It came down to the wire, but the Diamondbacks were able to hold off a late surge by the Washington Nationals in a 5-4 win at Chase Field. Arizona scored four runs in the sixth to break a 1-1 tie, then hung on for dear life, as their two most reliable bullpen arms last season struggled to close out the Nationals.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Here are some of the main takeaways from the Diamondbacks’ win.
Diamondbacks finish impressive July in style
Arizona went 17-8 in July, the sixth-best month in franchise history in terms of winning percentage. They started the month two games under .500 for the season, but they’ll end it holding position for a postseason spot.
“Whenever you’re winning games, or even when we’re losing games, I feel like we have a real shot. I just want a chance to compete every day and every game. It’s the same story every time, offensively we are creative in the ways we score runs and our pitchers give us a chance. That’s the sign of a good team.”
The win marked only their second series sweep of the season, having done so to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark on May 7-9.
“It’s important to not get complacent with just winning series, especially when you win the first two,” said outfielder Jake McCarthy on the postgame coverage on Dbacks TV. “Whenever we win the first two games of a three-game series, it’s like ‘Hey, let’s finish this one out. We haven’t done that in a while.’ We normally aren’t super focused on things that happened in the past, but it can’t hurt to keep the foot on the gas pedal.”
Zac Gallen the ace is back
Zac Gallen had a strong finish in his last start against the Pittsburgh Pirates, with four-plus scoreless innings. He picked up right where he left off, allowing just one run in six innings. Thanks to the offense breaking for four runs in the following inning after throwing his final pitch, he picked up his third win in as many starts following the All-Star break.
The only speed bump came in the fourth for Gallen. Once the Diamondbacks took the lead in the third, he gave up a single to James Wood and a double to Harold Ramirez. The Nationals threatened to take the lead, as Ramirez got to third with one out, but Gallen struck out Keibert Ruiz on a changeup and retired Travis Blankenhorn on a bouncer to first base. In what became a one-run victory, preventing that extra run from scoring was huge.
Diamondbacks more create chaos in the 6th
For the first five innings, this game started as a pitchers’ duel between Gallen and Nationals lefty MacKenzie Gore. Gore cruised through the first five innings, the only run coming on a triple by McCarthy followed by a two-strike wild pitch when he airmailed a slider.
They were finally able to put some pressure on him in the sixth. Eugenio Suárez, who’s hot month of July has him in the Player of the Month conversation, led off the inning with a single. Randal Grichuk doubled to right-center, giving Arizona their first big scoring opportunity of the day. Pavin Smith, in a tough left-on-left matchup, ground out a nine-pitch at-bat before hitting a broken-bat roller to first base to put the Diamondbacks ahead and knock Gore out of the game.
What followed next was a bunch of chaos. While they didn’t necessarily square up the ball, they got a couple of big hits with a runner at third and less than two outs and ran wild on the bases. Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll each got pinch-hit RBI singles to make to extend the lead to three. The big knock of the inning came from José Herrera, who smoked a ball to the right-center gap to drive in Carroll to make it a 5-1 lead. That additional tack-on run would end up being huge at the end of the game.
Ryan Thompson picks up struggling Paul Sewald
Paul Sewald’s struggles have been about the only thing that has hurt the Diamondbacks in July. Asked to protect a 5-2 lead, he struggled to throw strikes and was missing badly to the glove side of the plate with his fastball and sweeper.
It started with a walk to Jacob Young. Following a steal of second, Ildemaro Vargas hit a ground ball that threatened to sneak through the right side but Smith made a diving stop for the key first out of the inning. However, the issues continued as Sewald allowed a double to get the Nationals to within two, then walked back-to-back hitters. It marked the fifth time in July that the Diamondbacks closer could not protect a lead, even if he officially gets credited with a hold.
Ryan Thompson inherited a bases-loaded, one-out situation with the tying run on second. He struck out Harold Ramirez on a sinker out of the zone for the second out. After uncorking a wild pitch, the tying run moved up to third. That’s when manager Torey Lovullo elected to put Luis Garcia Jr. on and give Thompson a right-on-right matchup vs. Riley Adams, who was 2-for-2 off the bench. Adams bounced out to second for the final out to secure the win.
Next Game
The Diamondbacks will embark on another grueling 10-game stretch featuring the resurgent Pittsburgh Pirates, then two of the best teams in baseball between the Cleveland Guardians and Philadelphia Phillies. With Arizona in great position to compete for a postseason spot, this will serve as a great test to the team to see if they belong. Brandon Pfaadt (5-6, 3.92 ERA) will go for the D-backs, while the Pirates have yet to announce a starter at the time of this writing. First pitch at PNC Park on Friday will be at 3:40 P.M. MST.
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Michael McDermott covers the Arizona Diamondbacks, Arizona Cardinals, and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @MichaelMcDMLB
