Diamondbacks Hang On to Beat Cardinals 8-7

The Diamondbacks offense provided just enough cushion in a wild 8-7 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. The D-backs had leads of of 7-2 and 8-3, but the bullpen had to hang on by the skin of their teeth after surrendering five runs in 5.1 innings of relief of Drey Jameson. A wild ninth inning saw several rules disputes and stoppages in the middle of a three run Cardinal rally that fell just short.

BOX SCORE

It was a night of firsts for Gabriel Moreno, who was the hitting star of the game. He hit a leadoff double in the second inning and came around to score on a Josh Rojas base hit. Then he delivered his first homer of the year, a three-run shot to left center field, highlighting a six-run fourth inning against Cardinals starter Jordan Montgomery. For good measure Moreno drew a walk in the 8th, also his first of the year.

It has been a slow start for the D-backs' primary catcher. Acquired for Daulton Varsho in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays this past off-season, Moreno was pressed into every day duty to start the season when Carson Kelly suffered a fractured wrist. Coming into tonight's game he was batting just .214/.209/.286, .495 OPS with four ground ball double plays. With his performance tonight however that's improved to .244/.255/.400, .655 OPS

The Diamondbacks rapped out 14 hits, and were 5-14 with runners in scoring position. Evan Longoria singled to drive in Rojas with a tack on run in the seventh that proved pivotal. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled three times, and Christian Walker also had an RBI double and a base hit. Perhaps the strangest play of a very strange game occurred when Nick Ahmed double down the left field line on a ball that hit the dirt as Ahmed made his best cricketer catching the ball on a bounce.

Literally HOW?! pic.twitter.com/CX9DaIqEuX
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 19, 2023

Manager Torey Lovullo was impressed. "I've seen it one time, I was on the field when Ichiro did it in Japan, and I thought it was one of the greatest feats ever. Nick Ahmed now joins that company"

Drey Jameson started the D-backs with a pitch limit of about 70 pitches. He gave up a solo homer to Paul Goldschmidt in the first inning. Then he gave up a double, two walks and a base hit in the second inning, but got of the jam by striking out Goldschmidt to end the frame. Jameson had to work around two more walks in a scoreless third before striking out the the first two batters or the fourth. He was pulled with two outs by Louvllo who brought in Kyle Nelson.

Jameson's high wire act didn't last long, but by limiting the damage he was able to keep his team in the game long enough for the big breakout fourth. Still it's concerning that he continues to walk so many batters and give up home runs. In 16 innings of work he's given up nine walks and three homers. He's managed to only allow four runs and has a 2.25 ERA, but his FIP is more than three runs higher at 5.57. He'll need to do much better than that if he's to continue to have success.

Nelson worked an inning and third, walking one batter but striking out three. Kevin Ginkel only got one out in the 6th inning giving up two hits, a walk a run. Joe Mantiply, back from the injured list, worked an inning and a third, giving up a solo homer to Willson Contreras. Scott McGough, bouncing back from a rough outing and a loss in Florida bounced back with 1.1 scoreless innings to take it to the ninth.

Because the Cardinals kept pecking away Lovullo was forced to go to Andrew Chafin for the fourth time in seven days. The "Sheriff" had pitched in eight of 17 team games already this year without allowing a run. That workload might have caught up with him, as did issues with the PitchCom system that was not functioning, resulting in a mound visit being charged to resolve it. Whatever the reason, Chafin gave up a single, double and a two-run homer to Contreras, his second of the game. Suddenly an 8-4 lead had shrunk to 8-7 and the D-backs were staring disaster in the face.

As Nolan Arenado prepared to come into the game to pinch hit and Miguel Castro was getting ready to come in to relieve Chafin, Lovullo got into a dispute with the umpiring crew over mound visits and substitution announcements. This required an umpires rule review with New York. Once that was finally resolved Castro went to work and got Arenado to fly out. One more twist came when Lovullo argued that Tyler O'Neill was not alert to the pitcher at the 8 second mark, causing Castro to step off. But the umpire never called time or penalized O'Neill and Castro had to rush his pitch, walking O'Neill.

In the end, Castro got Dylan Carlson to fly out to end this wild game and pick up his first save of the year. While the bats have been on point the last three games, scoring 19 runs, tonight exposed once again the lack of depth and consistency of the D-backs pitching, especially the bullpen. Beyond Chafin, Castro, and Nelson, the other relievers have been taking turns giving up runs in bunches. The fact that the team is 11-7 may be obscuring this fact for now, but there are bullpen holes that need to be patched up quickly if the D-backs are to maintain their good start.

The road trip wraps up tomorrow with a getaway game against these same Cardinals at 10:15 A.M. MST. Madison Bumgarner will try to get his ship turned around, facing right hander Jake Woodford.