Game SummaryMerrill Kelly was excellent again. Until his body wasnt. Merrill was cruising through 5 innings, needing only 60 pitches to get that far and limiting the Phils to only a single run. Unfortunately, during his warm up tosses before the 6th, Kelly appeared to cramp up and had to leave the game. This was unfortunate for him, of course, but it was also unfortunate for the bullpen as they were shorthanded tonight after being heavily utilized to finish out the Mets series and needed a breather if they could get Morrillo came on as the injury replacement and did the job to put a goose egg on the board, but Jose Castillo Bryce Jarvis Jersey, in his first MLB action since 2023, came in to face a pocket of lefties in the 7th and gave up game-tying and go-ahead solo home runs to the only 2 lefties he would faceoutside according to the on screen box. Real unfortunate start to the inning considering 2 of the next 3 Snakes got singles that would have scored Gurriel led off the fourth with his second hit of the night, grounder that luckily bounced multiple times on the chalk until it made it past the third base bag. Alek. Was able to move him over to third on a grounder to second, but he was unable to lay down a buntso had to do it the hard way with 2 strike hitting. Its a good thing he was able to move over because Domos single was a slow liner barely out of the reach of Trea Turner that Gurriel had to freeze on before scoring. No way he would have scored if he was still at had a little turbulence in the first, but set the Phillies down in order in the second and third. In the fourth, he gave up a leadoff single to Bryce Harper, then the dangerous Kyle Schwarber came up and hit a 109 mph bouncer right back at Merrills face. Merrill made a fantastic catch but was probably so amped up on adrenaline from the reaction that he spiked the throw to second. Domo made a great play to dive and land on second but couldnt complete the relay to first for the double play. I did a little Statcast-sleuthing and found that was the fastest batted ball fielded by a pitcher to record an out this seasonwas in a full sprint all the way out to the warning track and couldnt quite turn around in time to make the play and the ball bounced off the end of his glove. With Gabi later coming in to score, that made both of the first D-backs runs scored by runners who got on base through somewhat lucky hits.Another bunt gone wrong for the D-backs to end the 6th. Domo came up with 1 out and runners and 1st and 2nd and tried to drop down a bunt. Instead, he popped out to JT Realmuto and Lourdes Gurriel must not have seen where the bunt was going and got halfway to third before finally turning back but it was too late as he was easily thrown Marte, in his first game back after missing several weeks due to a hamstring injury Kendall Graveman Jersey, was taking it noticeably easy on his balky hammy by jogging out a couple ground balls that he could have either beat out or made the play interesting if he actually tried to open it up. Im perfectly happy with his decision to take the out and live to fight another day. No need to push for an infield single in came up to lead off the ninth looking for his 4th hit in 4 at bats, but a spectacular catch by defensive replacement Johan Rojas in center field robbed him of the feat. Josh Collmenter reported it as a 10% catch probability on the broadcast and I believe of the GameLourdes Gurriel, Jr. earns the nod in tonights series opener. He got hits in his first 3 at bats and nearly had a 4th to lead off the ninth if not for an outstanding play by the Phillies center fielder to rob him of it. He had a hand in each of the Diamondbacks runs, scoring one and knocking the other in. Merrill Kelly probably would have run away with the POTG tonight if not for his always-returning cramps. It was another very good game where he wasnt overpowering, but he was dominant, scattering 4 hits with no walks and keeping most of the contact against him weak and in play for his of the GameThere were a total of 274 comments in the GDT at time of publishing. There were very few Sedona Red comments to choose from for COTN, but MikeMono had this statement that I definitely concur with regarding Corbin Carrolls walk-turned-strikeout in the 3rd:Coming UpThe D-backs face the Phillies in the second game of this three game set tomorrow at 3:05pm Arizona time. The Snakes best starter through the first month Andrew Saalfrank Jersey, Brandon Pfaadt, is scheduled to get the ball for the good guys and he will be opposed by veteran right-hander Aaron Nola who is scuffling to start 2025 with an 0-5 record with a 5.40 ERA.
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