just aggressive. And I think once he got a few free throws early and a few buckets, I think he really felt like, ‘Hey, I can keep attacking,’ and all the frustration from the first two games where it was crowded in there a lot I think subsided. … He was obviously a force.” Added Stoudemire, “Coach Alvin told me before the game he was going to come to me. Come to me a lot. And I was ready.”

The zone defense is the way to go. Especially when Kobe is sitting out, the Lakers had no offensive rhythm. This is going to be a long series. we need to play even better to have  chance at winning it. I still have not seen our best game yet.

I can gloat if I want! Its been a shaky season to say the least. I am beginning to like this “winning” its fun. After smacking Tim Lincecum around and beating the Giants 8-7 Thursday the Dbacks set their sights on the Blue Jays. This Diamondbacks team has got some fight in it. The pitching has been consistent and the offense is really swinging the bats well. From azcentral.com:

“They had to overcome six home runs from the Blue Jays, the most homer-happy team in the majors. The saving grace for the Diamondbacks? All six were solo shots. “If I gave up a couple of three-run home runs, it wouldn’t have been pretty,” said Haren, who matched his career high with four homers allowed. “Every guy can hit it out, and it looks like they have one thing in mind – to let loose and try to hit homers. I’ve never seen anything like it, really.” “They say solo home runs can’t beat you,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We tested that one (Friday night).”

The hitting has been outstanding, our pitcher (Dan Haren) is hitting .414!!! Adam LaRoche has had 8 hits in his last four games. And the Pitching is improving, especially when it comes to giving up walks. From azsnakepit.com:

“However, the key, once again, was no walks issued tonight by Diamondbacks pitchers. I don’t think it’s coincidence that, over the winning streak, we have handed out only seven free passes in 36 innings, while Arizona has fanned 36 opposing batters over the same time-frame. It’s the first time since August 2008, we’ve had back-to-back games with zero walks. Of course, it probably helps that Toronto are such free-swingers: I think they swung a couple of times in this series when our pitcher was just trying to get a new ball from the umpire. They now have 74 homers: only the Red So (59) have even got ore than fifty in the AL.”

Its getting hot!! In the pool all weekend, just to cool off. ASU doesn’t look like they are cooling off anytime soon. Friday they jumper all over Oregon State in a 10-4 spanking. Kole Calhoun was a triple away from hitting for the cycle. It was more of the same on Saturday. The Suns Devils came away with a 6-5 win and once again it was Calhoun lighting it up with a 3 run home run! From azcentral.com:

“The Beavers had pitched to Calhoun in the third inning at Packard Stadium after a lengthy discussion between pitching coach Nate Yeskie and starter Sam Gaviglio with a 2-2 count on the Arizona State senior slugger. Calhoun took the next pitch out to right field for his 12th homer and second in as many games, scoring three to erase a two-run deficit. Calhoun equaled his 2009 home-run output with a blast helped by the wind down the right-field line scoring Austin Barnes and Maggi.”

I likey. The Devils are looking good, with a 3 game lead over number 10 UCLA, for another Pac-10 title.