fodeep.com

The Diamondbacks are ending the summer on somewhat of a hot steak. Yes two in a row is considered a hot streak for this team. Dbacks beat the Padres 7-4 at Chase Field. That comes after a 7-2 win over the Padres on Monday. From diamondbacks.mlb.com

Ian Kennedy overcame a rough first inning to pitch the D-backs past the Padres, 7-4, on Tuesday night at Chase Field. The win was the second straight for the D-backs, who have won five of their past six games. The Padres meanwhile have dropped six in a row. Kennedy (9-9) won for the second successive start, both of which have come against the Padres. Last time out in PETCO Park, he allowed just one hit in seven scoreless innings. This time he allowed three runs over seven innings.

The Dbacks are looking to finish strong. The bats have come alive in the last few games, August have scene some decent offensive production. From azcentral.com

The win gave the Diamondbacks a 16-13 record in August, their first winning month since August 2009. “We’re getting good pitching from our starters, our bullpen holding their own and we’re putting up some runs, the past four or five games especially,” third baseman Mark Reynolds said. The Diamondbacks have been able to come up with big innings in recent games. In their past six games, they’ve registered eight innings of three runs or more. It was something Gibson was reluctant to mention. “I probably shouldn’t even say this because it’s a knock-on-wood thing,” he said. “We seem to be stopping a lot of the big innings, either through our pitching or not making mistakes. And we’re getting better at creating big innings on our own.”

This was a pretty depressing loss. I think the team is just “over it”. The shitty record, this ridiculous heat. Lets just end this thing already. From diamondbacks.mlb.com

It was a bad night all the way around for the D-backs on Wednesday. It wasn’t just that they dropped a 7-2 decision to the Nationals, it was the lackluster way they looked doing it. There was also the fact that third baseman Mark Reynolds was forced to leave the game in the seventh inning with lingering effects from Tuesday’s beaning. It was not a good night in the seats either as the attendance of 15,670 was the lowest in the franchise’s 13-year history. Even interim manager Kirk Gibson did not have a good game. “I didn’t think I had a particularly good game myself tonight,” Gibson said. “I made some mistakes. I wasn’t really on top of it. Humbling. Come back tomorrow.

And how about good old Mark Reynolds, how is he doing? I mean, if this were a war zone would he be headed back home or is suiting up for another tour in this dumpster fire of a season? From azcentral.com

Reynolds, who was not available for comment, was evaluated by a team doctor and is considered day to day, Assistant General Manager
“It was precautionary,” Woodfork said. “As we moved on in the game, he didn’t feel 100 percent right. It’ll be day to day. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about right now.”
Reynolds, who throughout his four-year career has a reputation for playing through just about any injury, mentioned during the pitching change that he felt dizzy, second baseman Kelly Johnson said. “We know Mark pretty well,” Johnson said. “He’s going to play through just about anything. If he finally comes over and says something like that, he’s not messing around.”

Does anybody know any cocktails you can make with 5 Hour Energy? I suppose you could replace any mixer with it, I just don’t want to have to experiment. That shit ain’t cheap. The reason I’m asking is I want something I can drink to get me drunk while I watch these Arizona Diamondback games but not passed out drunk. Just something to pass the time. Another good outing by Ian Kennedy is crushed by the bullpen in a 10-4 defeat to the Giants. From dbacks.com

On the other hand, when the lineup is scuffling and the bullpen bungles, Kennedy can pitch well and lose: Saturday opposing the Giants, he allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings but was charged with a fourth (thanks to the poor ‘pen) to cement Arizona’s three-game losing streak. Batters one through eight also didn’t support their starter in the club’s 10-4 defeat Saturday, its sixth straight loss to San Francisco. In fact, Arizona has done little damage since Thursday — when Matt Cain began the Giants’ roll — having gone 2-for-24 with runners in scoring position and plated just eight runs.

The win came at a cost to the Giants when outfielder Eugenio Velez got hit by a foul ball in the fourth inning and had to spend the night in the hospital. From azcentral.com

Bochy said Velez never lost consciousness, but was “a little out of it” after first being struck. He said Velez was speaking at the hospital, where he’s expected to undergo more tests overnight.

Man it has been a long time since I have written anything in the blog. The LeBron nonsense knocked the wind out of me. That and this oppressive heat, will it just rain for petes sake! Nothing has really changed since I last reported on the Dbacks, still cellar dwellers, with an occasional win or two. From azsnakepit.com

Totally bitchin’, dudes and dudettes! They should do Eighties Night every evening at Chase! It guarantees a win! Well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but regardless of the result, we certainly had a blast in the Gameday Thread, trading baby pics [or, for those of us born just a little before the eighties, grown-up pics...], eating popcorn and enjoying the sight Chad Qualls, getting into the spirit of the occasion by pitching just like he did in 1988. When he was nine. Still, Mark Reynolds and Chris Snyder got their twentieth and tenth homers of the season, while Ian Kennedy finally got the win he has deserved for quite some time. It was fantabulous, even if, as Justin pointed out, it was kinda weird to have an Eighties Night, featuring two teams that never existed in that decade.

That was a nice 5-4 win over the Fish. We won the game but our top draft pick fails his physical. Huh? I admit I probably wouldn’t do too hot on any physical right now. Cholesterol through the roof, liver on its last legs. I think this guy had some other issues, like a prior surgery. From mlb.mlb.com

According to multiple reports, the D-backs’ top pick in the First-Year Player Draft has hit a significant snag in beginning his professional career. Texas A&M junior starting pitcher Barret Loux, the sixth overall pick, failed his physical, ESPN’s Buster Olney and FOXSportsArizona.com’s Jack Magruder reported on Saturday night. In 2009, Loux underwent surgery to eradicate bone chips from his right (throwing) elbow, though this past season he went 11-2 with a 2.83 ERA in 17 games — 16 starts — for the Aggies. It’s not clear if arm trouble is related to his failed physical.

The road has not been kind to the Dbacks this season. Losing 11 straight on the road makes it impossible to make any head way in this league. Ian Kennedy got rocked in a 6-3 loss in Bean Town. From azcentral.com:

The Red Sox knocked Kennedy around for six runs in six innings, a rare shaky outing for the pitcher who has been the Diamondbacks’ best this season. “It was just not getting ahead of guys in those innings,” Kennedy said, reliving the first and the third, when the Red Sox scored two and three runs, respectively, to jump to a 5-1 lead. “Pitching behind, it’s tough. With a lineup like this, you can’t do that. I just feel terrible, because my job is to go out there and keep them in the game, and I didn’t do that.”

Its time to open the Dbacks garage sale. We can set up the pitchers in the drive way and the position players on the front lawn. From mlb.mlb.com:

“There’s a good chance, yeah,” D-backs general manager Josh Byrnes said when asked if more moves were coming. Two weeks ago, D-backs team president and CEO Derrick Hall said that the organization was undergoing an evaluation from top to bottom and that the team on the field, as currently constructed, needed to undergo some changes. What those moves will be and how deep they will go is still uncertain, but one thing that seems certain is that Hall and managing general partner Ken Kendrick will have more involvement than in the past. “We’re looking at everything,” Hall said.

Yep, that will be on Sports Center. It means you are going to see this play repeated about fidy times tomorrow which is great for a Dbacks fan, sucks if your a Braves fan because it cost them a 2-1 loss. From azcentral.com:

That’s how they won Wednesday night, as Gerardo Parra’s should-have-been flyout became an inside-the-park, two-run home run in a 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves at Chase Field. Braves rookie right fielder Jason Heyward crashed into center fielder Nate McLouth in the eighth inning, the ball squirted free, and as Parra raced around the bases, his teammate, Augie Ojeda, popped out of the third-base dugout and joyfully waved him home. “Our pitching kept us in it, allowed us to stay along for the ride long enough,” Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch said. “We left a ton of runners on base, and we didn’t get a clutch hit until Parra’s tweener there, and that was the difference in the game.”

It was a pitchers duel with Ian Kennedy holding up his end of the bargain. From  arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com:

Kennedy allowed three hits and fanned six in seven shutout innings. The Braves made him work, though, running up his pitch count early while drawing five walks. Atlanta left the bases loaded in the second inning and stranded two in the fourth. Kennedy used his changeup to get some key outs in the game. “If I throw it like my fastball and you just miss the barrel by a little bit it’s an effective pitch and that’s all I try to do with it,” Kennedy said. As for working out of the early jams, Kennedy credited catcher Chris Snyder. “Snyder always gets me through those tough spots,” he said. “I really take pride in going seven innings. That’s my goal, to go six, seven or eight innings and keep the game within reach. I didn’t want to give in.”

Outfielders colliding won it for us. Maybe we could put some landmines out there. What ever it takes baby. we are playing for pride.

That felt good. Really needed that win to begin this 5 game home stand. This was a solid game for everybody, the pitching and hitting came together for a pounding. Ian Kennedy is becoming our ace, he pitched 8 innings with a season high 9 strikeouts. And the 6 homers ties a franchise record! From azcentral.com:

“Ask manager A.J. Hinch what he liked best as the Diamondbacks began a five-game homestand, and he found something different. “Just the win. A win at home. It’s been awhile for that,” Hinch said, noting his team lost all six games in its previous stand at Chase Field. “But this was a pretty good all-around game for us. That was some explosive offense and a really, really good pitching performance out of Kennedy. That’s about as much as we can ask out of him and our team. That was pretty flawless baseball and a long time coming.”

What has happend to Dan Haren.? Haren’s hitting has been amazing, but he has struggled on the mound with 4.85 ERA. You know usually Haren starts out strong but finishes the season weak. So maybe he’ll reverse that trend this season? From azsnakepit.com:

“Still, Haren isn’t going anywhere, and he strikes me as the kind of pitcher who has got the smarts to figure out what’s wrong, and either correct it, or make adjustments so it doesn’t matter as much. He seems to have been doing so already, and while that does seem to remain a work in progress, I tend to think he will figure it out. Maybe – just maybe – this will be the season where Haren finally improves in the second-half of the year!”

Whats up with this “foursquare” nonsense? I don’t know if I want people knowing where I am at 24/7. There are someplaces I don’t want people to know I visit. Like Zorba’s or a Diamondbacks game. How embarrassing is that? Wednesday was another loss, 6-3 to the Dodgers. I guess you don’t throw a fast ball straight down the middle for Manny Ramirez. Lesson learned. From diamondbacks.mlb.com:

“The D-backs starter cruised through six innings but gave up a bases-clearing double in a crucial at-bat to Manny Ramirez in the seventh to blow the game open in a 6-3 loss to the Dodgers. “I feel like I let the team down because we were in a position to get the job done, but I didn’t get the job done,” a stone-faced Jackson said. “It was supposed to be a fastball up.”

You know there are a lot of reasons why the Dbacks are struggling this year. The biggest reason is the bullpen. It is the worst in the Major Leagues. Could it go down as the worst ever? From azcentral.com:

“The Diamondbacks don’t just need a turnaround from one or two relievers to fix their disastrous bullpen. It will take nearly a sea change of effectiveness. Chad Qualls 6.39 ERA (12 2/3 IP). Juan Gutierrez 9.00 ERA (14 IP). Bob Howry 8.16 ERA (14 1/3 IP). Aaron Heilman 3.68 ERA (14 2/3 IP). Blaine Boyer 8.49 ERA (11 2/3 IP). Diamondbacks relievers have an ERA of 7.37 entering Friday’s series opener in Atlanta. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the worst full-season bullpen ERA in the past 25 years was 6.16 by Tampa Bay in 2007.”

Its not all bad news. Our starting pitching has been shakey with the exception of Ian Kennedy. Ian Kennedy has been a bright spot all season. If this guy could get some support..From azsnakepit.com:

“In a season where our pitching staff has, almost without exception, disappointed to some degree, Ian Kennedy has been a very pleasant surprise. He has performed far better than expected, when he was traded to Arizona as part of the three-way deal with Detroit: at that point, he had one win in twelve starts with the Yankees, and a career ERA in the majors above six. But after seven outings for the Diamondbacks, he is the only starting pitcher on the club with an ERA below four (3.48), and it is looking increasingly like New York’s loss is Arizona’s gain.”

I’ve been on the blogs all night and all anyone wants to talk about is that damn immigration bill. What did people talk abut before that? Thank goodness the Arizona Diamondbacks are winning. Its nice to write about good news once and awhile. The Dbacks have won two straight against the Astro’s, eneding a three game losing skid. The Dback’s Cesar Valdez got his first manger league win, a 9-1 decision Monday night. From azcentral.com:

“Houston natives Chris Snyder (three-run home run) and Chris Young (three hits, three RBIs) had big games to support Valdez, whose major-league debut lasted just five innings but was enough to help stop a three-game losing streak after a disastrous weekend in Chicago.”

Tuesday night Ian Kennedy pitched a shut out, and Justin Upton provided the offense for a 1-0 win over the Astros. From http://azsnakepit.com:

“Tonight’s matchup featured Houston ace Roy Oswalt against Diamondbacks rookie Ian Kennedy. Oswalt has completely owned the Dbacks, and the Astros have never faced Kennedy. At the start of the day, I don’t think anybody would have been terribly surprised by the 1-0 score, but I don’t think most people would have expected the Diamondbacks to be on the winning end of it. A home run by Justin Upton provided the offense and Kennedy and the bullpen notched the team’s first shutout of the season.”

Its been awhile. Ian Kennedy gets his first win in like 2 1/2 years. Did I read that right? Thats a long time to taste victory. From azcentral.com:

“Kennedy (1-1) allowed only one run in the first seven innings as the Diamondbacks built a 13-1 lead before giving up Kosuke Fukudome’s grand slam in the eighth. He ended up allowing six hits, one walk and four earned runs while striking out six. Once a top New York Yankees prospect, Kennedy hadn’t won since he beat Tampa Bay in his big league debut on Sept. 1, 2007. The right-hander’s next two seasons were filled with ineffectiveness and injuries – including an aneurysm near his right shoulder that required surgery last May.”

The bats were alive today. Adam LaRoche hit two homers, while Kelly Johnson hit his ninth home run which BTW leads the National League. I’m thinking we just need to add some middle relief or another closer and we’ll be fine for the rest of the season. How about this kid?

On Friday night the Arizona Diamondbacks got a win behind some impressive hitting. The Dbacks hit 5 home runs and got a good outing from Kris Benson for a 7-4 win over the Phillies.  Fridays game was like a mini vacay, a little trip up North for the day to get away from the heat and frustration/disappointment of valley life. Well Saturday it was back to reality. Back to the Suck. The Diamondbacks fell to Phillies 3-2 thanks to the bullpen. Poor Ian Kennedy, he had one of his best starts ever, retiring 15 and pitching all the way into the eighth inning. From diamondbacks.mlb.com:

“I’m not much on moral victories. I want real victories,” manager A.J. Hinch said after watching the best game of Kennedy’s Major League career spoiled by Jayson Werth. “I was out there a long time; you don’t really feel how long until it’s over,” Kennedy said. “I gave us a chance to win, and that was my job. Then hand it over to the bullpen. I’m pretty confident when [Juan] Gutierrez goes out there.” But with two outs in the ninth, Gutierrez got the same treatment from Werth as Kennedy had seven innings earlier: home run — a deep home run — to center field.”

How bad is this bullpen? How much worse can it get? I really thought we would have learned our lesson last season. From azsnakepit.com:

“The horrible bullpen numbers that are sure to be floating around the articles tomorrow aren’t very pretty. Mentioned during the broadcast: in the past 13 2/3 innings pitched by the Diamondbacks bullpen, they’ve allowed 23 hits, 20 runs, and 8 home runs. Including tonight, the Diamondbacks have been outscored 22-7 in the 8th and 9th innings this season; 19 of those runs have come in the 9th inning for an inning ERA of 13.50. I don’t know if Arizona still ranks below Kansas City Royals and Washington Nationals in bullpen ERA, but tonight is just one more game (for a total of 7, I believe) that the bullpen lost for the team. Everyone here wants change, and we can only dream that after this week’s performances, change has to be coming.”

It was all about the long ball in the 5-3 win over the Padres. Kelly Johnson went yard twice and the Arizona Diamondbacks completed their first series sweep. Was Kelly over due? Maybe. From arizona.diamondbacks.com;

“I knew it was coming,” Johnson said. “I felt good, I’ve been feeling good. You just have to keep swinging.” It didn’t take long for the move to pay dividends as Johnson hammered an 0-1 offering from Kevin Correia just to the left of the batter’s eye in center for his sixth career leadoff homer. With his team trailing 3-1 — thanks to a three-run homer by Scott Hairston — Johnson got things back to even with a two-run blast, this one to right-center.”

Sounds like he got good wood. And How about the pitching? Ian Kennedy got his first start and did a respectable job. Respectable? From azsnakepit.com;

“On the mound, Ian Kennedy made his first start for the Diamondbacks tonight, and got off to a rousing start. Working around a David Eckstein double, he struck out the side in the first, including Adrian Gonzalez. His only patch of trouble was in the second, where the first three Padres reached on two base hits and a Scott Hairston home run to put the D-backs in a 3-0 hole. At this point, I feel like we should petition the league to stop Hairston from playing against us. And Randy Winn. Kennedy ended up getting just enough run support not to lose (what’s known around these parts as “being an Arizona Diamondback”), thanks to those runs in the bottom of the fifth. His line was very respectable, certainly something we could get used to seeing out of our No. 4 pitcher – and yes, hope springs eternal that Brandon Webb will return to the living at some point – 5 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K. “

Being an Arizona Diamondback hasn’t been easy, especially last season. It looks like this team has gotten off to a good start and is looking to turn things around for this franchise. It was a little warm today. Summer is right around the corner. Ohh baseball, I can’t believe your here.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have traded Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth for Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy. On the face of it this seems like a pretty good trade. We are getting two starting pitchers. From azsnakepit.com; “While initial fan reaction seems to have been overwhelmingly negative, thus far, put me in the ‘meh’ category as far as our poll goes. The plus side of the deal is that we, effectively, turned a reliever in Schlereth, into a starter in Kennedy. This effectively fills a hole in the rotation, at relatively little additional cost: Jackson is arb-eligible, but will certainly be cheaper than a free-agent. The negative side, is that we swapped about five years of control over Scherzer, for two years of Jackson – and, in addition, Kennedy has not exactly shown an impressive track record at the major-league level.” If I remember correctly we lost a lot of games in the 8th inning and beyond. Maybe we could have used some middle relief or a closer. I don’t know? My mind is full of footballs and basketballs right now. Sorry.