Things looked mighty bleak midway through Arizona State’s baseball game against North Carolina yesterday afternoon. Then, down 4-0 in an elimination game at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium, the Sun Devils loaded the bases for previously unsung outfielder Kole Calhoun. Calhoun deposited a pitch into the right-field bleachers to tie the game,…
D-Backs manager A.J. Hinch held a big clubhouse meeting with his players yesterday afternoon, which shouldn’t come as a surprise following the team’s absolutely embarrassing 5-0 shutout loss to Kansas City on Tuesday night. No press. No other staff. Just the skipper and his crew hashing out one of the…
Gross, dude. The Royals, a team that’s been irrelevant since 1985 (a World Series-winning season that also marks the last time they finished first in their division), made the sinking-ship-like D-Backs look like the irrelevant one. For example, Arizona’s line score in the team’s 5-0 loss at KC’s Kauffman Stadium…
Unlike football (Arizona Cardinals) and basketball (Orlando Magic), Major League Baseball is stingy with its surprises. Sure, the perennial-doormat Tampa Bay Rays made it to the promised land last year, but that was the rare exception to a longstanding MLB rule that separates contenders from also-rans. Though that unwritten baseball…
One step forward, two steps back. That was the story of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ three-game weekend series against the Houston Astros. In Friday night’s 8-1 win, the D-Backs played what might have been their best all-around game of the year. In Saturday’s and Sunday’s losses, the D-Backs were simply outpitched…
Granted, the Arizona Diamondbacks are not a well-oiled machine. We’re just not sure why. (Bad coaching? Poor team chemistry? Dodgy bullpen? Take your pick.) But there is one thing we know for certain: Thank goodness for Justin Upton. In the third, the should-be All-Star selection nailed a solo shot over…
By the time the Arizona Diamondbacks caught up to San Francisco Giants pitcher Barry Zito on Wednesday night, the little things had all but done the D-Backs in. And by the “little things,” we mean putting down a sacrifice bunt, throwing accurately to first base on a pick-off attempt, and,…
Bar none, our favorite sporting event in the world is the the College Baseball World Series, played every year at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska. Been there just once, though, to watch and report on Arizona State’s third-place finish in the 1994 tournament. That was the one during which the Sun…
Billy Buckner probably wishes he could take back a few pitches from last night’s 9-4 loss to San Francisco, with an 89 m.p.h four-seamer to Pablo Sandoval during the fifth inning being chief among his regrettable throws. After all, the Giants slugger took that 3-2 fastball and transformed it into…
The game on Monday night in San Diego against the Padres basically summed up the season thus far for the National League West cellar-dwellers: Yielding the big inning to the opponent and questionable managerial decision-making. Leading 2-0 in the fifth behind a strong pitching effort by the D-Backs’ Jon Garland,…
It was a marathon game that the Arizona Diamondbacks seemingly had in the bag early. When ace Dan Haren left after seven innings, Arizona held a commanding 6-1 lead over the San Diego Padres. Haren had pitched brilliantly, giving up only four hits and striking out five. Then came the usual ass-pain…
One day after the Arizona Diamondbacks’ apocalyptic meltdown in Los Angeles, they came out swinging Wednesday night but, unfortunately, ran into the Dodgers’ version of the Terminator, flame-throwing righthander Chad Billingsley. The D-Backs’ Jon Garland gave a particularly gutty performance, matching Billingsley pitch for pitch, but timely hitting carried the…
One single out. Just three little strikes. That’s all the Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen — or more specifically, Tony Peña — needed to protect a four-run lead with two away in the bottom of the eighth versus the Los Angeles Dodgers last night. But instead of landing that lone K (or…
The most pivotal moment in perhaps the Arizona Diamondbacks’ hoped-for turnaround took place during the top half of the second inning during their Monday-night game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in L.A. Facing Hiroki Kuroda in his first start since Opening Day, Stephen Drew led off with a double that…
The latest is, there’s a deal to put the name of the Tempe-based company on the jerseys of Phoenix Mercury players, which could open the door for similar sponsorship deals in professional sports, the Arizona Republic reports this morning. …
Paybacks can be a major bitch. Just ask Max Scherzer. After getting blanked by the Arizona pitcher during an embarrassing 12-0 rout two weeks ago, the Atlanta Braves destroyed the 24-year-old with 10 hits over the first four innings of their 9-3 thumping of the Diamondbacks yesterday at Chase Field…
Dan Haren set the pace for the Arizona Diamondbacks with a seven-hit, two-run, eight-strikeouts, no-walks performance in eight innings on the mound Thursday night.He improved his record to 4-4.And he got something he’s been denied in several starts this season: run production from his offense. Precisely, Arizona batters got 11 hits and five…
You couldn’t have blamed Arizona Diamondbacks fans for expecting the worst heading into Wednesday night’s 8-5 loss to the surging San Diego Padres at Chase Field. The light-hitting Snakes were about to face arguably the National League’s best power pitcher in Jake Peavy while countering with a young pitcher, Billy…
Chris Young has come up with a few big catches this season, but none of ’em were as clutch as his game-ending nab that sealed the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 6-5 victory over San Diego last night at Chase Field, snuffing out the Padres’ 10-game winning streak. In addition to being a…
Do you have a friend who either doesn’t give two poops about baseball or doesn’t know jack squat about the game? Or perhaps you’re entertaining some English blokes who would rather sip a spot of tea while watching the cricket than checking out a game of “rounders,” as those British…
Rookie relief pitcher Clay Zavada got a shaving-cream pie in the face, courtesy of catcher Chris Snyder, after the Diamondbacks beat the Florida Marlins 4-3 at Land Shark Stadium Thursday night.Zavada — who sports a big, dark moustache reminiscent of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata’s — had pitched brilliantly in his Major League debut, popping up…
Blackberry CEO Jim Balsillie’s bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes now has some competition: Las Vegas-based businessman John Breslow, who owns 3 percent of the franchise, says he has built a syndicate to purchase the Coyotes and keep them in Glendale.Breslow made a fortune in his family’s welding business, and…
