clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Diamondbacks at Cardinals 5.22 recap - Cards lose wholly lousy game

Strikezone and Garcia command woes sink Cardinals in series finale.

By WyoCardsFan
Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

Arizona Diamondbacks vs. St. Louis Cardinals

Zack Greinke vs. Jaime Garcia
1:15 p.m. CT 
Busch Stadium - St. Louis, Missouri

Today's Lineups -



Some News -

Things we were looking for -

Things that happened -

Top halves -

The Diamondbacks started out aggressively and it worked well for them.  A walk and a hit by Jean Segura and Michael Bourn, respectively, put runners on first and third with nobody out.  Paul Goldschmidt grounded into a double play, the Cardinals exchanging the two outs for a run.  Wellington Castillo ground-rule doubled into the left field corner.  Yasmany Tomas drove him in with a double to left field.  Brandon Drury kept the train moving, singling to center to drive in Tomas, followed by a single by Chris Owings.  Zack Greinke finally relented, flying out to left field to mercifully end the inning.  Jaime's control was not good, and a small strikezone didn't help matters, but it could have been much worse than a 3-run inning.  The D-backs hitters found lots of holes with their groundballs.  Diamondbacks lead 3-0.

Nick Ahmed smcacked a bouncer into left field, making good use of his speed to stretch it to a double to lead off the second.  Bourn beat out an infield single to put runners on the corners with one out.  Jaime and Yadi struggled to figure out the home plate umpire's idea of a strikezone in an AB against Paul Goldschmidt, which is not the ideal time to need to do so.  As Dan and Jimmy talked about in the broadcast, Jaime tried a strike at the bottom of the zone, and it was called a ball, so he tried one at the top of the zone - called a ball, which left him having to throw a strike down the middle, and Paul doesn't miss those.  He drove in run number 4.  Here's the strikezone map of the AB in question:

Diamondbacks lead 4-0.

The third started off on the same theme of the day for Jaime.  Drury singled to centerfield.  Owings grounded it through to right field, and when the throw went to third to try and get Drury, Owings tried his luck at going to second, but Carpenter made a headsup play by coming off the bag and nailing Owings at second.  That marked the end of Jaime's day, in favor of Matt Bowman.  Bowman's first pitch, to Zack Greinke, was flied to right deep enough to score Drury.  Diamondbacks lead 5-0.

Jaime's final line: 2 1/3 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 54 pitches thrown.

Bowman stayed in the game for the next few innings - through the sixth.  In the fourth, he allowed only a walk to Goldschmidt in the fourth, and then had a 1-2-3 fifth.  He ran into trouble, though, in the sixth.  He allowed two runs on three singles and a throwing error by Carpenter.  Greinke and Ahmed singled to start the inning, and then when Segura grounded to Carpenter at third, Carp got the out there but then threw wide of first.  As a result, Ahmed ended up on third and Segura on first.  Bourn singled Ahmed in, and a groundout by Goldschmidt drove in Segura.  Arizona leads 7-1.

The 'pen after Bowman did a nice job of not getting further behind.  Jonathan Broxton pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, Tyler Lyons a 1-2-3 eighth, and Dean Kiekhefer hit a man (Goldschmidt), but allowed nothing more.

Bottom halves -

Zack had a much easier time than his counterpart in the first.  He quickly dispatched his foes, allowing only a 2-out infield single to Stephen Piscotty.

Paul Goldschmidt made a sweet diving play to steal a basehit from Yadi in the second.  That was the first of an easy 1-2-3 for Zack.

Kolten Wong doubled and Aledmys Diaz walked in the third, but Greinke worked around them with no damage done.

The Cards finally broke through in the fourth.  Brandon Moss stroked a pretty solo homer into the seats in right field.  Diamondbacks lead 5-1.

Greinke stayed stingy - allowing a line drive single to Carpenter over the shift in the fifth, and a line drive single to Wong in the seventh, but retiring all other comers through the eighth inning.  His final line: 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 107 pitches thrown.

Brad Ziegler took over the ninth.  Matt Adams (walk) and Randal Grichuk (double) teamed up to score one more run before they called it a day.  Arizona wins 7-2.

Final Notes -

  • Greinke looked great today, allowing only the one run and with Wong having a nice day at the plate.
  • Jaime certainly struggled, but he was inducing the soft contact he always does; they were just finding holes everywhere.  That, coupled with the unexplainable strikezone, made for an extremely short and frustrating outing for Mr. Garcia.
  • Here's the strikezone today, just against right handed batters.  I would say it's not ideal for anyone: 
  • Matt Bowman did a good job of putting in a couple innings to cover the gap that Jaime's short start left.
  • Fangraphs
  • Gamenotes: Cardinals

Looking ahead -

Tomorrow, old friend John Lackey brings his boys in Cubbie blue back to Busch to take on Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals.  The fun starts at 7:15 CT.

More From Viva El Birdos