Friday night’s game was postponed
due to rain, causing Arizona and Philadelphia to square off in a double-header
Saturday. The Phillies won both games, and Sunday proved to be no better for
the Snakes, in part due to a questionable call that went in favor of the
Phillies.
In Saturday’s first game, Arizona
starter Javier Vazquez pitched only four innings and watched his ERA soar to
4.38 after giving up eight runs, all earned, on ten hits (including two home
runs) while striking out only two. New D’Backs reliever Matt Herges, most
recently with the San Francisco Giants, managed to hold down the fort for two
innings, but the Phillies later scored two more runs, winning 10-6.
Later that day, Russ Ortiz went
seven innings for the D’Backs, giving up four runs on four hits. And he got
some assistance in the fifth inning, with back-to-back homers by Alex Cintron
and Luis Gonzalez, good enough to put Arizona ahead, 3-1. But they squandered
their lead in the sixth inning, when the Phillies piled on three runs, two of
which came from a home run by by Placido Polanco. Polanco homered again in the
eighth inning, and the Phillies won 5-3.
The D’Backs got to a rocky start
on Sunday when Brad Halsey allowed four runs in the second inning, including a
troublesome fly ball by Mike Lieberthal that led to three runs. The ball
appeared to hit the top of outfield fence before bouncing back into play.
Originally deemed a double, it was changed to a three-run homer. The Phillies
then added two more runs in the third, and the D’Backs found themselves down 6-0
after three innings.
Arizona staged a comeback that
included a three-run rally in the eighth. Gonzalez kicked it off with a solo
home run, the 300th of his career, and RBI singles by Cintron and
Kelly Stinnett brought the score to 6-5. The Phillies tagged on another run in
the eighth, but Arizona tried to play catch up in the ninth. Tony Clark
singled, scoring Royce Clayton to make it 7-6 Philadelphia and sending Gonzalez
to third as the D’Backs tying run with one out. But the game ended when Jose Cruz Jr. struck out swinging, followed by a groundout by Shawn Green.
The Diamondbacks return home for
more interleague play, with the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals each
popping in for a three-game stay at Bank One Ballpark. Arizona will then strike
out on the road to play three games each against the Chicago White Sox and
Cleveland Indians. Then they move on to San Francisco for four games with the
Giants before returning home to conclude interleague play in the regular season
with three games against the Detroit Tigers. The Snakes are still coiled up in
second place with a 30-27 record, four games behind the Padres and only 0.5
games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers