That's More Like It

The Diamondbacks returned to their winning ways today by defeating the San Francisco Giants 8-2. The recipe for today's win (taken directly from the John McCain web site) which includes steady starting pitching, good defense and a major league leading 6.4 runs per game has helped propel the Snakes to a 10-4 start.

I'm still not entirely comfortable with Brandon Lyon in the closer role. He came into the 9th with a big lead today, and even though he didn't give up a run the bases were loaded when the final out was registered. My thoughts are that it's too soon still to yank him as the closer, but my hope is that Melvin is watching closely and has the big cat on a rather short leash.

Nick Piecoro reports that there have been a lot of complaints about the mound at AT&T Park.

Apparently there have been a lot of complaints about the mound here at AT&T Park. (See, what did I tell you?) They say it’s too high and then slopes down pretty drastically toward the plate.

Johnson was having some trouble with it last night, and catcher Robby Hammock was telling the relievers that they should throw a couple of warm-up pitches at maximum effort just to get a feel for it.

Johnson didn’t really get into how much it affected him other than to say that it was definitely different from the mound in the bullpen. But considering he couldn’t throw a strike with his fastball the first nine times he threw the pitch, it very well could have been a factor.

While watching the Cardinals/Brewers game tonight I heard the St Louis broadcasters make similar comments so there must be some substance to that. Not that Nick would make something like that up or anything. :-)

*Elsewhere today, former DBacks closer Jose Valverde, trying for his 100th career save, allowed four runs and two homers in the 9th inning as the Astros fell to the Philles 4-3. Valverde is 2-1 with 1 save and an 11.37 ERA so far this season.

*Carlos Quentin hit a 3 run homer in the White Sox 4-1 victory over Oakland.

Here are a couple of updates on earlier CDTLB Reports:

Erik Bedard has been placed on the DL with inflammation in his left hip. The move is retroactive to April 9th, and the Mariners are not sure when he will pitch again.

Bedard set an Orioles record with 221 strikeouts last season despite missing the final month of the season with a strained side muscle. He said he doesn't know when he can get back on a mound for a bullpen session, let alone a game.

"I think rest is the only thing that helps it right now," he said.

Bedard isn't sure if his hip is destined to bother him all season.

"I have no idea," he said. "My next start, we'll see. If it still hurts after that, then maybe it will be a long-term thing."

Also, I received a response from FSN AZ regarding the April 14th DBacks game which was not broadcast in HD even though all home games are advertised as scheduled to be shown in Hi-Def. I don't really know what it means, but here's the reply anyway:

In regards to Sunday’s D-backs game not being available in High Definition on DirecTV, we were just informed by DirecTV today that since they do not have designated bandwidth for FSN Arizona HD telecasts, the games need to be manually scheduled -- and unfortunately they missed Sunday’s game. They assured us they have additional staff that they are training to help verify HD content to prevent this from happening again in the future.

That's it for now. The Dbacks play the Giants again at noon forty-five tomorrow with Webb (3-0) facing off against Zito (0-3).

Let's take two.

(And, no, it's not you. I have no idea why the type in this post keeps getting smaller.)