Arizona Diamondbacks 5, Toronto Blue Jays 4: Call An Ambulance, But Not For Me.

Long time no see, friends! Although you have not seen me commenting much I have reverted back to my lurking ways. I figured after the magical World Series run last year Jim would have no difficulty finding eager writers to discuss this team. It was a good opportunity for me to take a step back and focus on fatherhood which has been an absolute blast. Don’t get it twisted though, I’m still raising my daughter to become a Diamondbacks fan as the good (choose your deity) intended. We’ve been watching every game even if she can’t quite comprehend it yet.

The way I see it, the Diamondbacks have been a tear as of late against a challenging part of the schedule. They would find themselves a healthy number of games above .500 and in a decent spot in the wild card race were it not for some blown saves. Regardless, the team has not used that as an excuse and continues to find ways to bounce back. Still plenty of season left on the plate, and as we saw last season the only need to make it into the playoffs and anything can happen from there.

Tonight they opened up a series against the Toronto Blue Jays who like Arizona had playoff aspirations at the start of this season but have been even more disappointing. That ballclub is currently glaring hard into the mirror and will have some difficult decisions to make before the trade deadline.

Ryne Nelson took the bump for Arizona and continued a string of really good starts. Outside of rough outings at San Diego on June 8th and June 26th against Minnesota he has been very impressive the past two months. This comes at a time when the starting rotation is running thin with injuries, which his manager surely appreciates from him. This evening it was seven innings of dominant pitching with Nelson touching 98 miles per hour at times. Unfortunately, the Diamondbacks offense was a bit anemic until the late innings of this contest so he ultimately walks away with a no decision when he arguably deserves the win.

Through four innings Nelson gave up only one hit, an excuse me single to Vlad Guerrero Jr. in the first. After that hit he buckled down and retired 11 straight Blue Jays in a row. The Diamondbacks’ offense did manage to provide Nelson with a pair of runs in the second and third innings, but also missed a couple of opportunities after that to give him more support. Kevin Newman got the start at second base tonight to give Ketel Marte some rest before the All Star game and doubled with one out in the third. Corbin Carroll, his ears ringing after Jim’s accurate analysis of his performance in the GDT, drove Newman in on a line drive to right field for the first run of the game. Carroll stole his 17th base of the season followed by a walk from Gabriel Moreno. With two outs in the inning, Christian Walker hit a dribbler to third base that Ernie Clement was unable to field cleanly which loaded the bases for Geraldo Perdomo. Gerry worked a really nice full count at bat but sadly looked at strike three right down the middle of the plate to end the inning.

Arizona kept the scoring going in the fourth courtesy of a leadoff triple from Randal Grichuk who was driven in on a sac fly from Kevin Newman. However, that would be all the run production the Diamondbacks could muster until the end of the game allowing Toronto to come back and take the lead. Ryne Nelson first ran into trouble in the fifth inning. A single and a double put runners on first and second with only one out. Toronto cut the Arizona lead in half on a force out, but Nelson prevented further damage by striking out Leo Jimenez to end the inning.

Toronto picked up the next inning countering with a leadoff triple of their own from George Springer. A sac fly in the following at bat tied the game at two apiece, but again Nelson remained calm retiring Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Justin Turner in order to end the inning. His final inning of work started much the same with a leadoff triple from former Diamondback Daulton Varsho. His hit stayed just fair bouncing right on the first base line in the outfield rolling all the way to the corner. A one out sac fly gave the Blue Jays their first lead of the game. Nelson’s outing was concluded after the seventh inning, his final line being three runs on five hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

Bryce Jarvis came out of the bullpen to pitch the eighth inning. A trio of singles opened the frame ahead of Vlad Guerrero Jr., and to be honest with the recent streak of luck this team has had in the late innings I was not too optimistic I would be recapping a win tonight. Miraculously, Jarvis limited the damage to just one further run inducing a sac fly from Vlad and ending the inning on a Justin Turner double play.

Down two runs and with only five hits in the game so far Arizona had their work cut out for them. Geraldo Perdomo and Eugenio Suarez drew a pair of key walks sandwiched between outs and each advanced a base on a wild pitch. Alek Thomas delivered the biggest hit of the game for Arizona with a single to left field scoring both men to tie the game at four apiece.

Justin Martinez, the hottest bullpen arm for Arizona right now, made easy work of the Blue Jays in the top of the ninth to keep it a tie game and put the team in a position for a come from behind victory. Toronto brought in Chad Green in hopes to send the game to extras but he struggled to find the strike zone issuing walks to three D’backs batters, albeit one of them intentional to Christian Walker. That loaded the bases for Gerry Perdomo, and with Corbin Carroll as the man on third base with only one out he did exactly what he needed to sending the first pitch he saw into the outfield for the game winning run.

CoTN goes to Dano for one topic I haven’t touched on in this recap yet. His comment was obviously posted in the first inning, but it was a foreshadowing of the Doug Eddings experience last night. His strike zone was rather wide, so it will be interesting to see his scorecard in the morning.

Regardless, a win is a win and the Arizona Diamondbacks who have flirted with it for much of the past two months are now over .500 for the first time since April 5th. As always, it was a pleasure recapping for you tonight and thank you for reading. Remember there is still a good chunk of season left and absolutely no reason to panic. The team is playing better of late and will hopefully be getting healthier in the coming weeks. All it takes is a wildcard berth and the October magic happens from there. Enjoy the journey!