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D-Backs Edged by Braves
Halsey's impressive start
goes for naught in tough loss
By
Daniel Blank / MLB.com |
PHOENIX --
Saturday's game was laden with
opportunities for the Diamondbacks.
The D-Backs drew 10 walks, five of which
led off an inning, and had at least one
baserunner in every inning. Brad Halsey
turned in his third straight excellent
start, throwing no-hit baseball into the
sixth inning.
And the first-place Padres lost for the
sixth straight time several hours before
first pitch, giving Arizona a chance to
climb a game closer in the standings.
But Arizona didn't take advantage of its
plethora of opportunities, and Atlanta
seized on the few it got, stealing a 3-2
victory courtesy of a ninth-inning home
run by Andruw Jones.
"It's a tough loss," said right fielder
Shawn Green. "It could've been a huge
win. ... We see [the Padres] lose and we
want to take advantage of it. Halsey
came out and threw a great game, the end
result was just one we wouldn't have
liked."
Halsey was dominant in an economical way
as he carved up Atlanta for six innings.
He threw just 77 pitches through the
first six innings as the Braves managed
few good swings -- and only one single
-- off the rookie.
"It's the same stuff that I'm always
trying to feature; getting ahead with
the fastball and trying to expand the
zone from there, and make them
aggressive when I'm ahead and make them
hit pitches that aren't strikes," Halsey
said.
In the seventh -- a half-inning after
the Diamondbacks finally translated a
leadoff walk onto the scoreboard --
Halsey made his only mistakes of the
night and the Braves made him pay.
With one out, Halsey plunked Jones, just
the third man Atlanta put on base. Julio
Franco, who is nearly twice Halsey's
age, followed with a double to
left-center to plate Jones. Two batters
later, rookie Jeff Francoeur deposited a
double to right-center to put Atlanta on
top.
To that point, Arizona had drawn four
leadoff walks and received a leadoff
single in the third from Halsey -- his
third hit of the year. But the
Diamondbacks were unable to build on the
rallies against Braves starter Jorge
Sosa, who walked four in his five
innings.
In the seventh, Arizona had another
chance after Luis Gonzalez and Troy
Glaus drew back-to-back two-out walks.
Green, who walked to lead off the sixth
and came around to score, belted a high
fly ball to center, but it died in
Jones' glove on the warning track.
"If I was in the same situation again,
I'd want to take the same swing I took
there," Green said. "I hit it good. I
thought it had a chance, I just hit it
to the wrong part of the park."
But in the eighth, pinch-hitter
extraordinaire Tony Clark nearly made
all those early missed opportunities
insignificant. Clark roped a double to
right that rolled past Francoeur all the
way to the fence, bringing home Quinton
McCracken from first. It was Clark's
15th pinch-hit RBI and improved his
batting average to .394 (13-for-33) in
those situations.
The buzz from the 32,673 in attendance
was short-lived. Jose Valverde, who was
riding a nine-outing scoreless streak,
came in to start the ninth and quickly
put Jones in an 0-2 hole. Valverde tried
to blow a chin-high fastball past Jones,
but the center fielder tomahawked the
heater into the left-field stands for
his 30th home run of the year.
"I really thought we had the momentum
when Tony doubled, and then their big
guy comes up big for them," said manager
Bob Melvin.
"A lot of times, you're going after
strength-plus, which means, high-ball
hitter, you go higher than high because
they like it up there," Melvin said.
"When you have that kind of velocity on
the ball and throw it face high, you
have to give the guy credit."
Gonzalez worked a walk off Atlanta
closer Chris Reitsma to lead off the
ninth, but on a day of missed
opportunities, he became the 13th
Diamondbacks runner left on base.
"That's been a problem for us all year,"
Melvin said. "It's not for a lack of
getting guys on, we do that. I think we
lead the league in left on base, which
means we're getting a lot of guys on,
we're just having trouble getting them
in."
Although the Diamondbacks knew for quite
some time before the game that they
could gain in the standings for the
second straight day, Melvin said if the
team focuses on the out-of-town
scoreboard, the players could develop a
"defeatist mentality" that wouldn't help
them win ball games themselves.
"I know they won't lose all the time, we
need to win," Melvin said. "We need to
win. We need to win games and we need to
put a win streak together."
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