In the words of Jack Sommers, regression is a harsh mistress. And the past 2 games the Dbacks have played, there couldn’t have possibly been more regression. This game seemed like a game where absolutely nothing went the Dbacks way and everything the White Sox’s way. From baseballs getting stuck in Nolan Arrenado’s mitt, to inside the park home runs due to golden glover interference. The Dbacks could absolutely not catch a break in this game.
The starting rotation may have been a storyline of the early season, but the Dbacks have now allowed 12 runs in the previous 2 first innings. Merrill Kelly flat out stunk in this one allowing 4 ER in the first inning and 3 consecutive home runs to put the Dbacks into a 7 run deficit almost immediately.
The offense was able to come up with 5 runs tonight, however they should’ve come up with a lot more. Dbacks had leadoff hitters on base 6 of the 9 innings tonight, a 45.5% hard hit percentage and an xBA of .277. The White Sox defense seemed to be positioned perfectly all night to take hits away from the Arizona offense. It felt like almost every single inning there would be some base traffic followed by a diving catch in the outfield or a snared line drive by a White Sox infielder. Certainly a frustrating loss for the fans and the team, however with slightly better luck the score could’ve certainly been much closer.
About the only positive from tonight’s game may have been the the bullpen did a good job of holding the White Sox in check. They had to really shoulder the load tonight because of Kelly’s ineffectiveness, and they did a pretty good job of doing just that silencing the White Sox offense to mostly singles the rest of the game.
In addition, Ildemaro Vargas continued his hitting streak in this one with a 3-run home run in the 9th inning. This marks the 16th straight game he has hit safely in to begin the season. What an accomplishment!
As if this game wasn’t already lopsided enough against the Dbacks favor due to batted ball luck, things really got ridiculous in the 9th inning when a ball was hit down the 3rd base line that was clearly interfered with by the golden glover and the umpire team ruled that the play wasn’t reviewable despite the challenge by Torey Lovullo. This was the second time in the past 3 games a golden glover interfered with a ball in play. The official scoring came back as an inside the park home run. Clearly one of the most bizarre plays you will see and a clear head scratcher as to why that play wasn’t reviewable. Home plate umpire Doug Eddings had already had himself a game by not allowing several players to challenge ball strike calls, and then he didn’t allow Torey to challenge the clearly blown call by the 3rd base ump.
Obviously none of the above matters a whole lot when your starting pitcher allows 7 runs in the first 2 innings, however nothing much was going the Dbacks way tonight. There is still time to salvage this series to maintain their series winning streak, however it doesn’t appear as thought the White Sox are going to just roll over and just let them take it. The Dbacks are going to have to do a better job this season of playing when they have expectations on them to win, something this team has struggled with in previous seasons.