Record: 71-70. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season: -7
Elimination number: 21. Playoff odds: not good

Here is a visual representation of what the past two games have been like for Arizona fans:

Any questions? The long run of the Arizona Diamondbacks in first place came to an end this afternoon, with a second consecutive wretched performance in Los Angeles, who rolled over Arizona once again, slaughtering us with a mix of timely offense, good pitching and solid defense. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks were going 0-for-3 in those categories: we fail to muster an extra-base hit; Webb walks a career-high six batters; and Justin Upton turns into the laughing-stock of California after taking up position under a Ramirez fly-ball... Only for it to land five yards to his left, and bounce over the wall for a two-run ground-rule double.

That, somehow, sums up the entire series so far, in which we have been outscored by the margin of 14-2 and our offensive line has been .133/.200/.133, an appalling OPS of .333. The Diamondbacks were one out away from going down to back-to-back shutouts, for the first time since May 2004, before Upton singled home a couple of runs. That was the tiniest of victories on a day where everything that could go wrong, pretty much did. Will we ever see first-place again this season? Based on the performances over the past week, I would not be surprised if the Rockies prove a bigger threat to the Dodgers down the stretch than we do.

So, now can we be concerned about Brandon Webb? The starter formerly known as "Arizona's ace" delivered a third consecutive woeful performance, walking a career-high six batters and allowing seven earned runs in 5.2 innings. That makes his line in those three appearances as:
    Webb: 13.2 IP, 22 H, 12 BB, 19 ER, 13 K, ERA 12.51
There is something very clearly not right with Webb. Right from the start, his sinker was staying up and/or sailing wide, and was basically a useless pitch, except on the odd occasion the Dodgers helped him out by swinging at balls out of the zone. The warning signs were there early: he walked the very first batter he faced in the game, a deep fly-ball by Ramirez just stayed in the park and he got out of the inning with a good throw by Snyder to nail Martin as he tried to steal second..

He did settle down for a bit, and looked pretty good in the second inning. But he was back to struggling again in he third, and it took a huge strikeout of Mandy with the bases loaded to escape damage. The next time our Most Hated Player came up, however, Webb was not so lucky, and a fastball - or it might have been a sinker that didn't - was crushed into the right-field bleachers with two men aboard, for a three-run shot that apparently caused collective pants-wetting for all in attendance at Dodger Stadium, A bases-loaded walk in the sixth drove in another run and ended Webb's day, but Cruz is clearly the new Qualls, allowing all three inherited runners to score on another walk and Upton's blunder.

That was much, much more than enough offense for the Dodgers, as Billingsley followed up Lowe's eight shutout innings by taking his own shutout into the seventh. Thus far, off the Los Angeles starters, we have managed just six hits, all singles, three walks and no runs in 14.1 innings. In contrast, they have smacked the Arizona starters around for eleven hits, ten walks and 12 earned runs in 9.2 frames. That microcosm is why the 4.5 game lead we had after Friday night's game, a mere eight days ago, is now a deficit. Chris Young had two walks, and Justin Upton a pair of hits, but... I got nothing.

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Master of his domain: Stephen Drew, +1.6%
God-emperor of suck: Brandon Webb, -11.7%

The suckage was not particularly deep today, but it was very, very widespread. Drew was the only Diamondbacks whose positive contribution exceeded 0.2% this afternoon, Seems a fair assessment of a wretched game. Present in the thread were soco, DbacksSkins, BleedingSedonaRed, TwinnerA, AZWILDCATS, foulpole, Azreous, J Up, mrssoco, Scrbl, emilylovesthedbacks, Zephon, snakecharmer, Diamondhacks, singaporedbacksfan, unnamedDBacksfan, Gravity, IndyDBack and Muu, No prizes for guessing what the tone of the thread was like.

So, for the first time in five months, we find ourselves looking up at another team in the NL West, and can no longer fall back on the rejoinder, "Well, at least we're still in first place." There are still more than twenty games to go for Arizona, and the team still has the opportunity to turn things around - a win tomorrow would send us right back into first. [Incidentally, Randy Johnson will no longer be starting that game due to a shoulder issue, giving us an intriguing match-up of rookie phenoms, in Clayton Kershaw vs. Max Scherzer] But I just don't get the feeling that this team is doing anything but sinking, and going anywhere but down. The starting pitching, which got the team thus far, has now failed, and the shortcomings which it covered have been ruthlessly exposed.

Dan Haren RHP, 14-7, 3.24

Derek Lowe RHP, 11-11, 3.69

Baseball-Reference.com preview [opens in new window]

Deep breath, and here we go: probably the most important series of the year for Arizona. It's just gone 6pm and I am still at work, as Mrs. SnakePit had to take the car to get the A/C repaired. I'm quite impressed it survived the whole summer, reaching September before conking out. We debated whether or not to try and survive until the weather cools, but a couple of days of 2/55 air-conditioning [two windows down, driving at 55mph...] convinced us otherwise.

There's really not much more I can add about tonight's game. We all know how crucial it is: we all know how much we need our starters to get back into the groove again over the weekend. We need to take advantage of every chance, score early, keep Mandy in check and take the (undoubtedly loud and raucous) Chavez Ravine crowd out of things. It's not going to be easy, but if we don't take at least one of the next three games, we don't deserve to be in the playoffs - it's basically as simple as that.

I hope to be home close to first-pitch, but feel free to start without me. All together now: BEAT...EL...AY... BEAT...EL...AY... BEAT...EL...AY... BEAT...EL...AY...

No game today, so loin-girding will be in order for yet another crucial series [yawn...] against the Dodgers in Los Angeles over the weekend. I hope this preview isn't stealing kishi's thunder too much, since he's on Gameday Thread duty after his solid performance against the Cardinals: like Bob Melvin, I stick with the hot hand! And azreous is, I believe, scheduled for the recap tomorrow night, so I get Friday entirely off. But as an off-day topic starter, I want to hear your expectations for these three games: what you want to see happen, what you hope will happen and whether you are - like me - going to be glued to every pitch of every game from now till Sunday. Also worthy of mention:
   * The Marlins and their 600 fans
   * Rotator-cuff tendinitis for Zambrano: Cubs meltdown imminent?
   * Who is/was the best James Bond?

Here are the series match-ups.

Friday:

It's important to get off to a good start in this series, and set the tone. At least we are spared another Webb-Lowe matchup, and that may be for the best as Lowe came out on the winning end when he faced us last week. He has been particularly good at Chavez Ravine, with a 2.64 ERA, but his BABIP there is .249, so that is probably somewhat due to luck. He has been very solid of late, with five quality starts in a row, and an ERA of just 1.87 in that time.

One wonders if the expected second-half slump has hit Haren, though he has alternated between very solid starts and suckitude for the past month. If that keeps up, he should be good for seven innings of two-run ball. In his previous start versus the Dodgers, Haren was hurt by the long-ball, giving up two in the same game for the first time since June 7. Given he's been averaging about one homer per 11 innings, we hope that was a fluke. Edge: even.

Saturday

That pesky twentieth win is proving elusive for Webb, who has delivered arguably the worst back-to-back starts of his career, lasting a total of eight innings and allowing fourteen runs. He walked five in 3.1 innings last Sunday [although two were intentional]. Though he and Bob Melvin both say there is absolutely nothing wrong with him physically, Arizona fans would really welcome a solid starting from their ace. He does enjoy pitching in Los Angeles, where he has a 2.72 ERA in eight starts, but that history likely goes out the window this weekend.

Billingsley got the win last Saturday, extending his run of quality starts to eight in a row, with a 2.68 ERA in those  53.2 innings. He has been particularly effective at keeping the ball in the park, allowing only two homers over that time, which has helped restrict opposing hitters to a .676 OPS. This is uncharted territory for him, with the innings thrown a career high, but so far, he has shown little evidence of flagging under the workload. Edge: Dodgers.

Sunday

The Cardinals were homer-happy against the Big Unit, shelling him for four long-balls on Tuesday, tying a career-high. That brought his run of very solid outings to a screeching halt, but even with that poor outing, Johnson has been very good since the All-Star break. Though he only has four wins in his nine starts, Johnson has posted a 2.48 ERA in the second-half, with an impressive K:BB ratio of 61:10. He has the same number of strikeouts as innings pitched this year, a figure bettered by only four NL pitchers, and his K:BB ratio trails only Dan Haren.

Hang on: wasn't Kershaw supposed to have been sent down to the minors? Yep: he was dispatched to Vegas after flopping on August 28, but he didn't appear in a game for them, and was brought back up on September 2, in time for his next start. It was more a roster trick to give the Dodgers and extra bullpen arm for a bit - I think Kershaw just wanted to take in a couple of shows. [Normally, when you're sent down, you have to stay in the minors for ten days, but as the minor-league season was over, that rule didn't apply] He shut out Arizona for six innings on August 1 but, while his last start was solid, it came against the Padres, so I'm not quite inclined to declare him a 300-game winner yet. Edge: Diamondbacks

But it's really close in most of these - and, in any case, the last series went the complete opposite of the way I predicted, with us winning the game I thought we'd lose, and being defeated in games where I expected us to have the edge. So what do I know? It's going to be a fun series, however, and I look forward to it with some anticipation. Let's hope we look back on it with the same warmth.

Record: 71-68. Pace: 83-79. Change on last season: -5
Magic number: 22. Playoff odds: 61.9%.

The roller-coaster ride which has been the Diamondbacks 2008 season took another startling turn this afternoon. Three runs down at the seventh-inning stretch, and still behind entering the bottom of the ninth, Arizona rallied. We first tied the game on an RBI single by Conor Jackson [much credit to Stephen Drew for leading off the inning with a lengthy at-bat, fouling off some tough pitches before tripling] and then snatched an unlikely victory from the jaws of defeat. Adam Dunn swatted a double to the right-field corner and the new, sleek, sports model CoJack whizzed all the way around, just beating the throw to home-plate. [And let the record show, Chip Hale got his windmilling correct!]

It's only the fourth time this year the team has been down entering the ninth and clawed their way back to victory:
   April 6 @ Rockies: trailed 0-1, won 5-2 (in 10 innings)
   June 12 @ Mets: trailed 2-4, won 5-4 (in 10)
   July 3 vs. Brewers: trailed 0-5, won 6-5
   September 3 vs. Cardinals: trailed 2-3, won 4-3
Though only the first of these showed any possible impact going forward, as we reeled off five straight victories. In each of the other two cases, we lost three of the next five, which suggest that the much sought after 'momentum', appears to be an elusive beast for Arizona, at least as far as late victories go. Still, definitely better to have this than to have lost it, and it's nice to be on the giving, rather than the receiving end as far as blowing late-inning leads.

It didn't look very likely, as Lohse shackled the Diamondbacks with six shutout innings, allowing five hits and two walks, while fanning seven. We didn't get a runner into scoring position until the bottom of the fourth, and by that time, the Cardinals had used their favorite weapon, the home-run, to take the lead. Former AZ slugger Troy Glaus homered after Izturis reached on a bunt, and St. Louis took the lead, as a sense of deja-vu rolled over the Gameday Thread. Even when we did have a chance of our own in the fourth, we blew the opportunity monumentally. While David Eckstein and Jackson singled to put men on the corners with no outs, Dunn and Mark Reynolds then both struck out and, after Chad Tracy was hit by a pitch, Chris Young grounded out to leave us with nothing.

While they probably won't mind too much, it was a miserable day for Young and Reynolds, as both went 0-for-4, combining for -52.8% of Win Expectancy. The former hit into a double-play and left seven men on base, while Mark committed his franchise-record 27th error of the season, left six aboard and had four strikeouts. Those move him up to 178 on the year, just four behind MLB leader, Ryan Howard. Perhaps more impressively, Special K is already tied for nineteenth - with another former Arizona slugger, Richie Sexson - on the all-time major-league list for strikeouts in a season, with 23 Diamondbacks' games still to go...

Doug Davis gave Arizona their first quality start since the last time he took the mound, delivering six innings of serviceable pitching. He gave up eight hits, and only struck out three, so was hardly overpowering: however, two of those did come in the first, after an error by Drew had helped the Cardinals to put a pair on with only one out. Ludwick and Phelps both went down looking at strike three, to dodge a nasty early predicament. Davis walked one batter, and apart from the homer mentioned above, the only damage came on a double by Lohse: don't you just hate pitchers who can hit? Well, when they're not ours, at least.

Once again, my DNA has to be given some credit for the comebacks, as my neo-namesake Kyle McClellan charitably helped the Diamondbacks end the Cardinals shutout . His overall line for the series: 1.2 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 ER.  He helped Arizona to load the bases with one out, and Jackson then just legged it up the first-base line to avoid an inning-ending double-play, and deliver an RBI groundout. That proved doubly crucial, because the next Cardinals pitcher uncorked a wild-pitch, allowing Montero to scurry home from third and make it a one-run game. We went down in order in the eighth, but the A-bullpen of Cruz, Peña and Qualls did their job, posting the zeros  that allowed us to come back in the ninth. As in the opener, Qualls got the win, to run his record to a more respectable 4-8.

Chad Tracy went 3-for-3, while The Treadmill reached base three times with his ninth-inning double as well as a pair of walks - The Littlest Ballplayer v2.0 [or "mini-Augie'?] also had a hit and two free passes, while Drew and Jackson had multi-hit games. The Cardinals seemed to have issues with this crew's strike-zone again today, losing pitching coach Dave Duncan in the seventh, being tossed by home-plate umpire Dale Scott for arguing balls and strikes, during a trip to the mound. I think I'm going to go and watch the ninth inning, just for fun, since it's about to arrive on the FSN replay...

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Master of his domain: Adam Dunn, +41.9%
Honorable mentions: Drew, +35.3%; Jackson, +22.4%, Tracy, +18.2%
God-emperor of suck: Chris Young, -29.2%
Dishonorable mentions: Reynolds, -23.6%; Eckstein -10.8%

For a day-game, a very respectable tally of comments, ending at almost 500, and the air of gloom and despondency which hovered over the early innings evaporated entirely by the end of the ninth. The graph above is a fairly-accurate assessment of feelings in this one, I think: I'm impressed to see the four masters tallied a massive +117.8% of Win Expectancy this afternoon. Present in the thread were 4 Corners Fan, kishi, DbacksSkins, mrssoco, foulpole, AJforAZ, Gravity, Azreous, TwinnerA, hotclaws, Diamondhacks, emilylovesthedbacks, njjohn, snakecharmer, and singaporedbacksfan, so thanks for their company while I was...er, paying absolutely no attention to the game at work. :-)

The Dodgers game is still going on at time of writing, but they are two runs up in the eighth, and so barring a miracle, will sweep the Padres and come into the series that starts on Friday with a five-game winning streak under their belts. Quite a change from how they arrived in Arizona last Friday. Both teams have a day off tomorrow, so should be fully rested for the final encounters between the sides this season, which - and stop me if you've heard this one before - could go a long way towards determining the NL West title.

With Arizona having a 1.5 game lead [barring a late Padres comeback], the onus will be on the Dodgers to take two out of three, but a lot will depend on our starting pitching, and the three we're sending to the mound hardly covered themselves in anything sweet-scented last time out. More on that tomorrow, as we preview the series and have the usual Off-day Thread.

Record: 70-68. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season:
Magic Number: 23. Playoff odds: TBA

I think it's safe to say that this could have gone a little better, albeit providing a fitting ending to what was, personally, a largely-sucky day. So much for the rousing comeback on Monday providing some kind of morale-boosting effect going forward. After two solid innings by the Petit Unit, things fell apart rapidly, as the Cardinals returned to the long-ball once again, with a two-run homer in the third, rapidly followed in the fourth by another two-run shot and a solo blast, sending Arizona quickly to a 5-0 deficit. And, tonight, there would be no coming back from that.

This was something that's become all too common of late - another poor outing from a Diamondbacks starter, as Yusmeiro Petit's fondness for giving up homers returned, with a vengeance. He allowed only four hits in 4.2 innings, but three of those balls whizzed out of Chase. Petit also showed uncharacteristically poor command, walking three batters, and two of them came around to score, as his ERA shot up from 2.84 to 3.44. The failure means that in this five-game sweep round the rotation, our starters have combined for the following line:
    Starters: 22.2 IP, 36 H, 25 R, 23 ER, 14 BB, 11 HR, 23 K, 9.13 ERA.

Needless to say, this is not getting it done. The question of who should be skipped in the rotation now hardly seems to be a pressing one. After the past few days, a quality start from anyone, would be grasped upon with all the delight of a man stranded in the desert, stumbling across a large, iced cappuccino. Fortunately, at least the September roster expansion has meant we have some additional arms in the bullpen to handle the mop-up duty into which they have lately been forced. The results this evening were mixed. Good to see a clean inning from Rauch, and Cruz also delivered a 1-2-3 frame, but Rosales walked three in his inning of work and Slaten retired just one of the three hitters he faced. Together, they combined to let St. Louis post its third crooked number of the night in the sixth, to put the game entirely out of reach with the score at 8-0.

The Diamondbacks finally got on the board in the bottom-half of that inning, having been one-hit by Wainwright through the front five. Salazar tripled and came home on an Eckstein single, and the walk to Jackson which immediately followed, resulted in the departure of the Cardinals' starter. However, Adam Dunn struck out and Mark Reynolds fouled out, though the former did drive in our other run with an eighth-inning single. We actually ended up with the same number of hits as the Cardinals - seven. However, with three of theirs resulting in the batter trotting around the bases, compared to none of ours, and St. Louis also taking seven walks compared to our three, the result is fairly-easily explained. Jackson reached safely three times, on a hit and two walks, while Dunn had the other walk in addition to his RBI single.

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Master of his domain: Conor Jackson, +2.5%
God-emperor of suck: Yusmeiro Petit, -23.8%

This was not a game to remember: most people found something better to do after the Cardinals went up 5-0, and tumbleweeds largely rolled across the thread after they took an eight-run lead. I can't blame anyone for their apathy and disinterest, when the team were playing in a manner that could hardly have been better at evoking those two dark emotions. Present were snakecharmer, kishi, njjohn, TwinnerA, DbacksSkins, 4 Corners Fan, utahdbacksfan, Gravity, singaporedbacksfan, hotclaws, Scrbl, Turambar, Diamondhacks, Shums, foulpole, emilylovesthedbacks and soco.

No, I'm not going to dwell on this one. The Padres rolled over again for the Dodgers, and our lead is back down to 1.5 games. This weekend series is looking more and more likely to be the one where Los Angeles overtakes Arizona and leaves us spitting out their dust. Maybe I'll feel more optimistic tomorrow, but based on tonight's performance, it's hard to see us competing with the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine.

I'm just going to do a quick overview this week: it's not like I can slack off at work and do it on company time today. :-) The final round of the regular season, saw no real changes at the top. dbacktom lost, but just held off Douche, thanks to taking the ERA category by just 0.03 and WHIP by 0.06. Greg overtook Amish for the fourth spot, but those two teams still face each other in the first playoff round this week. warlords, who cruised to an easy victory, and 7-2 Offsuiters both get byes, while Adriano Rosario's faced dbacktom in the other first round action.

Final Standings, Regular Season

Playoffs, Round One
Championship Bracket:
dbacktom (#6 seed) vs. Adriano Rosario's (#3)
The Fighting Amish (#5) vs. GregSchulteOverdrive (#4)
Consolation Bracket:
Ignatius J. Rallies (#10) vs. AZ SnakePit (#11)
Desert Dingleberries (#9) vs. Shenanigans 2.0 (#12)

Record: 70-67. Pace: 83-79. Change on last season: -6.
Magic number: 23. Playoff odds: 66.9%.

Well, I think we can categorically say that victory was totally unexpected. By the middle of the third inning, the Cardinals had already homered four times off Randy Johnson, traveling an estimated 1,598 feet, combined, on their way to a 5-1 lead at Chase. It looked like our main hope for the day was going to consist of cheering for Evil Chris Young and the Padres to beat the Dodgers - is that really how low this team had gone, forcing its fans to root for San Diego, no doubt requiring a lengthy shower after such self-degradation, followed by a rub-down with the skin of a rainbow unicorn?

Fortunately, we've dodged that fate for the evening, as a sterling comeback by Arizona brought us victory, meaning that any Padres victory tonight now falls into the category of pleasant bonus, rather than essential for our salvation. The main driving force was Stephen Drew who was suffering from a fever of 102 before the game: never a good sign when your temperature is higher than your OPS+, but Drew took care of that by going 5-for-5 and becoming the third Diamondback to hit for the cycle, as well as the first player ever to do so in Phoenix.

Drew opened by singling in the first, though he was immediately erased when David Eckstein hit into a double-play, his first at-bat as a Diamondback. He then tripled in the third and homered in the fifth, and completed the cycle by bouncing one over the fence in left-center for ground-rule double in the seventh, meriting a standing ovation. Then, just in case that last hit didn't count, he had a more-regular double in the eighth - though that one would probably have been a triple, except that the base-paths were being clogged up by pinch-runner Tony Clark.

Yes: you read that correctly. Pinch-runner Tony Clark. Who came in to run for Justin Upton. Because our right-fielder got hit in the head while at first-base. By a pick-off throw. What kind of bizarre game was this? Well, just one with a Chase record eight homers, four for each side; five double-plays; and where pitchers from both teams were ejected for arguing balls and strikes - including one who had already left the game. Well, I guess if you're an equal-opportunity ejector behind home-plate, at least you can't be accused of bias - though the strike-zone of Dan Iassogna was one of life's eternal mysteries, apparently known only to him.

Johnson extended the run of recent sucky performance by Arizona starting pitchers, lasting only 3.2 innings, though eight of the eleven outs recorded came with a K. He walked three and allowed six hits, four of which, as noted, left the ballpark in a hurry. He was bailed out in the fourth, after being left in to deliver an intentional walk to Albert Pujols, and had to be bailed out by September call-up Jailen Peguero: yeah, welcome back to the bigs, Jailen. Bases loaded, 85-RBI hitter at the plate: no pressure. But he got former D-back Troy Glaus to pop up into foul territory, and also retired the Cardinals in order during the fifth.

Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks were crawling back into the game. Dunn, Young and Drew each had solo homers in the second, fourth and fifth inning, around a sacrifice fly for Eckstein in the third. That made it a one-run game, but Jon Rauch's struggles continued even demoted to the sixth inning: he walked two, allowed two hits and escaped with the bases loaded, though allowed another run. He has now been scored upon in six consecutive appearances, tying a major-league high for relievers this season, and his ERA since joining the team is a meaty 6.35.

It looks like he may have been supplanted in the A-pen by Qualls and Peña, as that's who pitched the seventh and eighth innings this afternoon. Admittedly, the game landscape had changed by then as Adam 'The Treadmill' Dunn led off with another walk - he has 24 in just 19 games - and then Mark Reynolds tied the game up with his 27th of the year, off my distant relative (presumably), Kyle McClellan. That almost made us forget that he had commit his franchise-record tying 26th error of the year in the first inning: as long as he has more homers than errors, we'll be happy! 

Arizona then took the lead with two runs in the seventh, the first coming on an RBI single by Eckstein, following immediately after Drew completed the cycle to put men on second and third with no outs. It looked like that one run might be all Arizona would get as Jackson lined out and, after another free pass for Dunn, Reynolds went down swinging. But the Cardinals kindly decided to gift-wrap another run, a wild pitch by former D-back Russ Springer [quick: name the other two members of the 1998 AZ roster still playing in the majors?] allowing Drew to trot home from third-base, and give us a very welcome add-on as a bit of insurance.

Tony Peña got us through the eighth, though not without his fair share of drama, as he put two men on with one out, plunking Ludwig. That brought up Albert Pujols, and one feared we might be heading towards our bullpen's tenth straight loss, but the Cardinals slugger rolled over into a double-play ball, ending the threat and getting us past the distinctly dangerous heart of the St. Louis order. So, all we had to do was get Lyon through the ninth - even though his last save situation was back on August 19, and he had to be bailed out of that one by Peña.

A lead-off single had our eyes rolling, but Molina, who'd homered to open the scoring back in the second [and how long ago that all seemed now!] knocked one straight to Eckstein, who shoveled it to Drew, as if they'd been working together all their life, and he then fired it across to Clark to complete the double-play. Tony had come into the game at first, after an unfortunate and somewhat frightening incident in the bottom of the eighth, where a pickoff throw was missed entirely by Pujols and clanged straight into the side of Justin Upton's head as he dove back into first. He got up, staggered around for a second, then went down and it was a relief to see him finally up and moving around after getting his bell rung, in no uncertain terms.

Another single then followed, past a diving Tony Clark, who made little effort at all, appearing to forget that Orlando Hudson was no longer vacuuming up everything to the right of center. He has now officially been replaced at second by The New Littlest Ballplayer, David Eckstein [who appears to be at least one inch, possibly two, shorted than the previous incumbent, Augie Ojeda]; Upton got the start in right today, and Dunn moved to first, with Tracy sitting it out. It will be interesting to see how Melvin constructs the line-up over the next couple of days. Anyway, the two-out single proved insignificant, Schumaker helping Lyon out by swinging wildly at a pitch out of the zone, and the Diamondbacks completed an improbable victory.

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Master of his domain: Stephen Drew, +39.6%
Honorable mentions: Reynolds, +20.8%; Dunn, +16.6%
God-emperor of suck: Randy Johnson, -34.0%
Dishonorable mention: Conor Jackson, -15.1%

For purpose of mojo maintenance, the Gameday Thread was allowed to run long after 500 comments were reached, getting past 700 at time of writing. What looked likely to be fairly quiet, after the Cardinals had their four-homer outburst, turned extremely lively and was generally a lot of fun: this was one of those games that it would have sucked to lose, admittedly. Present for the Labor Day entertainment were kishi, DbacksSkins, snakecharmer, foulpole, Scrbl, emilylovesthedbacks, Azreous, hotclaws, TwinnerA, 4 Corners Fan, Mr 4CornersFan, Muu, Snakebitten, njjohn, dahlian, soco and mrssoco. It's been decided that kishi is on Gameday Thread creation duty until we lose a game. So, hopefully, you won't be hearing anything from me for a while!

The Dodgers duly rolled over Evil Chris Young, so they will still remain 2.5 games back of the Diamondbacks. It was good to see the team mount a comeback this afternoon, though past experience has shown that there tends to be precious little carry-over from such games [the most obvious example being the stunning ninth-inning comeback against Milwaukee, which was followed by two defeats to the Padres where we scored a total of three runs!]. But it stops a losing streak that seems an awful lot longer than two games, and we'll see what tomorrow brings, with Petit taking on Adam Wainwright. Fantasy recap to follow, though I'm thinking it'll be kinda brief. Hey, it's a holiday! :-)

[Answer to trivia question: outside of Russ Springer, the other two members of the 1998 Diamondbacks roster still active in the majors this season are David Dellucci, now with Cleveland, and Alan Embree, who is pitching for Oakland]