Diamondbacks Review

The Arizona Diamondbacks went 6-4 on their just concluded road trip. A four game sweep of Colorado erased much of the sting of a three game sweep by the San Diego Padres.

The Colorado series gave much cause for optimism as pitchers other than Arizona’s dynamic duo of Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson won games and the bullpen was spectacular no matter whom they were relieving.

Mike Myers, Eddie Oropesa, B.K. Kim and Mike Morgan turned in brilliant performances in hitter friendly Coors Field.

The Diamondbacks continued to find no success without either Curt Schilling or Randy Johnson on the mound as the San Diego Padres pounded Brian Anderson and successors 8-0. Of course, you are never going to win a game in which you don’t score a run and you are not going to win many in which you commit the same number of errors (4) as you have hits. The Diamondbacks, hopefully, played their worse game of the season. It would be hard to imagine a worse performance.

Todd Stottlemeyre made his long awaited return to the mound in the second game of the series, but surrendered a pair of costly home runs that accounted for all five San Diego runs in the 5-2 Padres victory. The loss dropped Arizona to 4-4 for the season despite the 4-0 record of its mound aces that had surrendered only one run in those four wins.

Rick Helling pitched good enough to win on Wednesday, but the Diamondbacks left the bases loaded twice and scored only once in a 2-1 loss to the Padres. The San Diego sweep was mainly due to an anemic offense that scored only three runs in the three game series.

Johnson won his third game of the season in Colorado as the Arizona bats finally came alive. Damien Miller did most of the damage with two solo home runs and a two-run single that gave the Diamondbacks their first lead of the game. At the time, Miller had driven in all four Arizona runs. Luis Gonzalez also homered for the Diamondbacks. Johnson survived a rocky start that saw the first five Rockies reach base and two runs score before the first out was recorded.

Schilling matched Johnson’s performance on Friday with an 8-3 victory to run his record to 3-0. The right-hander also had a run-scoring single for the Diamondbacks who managed 13 hits led by Craig Counsell’s three for four.

Myers became the first Diamondback other than Schilling or Johnson to win a game on Saturday in the 7-5, 10 inning victory over the Rockies. Chris Donnels had the two-run triple in the 10th that was the margin of victory.

Miguel Batista became the first starter other than Johnson or Schilling to win in a 6-3 verdict over the Rockies to complete the four game sweep on Sunday. Rookie Quinton McCracken, who had also been one of the bright spots on Saturday, led the Arizona batting attack.

The Diamondbacks returned home on Monday to face the St. Louis Cardinals. The Redbirds will complete that three game series tonight (April 17).

After an off day on Thursday, the Colorado Rockies will come calling for a three-game set that will complete the brief homestand. A six-game road trip will begin in Atlanta on Tuesday and end on Sunday in Florida.

Donate to nhonews.com Report a Typo Contact
Most Read