Both the Braves’ bats and bullpen bolstered starter Whalen as a late knockout punch put the snakes back in their holes… despite some random acts of umpiring.
Larry Vanover is not a bad umpire, but perhaps even umpires have bad games during the dog days of Summer.
It was getting so bad last night, that the FOX broadcasters actually starting counting the missed pitch calls by Vanover – and mind you, this is not a bias complaint, for the errors were on both sides. I believe they stopped counting around mid-game when the number hit double-digits.
If you check this strikezone map on Brooksbaseball.net, you’ll see what I mean. There are at least 16 pitches (8 to LHH, 8 to RHH) that were incorrectly called…. including 2 ball calls directly down center of the strike zone. If you get picky, you could probably add a couple more, but for some reason, I gave him the benefit of a doubt on the boundaries.
I don’t know how much this played into the games’ outcome, but it certainly left pitchers and hitters guessing all night. Unfortunately, I can’t use this to explain away Robert Whalen‘s poor outing – he just looked tired last night, and it could be that his pro-high 145 innings has caused him to hit a wall (previous high: 97 innings… that’s a big jump in one season).
Whalen went 2.2, walking 4 and giving up 4 runs in the process. The command wasn’t there, and it was clear he was struggling to find a groove. There’s a lot of speculation on whether he’s sent down now: I expect so, but mostly to give him a hearty handshake for an outstanding season at 3 tough levels and encouragement to cheer on his brethren for the rest of the year.
Now The Good News
That was all the Diamondbacks would get.
- Adonis Garcia: 3 for 5, 2 runs scored.
- Ender Inciarte: 1 for 4 with a walk and a run.
- Freddie Freeman: 0 for 3, but scored twice after walks.
- Tyler Flowers: 2 for 3 (walk, RBI)
- Jace Peterson: 1 for 4 (walk, run)
- Dansby Swanson: 2 for 4, run plus his first ML RBI to ice the game a bit more
But it was Matt Kemp’s triple (officially a double, but how do you blame the right-fielder for the Pachinko-Machine-like construction of the Chase Field RF corner)?
That double/triple cleared the bases, giving Atlanta the lead in the 7th. Kemp was 2 for 4 on the night and that hit certainly made up for a failure to cut off an Arizona triple. More on that in a minute.
My Bullpen’s Back
This will have ramifications later, but a 6.1 inning stretch from relievers was excellent: Arizona got no hits – zero – from Ryan Weber, who took the longest run of 2.1 innings. Chaz Roe, Jose Ramirez, Mauricio Cabrera, and Jim Johnson followed with 4 shutout innings.
Ramirez is noteworthy because he faced 5 hitters, the first being Chris Owings, who tripled when Kemp couldn’t reach the ball in time to hold him to a double.
Ramirez then started mowing down batters… including hitting one… but three strikeouts kept that key runner on base just before the winning rally started.
Next: Marketing Bobble!