02-28-2026, 06:54 AM
Sometimes you just cant win for losing. Tonight was certainly one of those nights. Merrill Kelly was on the mound for us, and he pitched a really good game. He was facing Atlanta righty Grant Holmes, who has been pitching pretty effectively for the Braves so far this year but who has a propensity to give up a fair number of walks. As has been the case for many of our starters this season, Kelly got off to a somewhat shaky start, surrendering solo home runs in the first two frames, and needing 31 pitches to get through a protracted second inning of work that seemed like it would make Merrills outing a short one tonight. 2-0 AtlantaWe went quietly in the bottom of the first, and also in the bottom of the second, though we did manage to get one run back on Eugenio Suarezs solo bomb with two outs in the second. 2-1 AtlantaMeanwhile, Kelly settled down in the third, as he and Holmes traded zeroes Jordan Lawlar Jersey, and Kelly put up another one in the top of the fourth. Holmes, however, was not so lucky. He started the frame by walking Geraldo Perdomo on five pitches, and then walking Pavin Smith on six pitches. Josh Naylor advanced the runners with a weak groundout to first, and Gabriel Moreno had an epic 11-pitch at bat that ended with a single to left that plated both runners. That brought Geno back to the plate, and Geno gave the fans in the left field seats their second souvenir of the night:That was all we managed, but we had staked Kelly a good lead. 5-2 D-BACKSMerrill responded by recording a clean seven-pitch top of the fifth, followed by a clean 13-pitch top of the sixth. That put him at 93 pitches for the game, and was the end of his night, but he finished things off with an admirable pitching line of 6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 HR, 1 BB, and 4 , our offense sat down quietly in the fifth and the sixth as well, aside from, you know Corbin Carroll Jersey, Geno:That was it, but another insurance run is always nice. 6-2 D-BACKSIn fact, more insurance might have been desirable, as Merrill Kelly was done, which meant it was time for the bullpen to get involved. And the bullpen was, well, bad. Ryan Thompson pitched the seventh, and coughed up two runs on a Ozzie Albies single and an Eli White dinger that closed the narrowed the lead to 6-4 D-BACKS. Jalen Beeks took the ball for the eighth, and became unglued after recording two quick outs. He walked Matt Olson and Sean Murphy, then gave up an Ozzie Albies single to center that scored Olson, and then a double over the head of Alek Thomas that cleared the bases. 7-6 AtlantaOur offense, meanwhile, had shut down in the seventh and the eighth, so our last hope was Geno Suarez coming to the plate to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Surely Suarez couldnt do it again, could he? Well, yes. Yes he Thomas followed with a single to right, which gave me hope that we might close things out in regulation, but alas, no, that was too much to ask for. Jorge Barrosa popped up a bunt to the pitcher, and then Tim Tawa grounded into a double play to send us to extras. 7-7 TIEJustin Martinez came out for the top of the tenth, with Matt Olson as the Manfred Man on second. Olson advanced to third on a weak grounder back to the mound, and then scored when JMart spiked a splitter in front of the plate for a wild pitch. No more damage was done, but it turned out to be enough, as we couldnt get Tim Tawa, our own Manfred Man, home in the bottom of the tenth. 8-7 Atlanta FINALWin Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs The Unstoppable Force: Eugenio Suarez The Immovable Dumpster Fire: The Bullpen The Gameday Thread was well-attended tonight, with 319 comments at time of writing. If wed managed to hang on and win this one, there were a number of Sedona Red comments focused around Genos dingers that would have been appropriate for CotG, but given how things turned out Geraldo Perdomo Jersey, Im going to go with the popular vote and give it to MrRBI17 for this one, which accurately describes the wear and tear our team can put on the psyche of well, us, right now: Anyway, please consider joining us tomorrow as we try to avoid the series sweep. Brandon Pfaadt is set to go against the amusingly alliteratively named Spencer Schwellenbach. Schwellenbach is a tough pitcher, but Pfaadts been looking sharp in his last few starts, so I think our chances are decent. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm AZ time. Hope you can join us!As always, thanks for reading. And as always, go Diamondbacks!
Ketel Marte Jersey
Ketel Marte Jersey