What a game! This had all the makings of a patented 2025 Diamondbacks blown lead loss, but, on this night, the feisty Snakes played some sparkling defense late to secure a huge win. Even if the Diamondbacks don’t make the playoffs this year, games like this are why we love watching baseball. The team showed heart, hustle, and a flair for the dramatic. That’s what we love to see as fans!
Ryne Nelson bounced back from his wobbly last couple outings to toss a Quality Start, and it felt like he was control from the middle of the second inning on. After a mound visit from everyone’s favorite pitching coach during a rough start to the second, Nelly set down 11 straight Reds before getting tagged for a triple by the exciting Elly de la Cruz. After the triple, Ryne retired the final 3 hitters he faced. The bullpen ended up tossing 5 innings on the night, only allowing 1 earned run plus allowing the Manfred Man to score in the 10th, but thanks in large part to some spectacular defense, that was it. Corbin Carroll got the Serpientes out of the 10th by making a phenomenal throw from medium depth right field to the plate and nailing the Reds runner attempting to score what likely would have been the winning run. In the 11th, the infield provided the sparkling defense with an unconventional 6-5 DP to end the inning. The Reds’ zombie runner was at third with 1 out, but a soft line drive hit directly at Geraldo Perdomo followed by his quick toss to Blaze retreating to third and no-look tagging the base with his foot while making the catch kept the Reds off the board and allowed magic to happen in the bottom half of the inning.
The offense looked locked in early, scoring 4 runs off a tough customer in Zack Littell and chasing him from the game after only 4 innings. Gabi Moreno got a huge 3-run bomb into left in his first game back, and the Snakes were getting traffic on the base paths, but after the bullpen came in, the Snakes only mustered 2 hits and a walk over the final 5 innings of regulation, striking out 7 times! Fortunately, situational hitting returned in extras. Domo bunted Alek to third to start the 10th, then Ketel, who was having a really rough night offensively, worked a 13-pitch at bat before blooping a single into shallow right to tie the game up. Then in the 11th, Corbin started at second and Lourdes Gurriel, Jr., August’s hottest hitter on the planet, roped line drive into center on the second pitch of the inning to score Corbin and walk it off!
Win Probability and Box Score
Not a very active Friday night in the GDT, at least not until the extra innings started. At time of publishing, only 189 comments and very few rec’d comments to choose from. While a couple comments did get more recs than this one, I believe this one from ChefAZ summed up the evening best:
The Diamondbacks face the Reds in the second game of this important series tomorrow with a 5:10pm first pitch Arizona time. Nabil Crismatt will be on the hill for the Snakes and he will be opposed by lefty Andrew Abbott who is 8-3 with a sparkling 2.28 ERA. I don’t know how that game could top this, but I’m excited to find out how!