Only 4 1/2 games out of a Wild Card spot and with the St. Louis Cardinals losing to the Padres today, the Diamondbacks know they aren't entirely out of it yet. They had already won game one against the Dodgers, but the run production forced Ian Kennedy to pitch a gem of a game. If that trend continued, Trevor Cahill would have to do the same thing on the mound for Arizona.
Unfortunately for the D-Backs, Cahill got off to another slow start. In the first inning, he allowed a base hit to Shane Victorino, followed by a pitch that hit Matt Kemp, sending him to first with just one out. Adrian Gonzalez proceeded to hit a double into the right- center field gap, scoring both of his teammates and making the score 2-0. Per Jules Tompkins from Arizona Sports, Cahill now has allowed 21 first inning runs in 29 first innings pitched this year.
The D-Backs got off the snide in the second inning after Paul Goldschmidt hit a single, stole second base, then advanced to third on a wild pitch. All it took from there was a sacrifice fly from Justin Upton to score him and make the count 2-1.
A scoring slump was in effect until the bottom of the sixth inning, where, with two outs, Upton was able to plate Goldschmidt once again after a line drive single to left field. Gerardo Parra's subsequent single off of reliever Randy Choate knocked in Miguel Montero from third base, giving the Diamondbacks their first lead of the game, 3-2.
Brad Ziegler and David Hernandez came on in relief of Cahill, putting up zeros across the board.
After the first inning, Cahill allowed no more runs through his 7 innings of work. His final line showed that he allowed four hits, two earned runs and had seven strikeouts in that span. Manager Kirk Gibson has stressed all season that he would like to see Cahill work deeper into games and he did just that on Wednesday night.
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