Worst Topples First: Arizona Diamondbacks Leave Milwaukee With Win
By Jesse Borek
Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
For the second day in a row, the Arizona Diamondbacks held off the Milwaukee Brewers to pick up a victory.
Squeaking out a 3-2 win on Wednesday afternoon, the Diamondbacks can now enjoy their plane ride to Chicago having escaped Milwaukee with a series win over the team with the best record in baseball.
Despite going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and leaving 13 men on base, the D-backs did just enough to pick up the win.
Bronson Arroyo, seemingly fully healthy once again, tossed yet another masterful gem, going 7.1 of zero earned runs, with the only run coming in the first off a booted ball. Mixing up between slow and slower, Arroyo kept the uber-aggressive Brewers hitters off balance with his array of breaking stuff.
All the offensive thunder they would need came off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt. Clubbing his seventh home run of the season, Goldschmidt raised his average to .344 after a 2-for-5 afternoon. Not a whole lot has gone right in the first month and a half for Arizona, but at least there will always be Paul Goldschmidt.
Insurance runs are vital for any Major League club about to enter their bullpen, just in case. For the Diamondbacks, they become mandatory. On Wednesday, they came in the oddest of fashions.
Arroyo is no slouch at the plate. Having hit multiple home runs throughout his career, he knows what he is doing with the bat. With an out already recorded in the eighth, he dropped a base hit into center. Following that, Milwaukee hurler Will Smith (no, not that Will Smith) threw the ball to the backstop, and Arroyo never broke stride. Scampering all the way over to third on the wild pitch, the D-backs were set.
Never a team to complain about how their runs cross the plate, the D-backs will gladly take an error from a Brewer fielder. After a bloop single off the bat of Arroyo, he came around to score and add insurance without so much as the ball leaving the infield.
The run proved huge as Addison Reed took over in the ninth. Never one for a clean, concise inning of work, Reed gave up a leadoff double then watched as he came home on two sacrifice fly balls.
All that mattered was Mark Reynolds waving at strike three and Reed high-fiving Miguel Montero as he came out to congratulate him.
Getting Thursday off, the Diamondbacks will open up a weekend series in the Windy City at 5:10 p.m. on Friday night.
Looking to build off his last start, Brandon McCarthy takes to the mound for the D-backs against Andre Rienzo.
This will be the final stop for the D-backs on their road trip before returning home to the friendly, or “unfriendly,” confines of Chase Field.