Diamondbacks fall to Giants

For a struggling baseball team, every mistake appears to be magnified and each missed opportunity seemingly finds a way to prove costly.

Such has been the case throughout this season for the Arizona Diamondbacks, whose latest setback was a 6-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants at Chase Field on Wednesday night.

“It’s unfortunate at times in a game where you feel like you have to play perfect,” Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch said. “Whether it’s taking advantage of every opportunity with a runner on third, whether it’s a miscue that leads to a run, a little seeing-eye base hit and then a ball in the gap, right now we’re stuck in this cycle of having to be perfect in order to get through a game and feel good about it. It’s obviously a bad cycle to be in as a team, and we’re going to work to get out of it.”

The defeat was the third straight for the Diamondbacks, who fell to 25-35 overall, 12-21 at home and 12-20 against the National League West. The cellar-dwelling D-backs slipped to 2.5 games behind the fourth-place Colorado Rockies and trail the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers by 14.5 games.

Wednesday’s loss was precipitated by a four-run third inning by the Giants, who scored twice on a homer by Bengie Molina and tallied two more on a three-base error by Arizona center fielder Chris Young.

“It was a tough play,” Young said about Andres Torres’ towering drive to the warning track that Young ran down but dropped. “I was playing Torres pretty much shallow. You know, ball to the wall, I tried to turn and get there, and I got there a little late. It was a tough play, and I tried to make a play on it.”

The Diamondbacks cut into their 5-1 deficit in bottom of the fifth, when they scored three runs but couldn’t get one more big hit that would have tied the game or put them ahead.

Felipe Lopez began the fifth-inning rally with a one-out single, and he advanced to third on a double by Ryan Roberts. Justin Upton drove in one run with a base hit to right field, and Stephen Drew brought home two more with a double to left. An infield single by Mark Reynolds put runners on first and third with one out, but the D-backs could not cash in further. Giants starter Barry Zito got Young to foul out to the third baseman for the second out. After walking Chris Snyder to load the bases, Zito retired pinch hitter Miguel Montero on a long fly ball that right fielder Randy Winn caught in foul territory to end the inning.

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Zito (3-6, 4.09 ERA) allowed four runs on seven hits in five innings. He walked four and struck out six.

Diamondbacks starter Doug Davis (3-7, 3.42 ERA) was charged with five runs (two earned) on six hits in four innings. Davis, who walked three and struck out one, threw 100 pitches.

“Anytime you get 100 pitches in four innings, it tells you he had to labor through his time,” Hinch said.

“I just didn’t feel like I had anything out there,” said Davis. “I got behind a lot of hitters. When you have to come to a free-swinging team like the Giants, you can’t do that. I felt like every time I threw something, they got a piece of it.”

The Giants added an insurance run in the ninth off Arizona reliever Chad Qualls.

Brian Wilson closed it out for San Francisco in the bottom of the ninth, striking out the side to earn his 16 th save.

“It’s a frustrating loss,” Hinch said.

By: Tom Kessler
MLBcenter.com Arizona Diamondbacks correspondent

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