The Diamondbacks are on a mission. They want to enter the All-Star break playing solid baseball because after the intermission, it will be a race to the finish line with the Dodgers and the Giants. They know full well that they better collect as many wins as possible while they still can.
That mission took a stumble Monday night as the Diamondbacks fell to the San Diego Padres 6-2.
To begin the game, starting Diamondbacks pitcher Trevor Cahill gave up an early home run to Alexi Amarista. After that, he looked pretty solid up until the sixth inning, keeping his pitch count down and batters at bay. The seam of the baseball came undone in the sixth when Cameron Maybin rocketed a home run to center-left field, sparking a three run inning for the Padres.
Cahill would be replaced in the seventh after pitching six innings and giving up 2 earned runs. He was relieved by Mike Zagurski, who allowed a home run to Yasmani Grandal. Brad Ziegler started pitching for the D-backs in the ninth, but was unable to finish the inning after walking in a runner with the bases loaded.
The Diamondbacks, as has been the norm lately, failed to score any runs early on. It took until the sixth inning for them to finally touch Padres pitcher Clayton Richard, who had a fantastic night on the mound. He allowed Willie Bloomquist and Aaron Hill to get on second and third base with no outs. Paul Goldschmidt knocked Bloomquist in off a sac fly, but the Padres escaped the inning with just one run tallied against them.
Chris Young tacked on another home run, his eighth of the season, in the bottom of the seventh, making it a 5-2 game. After that, the scoring was finished for the night and Richard just missed a complete game by one out.
Cahill has allowed 12 earned runs in his past 3 starts, increasing his season ERA to 3.63. Monday night's loss was not entirely his fault, though. If the D-backs want to contend for the NL West crown, they'll need to start putting some runs on the board.
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