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Friday's trading deadline came and went with neither Doug Davis nor Jon Garland being shipped by the Arizona Diamondbacks to teams in contention for a playoff spot. So the two veteran pitchers turned in solid performances this weekend as the D-Backs took the first two out of three in a four-games series that ends today against the New York Mets. Garland was especially strong, tossing a complete-game 5-2 victory on Sunday. He gave up two runs on seven hits while walking none and striking out two. It was the first complete game as a D-Back for the 30-year-old right hander, who now has seven straight quality starts under his belt and tallied a 3.00 earned-run average for July.
In Saturday's game, young starting pitcher Max Scherzer took a small step backward in his development as he gave up four earned runs on six hits in only the fourth inning. In his previous outing, he'd pitched seven innings of shutout baseball. In only his second season in the majors, this kind of up-and-down performance is probably to be somewhat expected, and knowing he pitches next against the hapless Pirates, he's probably due for another gem.
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