Game Report: Snakes v. Cards, April 14, 2009
No Arizona player would have been better to come to the plate in the situation. Down by a 4-3 score in the eighth, runners on first and second bases, Arizona on a nasty grip of play. With two outs and the pitcher's spot up, Conor Jackson was called on to pinch hit.
The tension in the team had built in the months since Manny joined the Dodgers, through the end of 2008, over a frustrating off-season, during a loser of a spring, and well into the second week of the 2009 campaign. Hands, jaws and bellies all clenched.
How tightly wound were the Snakes, at three games below .500 despite playing their third consecutive home series? They were coiled, but not like Diamondbacks ready to strike. No, they were in a box, getting poked with a stick for their eighth game in a row.
LOVE DON'T GRIP.
Good thing Jackson is a flow player. There is a fluidity to his stance and the path of his bat that defies the paralyzing effects of pressure. He stands tall in the batter's box and swings his hips as he waits for the pitcher to deliver the pitch.
"It's one of those things where you gotta get up there and feel sexy," he has said. "That's just the way it is. It's confidence. It's not arrogance. It's just getting in a groove."
Jackson, more than any player on the team, knows how to get into a groove. When Jackson's bat is on, the pressure falls off everyone else. His is the swing that keeps the team swinging.
Jackson is the best hitter on the Arizona Diamondbacks. He's not the most powerful. (That would be Justin Upton or Mark Reynolds, depending upon what flavor of raw you prefer.) He's the player whose combination of discipline and contact and power are most conducive to getting the whole offense back into the flow.
His swing was the thing on Tuesday evening that set the Diamondbacks free. Jackson saw an 0-1 curveball over the heart of the plate and he hammered it. On the radio, Greg Schulte didn't need to finish his call for you to know that it was gone. Schulte's voice boomed from his first syllables with a confidence that made it clear where the ball would land. It carried the left field fence and gave Augie Ojeda, Upton and Jackson a ride home.
Those three runs, being more than Arizona had scored in all but two of its full games this season, felt awesome. The Diamondbacks took a 6-4 lead on the play. Although they would let the Cardinals claw back to tie the game, for the Arizona players, the grip was off.
LOVE DON'T GRIP.
Once Jackson released his teammates from their dark corner, even the pitchers came out swinging. Chad Qualls struck first to start the ninth, getting Yadier Molina as he lunged for a 1-2 pitch outside the zone. St. Louis then peppered Qualls with a series of short, sharp jabs: bunt 1B, 1B, BB, RBI 1B, RBI 1B.
Not even Albert Pujols could land a knock-out punch, though. After big, bad Albert tied the score at six with the fourth single of the inning, Qualls composed himself and counter-punched, landing back-to-back strikeout blows to retire the side.
Bloodied but still standing, Arizona got a triple in the bottom ninth and Stephen Drew was 90' from scoring the winning run with only one out. The Fielding Bible tells us that a team with a runner in such a position produces .969 runs on average in the inning. The Diamondbacks scored none.
Maybe they'd have panicked had they been down on the scoreboard, but these Snakes stayed loose.
LOVE DON'T GRIP.
Tony Pena relieved Qualls in the extra frame and held St. Louis to a solitary base-runner, who was stranded on second base to end the top of the inning.
In the bottom of the tenth, the Arizona offense proved it had abandoned its white-knuckled grasp to take a firm handle. Ojeda led off with a single to right field. Then Upton, whose twelve fruitless at-bats entering the night were seen as conclusive evidence that he had been rushed to the majors, came through with a hit.
(Relax, people. It will be the first of many, many from here to October.)
Pena, in a rare at-bat, bunted to the St. Louis hero of the night before, Brian Barden, who threw to Khalil Greene covering at third base. With the lead runner still in scoring position, a Felipe Lopez grounder advanced Upton within one station of a walk-off win.
And then, the music played ...
I don't wanna lose your love tonight. I just wanna use your love tonight.
LOVE DON'T GRIP.
Neither does Eric Byrnes. If Jackson is the hitter that gets Arizona in rhythm, Byrnes provides the pop lyrics to that make the Snakes fun. Byrnes had a hit like an 80s song when he sent a Brad Thompson pitch into left field.
Upton crossed the plate. Arizona won by a 7-6 score. Not the first, just the biggest so far, of many, many wins from here to October.
4 responses to this Post, with 4 unique participants
My first game of the season...
Great article!
I totally brought Reynolds and the Dbacks luck. I need to go to the games more often ;)
I think Reynolds' homer last night will be his weakest/shortest of the season. He was just aiming for me.
Ugly but Nice win
My headline says it all. Let's see if we can use this to get a streak going since we are headed on the road. I really want to win Sundays game bad as we are facing Randy Johnson.
Dan
04/15/09
1:32pm
3 and 6 After 9 At Home
I have never wanted a road trip more.
Upton & Byrnes came through
The game ending knock was pretty huge, especially considering where it came from.. After his first-pitch infield pop-up down the first baseline with 1 out and runners on the corner during his previous plate appearance, Byrnes was about the last person I wanted at the dish.