The Diamondbacks spent most of the night looking like a team that had left its offense somewhere back in Pittsburgh. Then the eighth inning arrived, the bats finally showed up, and a frustrating game turned into a 4-1 win over the Guardians.
That late surge was the difference, but it would never have mattered without the work done earlier by Mitch Bratt and the bullpen. Bratt gave Arizona five good enough innings, allowing just one run while keeping the game within reach. He wasn’t crisp, but against a weak Cleveland offense, he did exactly what the Diamondbacks needed.
Cleveland’s only run came in the first after Jose Ramirez drew a walk, stole second, and eventually came around to score. From there, Bratt settled in just enough to keep the damage from spreading.
In his final four innings, he allowed only two hits and three walks. His fifth inning was a good example of the night: a one-out double, then a groundout and a fly out to end the frame and leave the score where it was.
Arizona’s offense was nearly invisible for most of the game. Through seven innings, the Diamondbacks had only four baserunners, all of them coming via two singles and two hit-by-pitches. One of those plunks was so close it needed replay review to confirm it had actually nicked the hitter.
Then the lineup finally stirred. The rally started in the eighth when the Rattle of the lineup worked a walk and a single to turn things over and knock Tanner Bibee out of the game.
Once the Guardians went to their bullpen, the Diamondbacks’ top of the order went walk, single, single, single and pushed across four runs. It was the kind of burst Arizona has been waiting for after a rough run of clutch hitting.
The final line on the offense was a clean one: 3-for-5 with only four runners left on base. After the way this one started, that was a welcome change.
The bullpen handled the rest. Clarke-Loaisiga-Ginkel-Garcia combined to throw four scoreless innings, needing just 45 pitches to get 12 outs.
Brandyn Garcia picked up his second straight save chance and finished the ninth on seven pitches. The group allowed only one baserunner and gave up just one hard-hit ball all night.
There were a few key moments before the late rally that helped Arizona hang around. Ryan Waldschmidt got the team’s first hit with two outs in the third, then got picked off when he started for second, thought better of it, and tried to get back to first.
In the fourth, the Diamondbacks drew back-to-back hit-by-pitches with two outs, and Ketel’s needed video review to confirm it had grazed him. Bratt also worked around a leadoff walk in the fourth by inducing a 5-4-3 double play, with Arenado starting it with a strong throw on the run.
Nolan Arenado also made a big defensive play in the fifth on a grounder down the third-base line, helping Arizona keep the deficit at one. Torey then chose to intentionally walk Jose Ramirez, and Bratt finished the inning with a fly out to Kepler.
Bibee, meanwhile, was throwing strikes early and often, which kept the Diamondbacks on the defensive for most of the night. Arizona had a few longer at-bats, but for the most part the hitters were forced to swing early. After five innings, Bibee had thrown only 65 pitches.
The eighth inning changed everything. Gerry went the other way for a bases-loaded single to tie the game, and Gabi followed with a liner to nearly the exact same spot. The right fielder couldn’t handle it, the ball kicked away, and Arizona cashed in enough to grab a two-run lead with still only one out in the inning.
The game drew only 116 comments in the GameDay Thread by the time of publishing, and the comment of the game went to Snake_Bitten for reacting to the offense waking up.
The Diamondbacks and Guardians meet again tomorrow afternoon in the second game of the three-game set, with first pitch set for 4:15 p.m. Arizona time on FOX. It’ll be a lefty matchup, with Parker Messick listed for Cleveland and Kohl Drake set to start for Arizona.
The win also helped the Diamondbacks in the standings. With losses by most of the teams in the Wild Card race, Arizona will be in sole possession of the second wild card when its game starts tomorrow.
With clubs like Pittsburgh, St. Louis and maybe even the Nats starting to stack up losses, the field could keep thinning out as the trade deadline approaches.
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For a Diamondbacks club still trying to keep pace in a crowded race, the appeal is obvious. Burleson brings offense, team control and the kind of cost certainty that can matter when clubs are weighing how aggressive to be in late July, but a move like this usually comes down to how much competition builds and how far Arizona is willing to go to solve a position that has been anything but settled. [Read more 🡒]
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Padres Just Made A Rotation Move Arizona Fans Cant Ignore
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San Francisco will get minor-league prospects Miguel Mendez and Joniel Hernandez back in the deal, and the clubs will split the rest of Rays salary this season. Even without the full details of how San Diego plans to deploy him, the trade matters for the Diamondbacks simply because it strengthens a division opponent while reminding everyone how quickly the landscape can shift this time of year. [Read more 🡒]