Nolan Arenado then flied out to end the inning, but Ildemaro had given us the lead! Also, we hung 31 more pitches on Holmes in that inning alone, so he was up to 60 pitches after three. 2-1 DBACKS<\/p>\n
And that, in terms of offense, was that. For both teams. Seriously. It hadn\u2019t felt exactly like a pitchers\u2019 duel up to that point, but that\u2019s exactly what it wound up being. Both teams sat down in order in the fourth, Kelly pitched around a two-out double and an intentional walk to Juan Soto in the fifth, before retiring the Mets in order in the sixth and seventh innings to finish with his longest and best start of the season so far. His final pitching line was 7 innings pitched, three hits and three walks given up, one earned run allowed, and six strikeouts with 97 pitches thrown. Not too shabby, Merrill. Not too shabby. It\u2019s almost like you turned that corner today that Steve and Bob were jabbering about during last Sunday\u2019s broadcast. And damn, it was really good to see.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Clay Holmes didn\u2019t go quite as deep, retiring the top of our order in order again in the bottom of the fifth and then getting the first two outs in the sixth before surrendering a single to Arenado that got him the hook. Well, that and the fact that he was at 103 pitches after Arenado\u2019s at bat, so his day was done.<\/p>\n
So it was up to the bullpens, and both bullpens buckled down and did their jobs. Some dude named Austin Warren recorded four outs despite a two-out Ketel Marte double in the bottom of the seventh, and somewhat hilariously Craig Kimbrel came out for the bottom of the eighth, and got three quick outs after walking the first two batters he faced, largely thanks to two egregiously bad one-pitch ABs by Vargas and Arenado that were duly pilloried in the Gameday Thread.<\/p>\n
For us, Taylor Clarke pitched a perfectly clean eighth, and Paul Sewald pitched a perfectly clean ninth to record his eighth save in eight save opportunities. Say what you will about Sewald being back on the roster, but the dude isn\u2019t costing us very much while we await the return of Puk and JMart, and as long as we don\u2019t let him pitch in any situation other than a save situation, he\u2019s doing the business. Credit where credit is due.<\/p>\n
Win Probability, courtesy of FanGraphs<\/a> Winner, Winner: Merrill Kelly (pitching line above, +35% WPA) Those Win Probability numbers pretty much say it all. Our pitching won this game for us. The offense did just enough. Seriously, though, and I mentioned this in a comment elsewhere earlier today, but Torey needs to take the whole damn offense and cram them into his office and have a \u201cone-way\u201d conversation with them like he did with the starters after the sweep by the Cubs last weekend. We\u2019re damn lucky Merrill was so good today, and that the back end of our bullpen is proving right now to be capable of holding a one-run lead when we manage to give them a one-run lead to hold. But come on. We need to do better.<\/p>\n Anyway. It wound up being a pretty good Gameday Thread today, with 220 comments at time of writing. By popular acclaim and because I very much agree, today\u2019s Comment of the Game goes to WebbGemz, for this appreciation of our often-reviled closer:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260509-chart.jpg\"\/)
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Chicken Dinner: Paul Sewald (1 IP, 0 ER, 2 K, +17% WPA), Taylor Clarke ( 1 IP, 0 ER, +12% WPA)
Gizzards and Entrails: The offense as a whole (30 AB, 6 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 8 K, -14% WPA)<\/p>\n
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