There are a variety of types of victories in baseball. You can have offensive blowouts, dominant pitching performances, slugfests with each team trading body blows among many others. But one of the most satisfying types in my opinion is an all-around team effort where each phase of the game performs well in support of each other. Those types of victories have been tough to come by for the Diamondbacks over the last few weeks as the team has experienced renewed injury issues across the roster and inconsistent play both within and between games. So on days where everything seems to click well, it’s worth reflecting on that performance. There were bullpen arms that stepped up, a young rookie starter, and of course, some excellent defense that kept the Cardinals off the board.
The Arizona offense used one of those big innings that Torey Lovullo keeps talking about Diamondback pitchers avoiding with an offensive eruption in the fourth. It started innocently enough with a leadoff single to Corbin Carroll and a walk to Gabriel Moreno but ended with back-to-back home runs from LuJames Groover (the first of his career) and Ketel Marte (the 184th of his career). In between, the D-Backs plated three runs on a bloop single from Tommy Troy and an Ildemaro Vargas double down the line. It’s especially important to get significant offensive production from those two given that they’re often placed in the latter half or bottom third of the lineup and can set the table for the elite batters at the top of the lineup. After that eruption, the Arizona bats went dormant until they added some much-needed insurance runs with timely hits from both Troy and Marte again in the seventh and eighth.
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But of course, the other major storyline heading into tonight: Mitch Bratt’s major league debut. It was the second MLB debut the D-Backs have seen this week after Jose Cabrera’s scoreless outing on Sunday against the Twins. Sadly, Bratt’s debut wasn’t quite as successful as Cabrera’s, but equally symbolic of the additional youth movement taking over the team’s roster. Despite aiming to have Bratt run through the lineup twice, Lovullo opted to pull the rookie after just one turn through the St Louis lineup. It was an understandable decision given that Bratt is still working his way back from injury and threw just 48 pitches in his last outing with Reno last week, but part of me still would have liked to have seen Lovullo give Bratt one chance to get through another inning and build some additional confidence. Even still, there were plenty of encouraging signs that he and fans can take away from the abbreviated appearance including collecting the first three strikeouts of his big league career and seven whiffs. As a control pitcher primarily, Bratt’s command slipped at times, but that’s completely understandable given the incredible nerves he was probably feeling.
Even though Bratt’s debut will obviously get most of the press for the game, the parade of relievers who came into the game in support deserve plenty of praise too. Ryan Thompson was the first out of the bullpen and his two innings of one-run ball set the table for the rest of his fellow relievers who combined for six innings of three-run baseball. Tomorrow, the D-Backs will look for a rare four-game series win. If they can keep playing high-quality team baseball like they did today, it could be a fun second half of baseball.
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