Good teams win more than their share of close games, but the Arizona Diamondbacks weren't doing much of that in April and into May of the regular season.
As the D-Backs entered a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins at Chase Field, they had lost six straight one-run games in a row.
These kinds of streaks seem to take on a life of their own, and a depressing one at that.
This was a wild one, with lots of late scoring, and very timely hitting by a fellow who already was injecting himself into an unexpected key role for Arizona--Ryan Roberts, one of our faves and a hustling fool if ever there was one.
Roberts had a bases-loaded double in the seventh after the Twins' manager intentionally walked Willie Bloomquist, and Patterson recorded his first career save.
Rookie lefty reliever Joe Paterson did a great job at the end as Arizona hung on to beat Minnesota 8-7 and prove to itself (and to the handful of fans that were going to the games at that point) that, yes, it could and would win many a close one before all was said and done.
