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Saturday, July 5, 2008

July 4th - THE GAME (Time To Pray)

Nick Oza/The Arizona Republic  I have so many thoughts about yesterday's game that I'm going to start with the one that will be the quickest to write and shortest to read.

After making a brief appearance in the 9th inning Thursday, the Arizona offense took another night off as the D*Backs fell to the Padres 5-1. San Diego pitcher Cha Seung Baek started the game with a 1-4 record and an ERA over 5.00, but held the Snakes hitless through 5 2/3 innings to get the win over June pitcher of the month Dan Haren. Haren pitched another strong game going 7 and giving up 2 runs. Somebody somewhere must have said this is a game that on paper favored the Diamondbacks and jinxed us. Baek had given up 10 earned runs in his previous two starts and was winless in his last five. As usual, Arizona bats have a way of making even pitchers like Baek look like Cy Young.

The rest of the game was rather typical:

*Chad Tracy, who had doubled home the first Arizona run in the bottom of the 7th with two out was lifted for a pinch runner who failed to score. Connor Jackson was moved from left to first and promptly made a throwing error the very next inning. This led to another run given up by....

*Reliever Chad Qualls who was sent into the game in the top of the 8th and was not able to keep the runner from crossing the plate, extending the Padres lead to 3-1.

*The bullpen, in two innings, managed to give up more runs than the starter had allowed in the first seven.

The Diamondbacks are in first place ( by just 1/2 game over the Dodgers) by virtue of their dominance over division rivals this year. If teams like the Padres start looking forward to coming to Chase Field then it's going to be a very long second half of the season.

Photo by Nick Oza/The Arizona Republic

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