The Arizona Diamondbacks' pitching was mostly awful during this weekend's three-game series against the San Francisco Giants, with the exception of Friday, when it was Patrick Corbin's spot in the rotation.
Corbin, 9-0, still didn't get the win Friday at Chase Field, despite giving up a single run over 7 1/3 innings. The game-winning three-run bomb from Paul Goldschmidt wouldn't come until the eighth inning.
Corbin was dueling with Matt Cain all game, as the score was 0-0 after six innings.
After the chunky Pablo Sandoval singled with one out in the top of the seventh, he advanced to second on a Brandon Belt single, and somehow barreled all the way to third base after a fly-out to the corner in right (a routine advance for the other 99 percent of Big Leaguers).
Sandoval put the first run on the board after Gregor Blanco singled to center, and Corbin was able to end the inning as Cain came to the plate.
In the bottom of the eighth, after Corbin had been pulled in the previous half-inning, Cain was also pulled, after A.J. Pollock hit an infield single Sandoval's way at third.
Jeremy Affeldt got Wil Nieves to ground out, and struck out Gerardo Parra, before walking Willie Bloomquist.
So, with two runners on and two outs, Paul Goldschmidt came to the plate, and nobody expected to see a single pitch from Affeldt go over that plate.
However, Affeldt threw his 2-0 pitch right over the outside third of the plate, and Goldschmidt crushed it over the right-field wall to give the D-backs a 3-1 lead.
Heath Bell did allow the tying run at the plate after giving up a single, but was able to record the save.
Saturday's and Sunday's games were not as pretty.
Trevor Cahill pitched a grand total of 3 2/3 innings on Saturday.
In the inning that would never end, Cahill -- already down 2-0 -- gave up a hit to almost anyone who wanted one in the third inning.
Hunter Pence led off with a ground-rule double, Brandon Belt singled, and Andres Torres hit a sac fly -- a rare out for Cahill. The second out was pitcher Madison Bumgarner whose sacrificial bunt scored another run. Gregor Blanco then hit a ground-rule double, Marco Scutaro singled, and Buster Posey capped it all off with a homer, sending Cahill to the bench down 8-0.
A double by Pollock, two sacrifice outs, and a walk with the bases loaded led to the Diamondbacks scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, leading to a nearly respectable 10-5 loss.
Yesterday, Tyler Skaggs got the start, and he wasn't so great either. Two runs game in the top of the first inning, and a third came in the third inning. After giving up solo homers in the fourth and fifth innings, Skaggs hit 100 pitches early in the sixth, and was credited with five innings pitched and five earned runs.
The Diamondbacks did scrape together two runs while Skaggs was still in, but that was all they would scrape together, as the Diamondbacks lost 6-2.
The Giants and Colorado Rockies are now both 1 1/2 games behind the Diamondbacks for the division lead.
The good news is that the Diamondbacks now go to play a three game series against the wretched Dodgers, but the bad news is that they will be facing the team's three best pitchers -- Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Zack Greinke.
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