Pitcher Edwin Jackson's regular season D-Backs debut was somewhat inauspicious, as he gave up four runs and five hits during his five innings on the mound.
After quickly retiring the side in the first, the right-hander (who was dealt to Arizona over the winter as a part of a three-team trade) started running into trouble against San Diego in the second. Chase Headley and Nick Hundley both landed singles to left before Everth Cabrera's double plated two runs. Will Venable then added to Jackson's grief by transforming a 3-2 hanging slider into a 401-foot homer deep into the right-field seats in the fourth.
But despite all the trouble, Jackson is actually much better than his performance last night might lead us to believe. The 26-year-old was selected for the All-Star Game last season as a Detroit Tiger, and even boasted one of the lowest ERAs in the American League. Must be why he was somewhat nonchalant when speaking to the press after the game.
"Overall for the first start, I felt pretty good," Jackson said. "It's baseball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose."
Baseball pundits, such as KTAR's Gambo and Ash, have maintained that the Diamondbacks' only hope of surviving this season is by at compensating for their pitching deficiencies with a thunderstorm of hitting from sluggers Stephen Drew, Justin Upton, and Mark Reynolds.
Sadly, there was only a drizzle of offense last night at Chase Field, in part because of the able arm of Chris Young. The Friars pitcher (who shouldn't be confused with the Arizona outfielder of the same name) was tossing nothing but heat from the mound. He blanked D-Backs batters with 90 miles per hour fastballs with only one hit through six scoreless innings.
The Snakes' only runs came in the seventh after San Diego middle reliever Luke Gregerson took over and finally gave the 19,177 at Chase Field something to cheer about. Miguel Montero started things off with a single to left and eventually came home on an RBI double by our team's Chris Young. Another single came via Tony Abreu's bat, followed by Conor Jackson getting the base on balls treatment to load things up before Drew's ground out brought in Young. A grounder from Upton brought in Abreu to make things 6-3, but Gregerson managed to finish the inning without any further damage.
Arizona will attempt to rebound from the loss during tonight's rubber match. Hopefully Ian Kennedy will fare better against the Pads when he makes his own debut for the Diamondbacks, going against Kevin Correia. First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. The game isn't being broadcast on TV, so tune into KTAR 620-AM for the play-by-play. More info: www.dbacks.com.
