The Diamondbacks traveled to Shea Stadium on Tuesday to take on the New  York Mets.  While the Diamondbacks are currently in first place in the NL West, they are not a great road team compiling a 13-18 road record this season.  When the Diamondbacks last saw the Mets they had a 20-8, the lost 2-3 to the Mets and since then are 14-22.  After a fast start, the Diamondbacks as a team are hitting .251 and are struggling to consistently put runs on the board; they still hold first place in the NL West as everyone else in division is playing .500 baseball.  However, the best thing to happen to the Diamondbacks’ offense was Mets pitching.  The Diamondbacks as a team had four homeruns in their 9-5 win over the Mets.  

Micha Owings started the game for the Diamondbacks.  In his last outing Owings was rocked for four earned runs off eight hits before leaving the game after three innings.  Owings has had two starts against the Mets and has a 0-1 record with a 6.94 era in those two games and didn’t fare much better in Tuesday night’s start.  In 41/3 innings he gave up 5 runs, four earned, on 8 hits with three walks and two strikeouts.  Owings who averages 2.6 walks per nine innings had give up two walks in the first inning of the game.  He was not sharp and lucky for him, neither were any of Mets pitchers.   

The Diamondbacks scored a run in the top of the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead.  John Maine gave up a long home run to Orlando Hudson in the top of the fifth to cut the Mets lead 5-3.   In the sixth inning with Mets reliever Claudio Vargas on the mound, the Diamondback’s would score two runs and tie the game.   Vargas walked the lead off man before hitting  Justin Upton with a pitch, Jeff Salazar’s ground out allowed the runners to advance to second and third, with the tying runs on, Augie Ojeda drove them in when he hit a line drive that eluded the glove of Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado and landed in right field.  Ojeda would advance to second on the throw by Endy Chavez, but was stranded there when Chris Young flied out to end the inning. 

In the top of the seventh, with weather reports showing that rain was near and with the wind picking up at Shea Stadium, the Umps suspended play and the Mets grounds crew secured the tarp on the field.  The rain delay would last one hour.  When play resumed, the Diamondbacks took the lead on a homerun by Chris Snyder off Met’s reliever Joe Smith.  In the top of the ninth inning the Diamondbacks scored three more runs when Duaner Sanchez gave up a two run homer to Stephen Drew and a solo shot to Conner Jackson.   

The Diamondbacks will have Brandon Webb on the mound tonight, and he will be opposed by Mets starter Mike Pelfrey.  Game time is set for 7:10 p.m.

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The Arizona Diamondbacks lost for the second straight time to the Pittsburgh Pirates as they feel 5-3 on Monday afternoon in Pittsburgh.  The Diamondbacks had started the four game series off by winning the first two games but then lost the next two to split the series.  Another up and down series as the D-backs just can’t seem to get things going to run off a win streak of five or six games.

On Monday, it was Randy Johnson taking the loss as he threw 5 2/3 innings while allowing six hits and five runs (four were earned).  The Big Unit walked four batters while striking out three so he did have some control issues.

Three errors by the Diamondbacks defense sure didn’t help out the pitchers either.  Johnson, Miguel Montero, and Mark Reynolds all had errors in the game.

At the plate for the Diamondbacks, three different players had a rbi in the game.  Reynolds connected on a solo home run in the fourth inning.  Chris Young had a rbi ground rule double in the seventh inning and in the eighth inning, Stephen Drew hit a solo home run.  The D-backs just needed to have some runners on base when those two home runs were hit.

I should also not that that Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin was ejected from the game in the second inning when he argued about a home run call that was over turned.  Reynolds hit a fly ball to right field that was caught by a fan that put their glove over the wall.  The call was an initial home run, but the umpires later ruled that it was a double instead.  Melvin was quickly tossed after that.

The Diamondbacks will play the New York Mets on Tuesday night.  Diamondbacks Home Plate will also have a new blogger in place as “B” who blogs for our Mets Blog, will be covering the Diamondbacks series here at Diamondbacks Home Plate as well.

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The Arizona Diamondbacks were pretty much man handled on Wednesday afternoon by the Milwaukee Brewers.  The Brewers beat up on the Diamondbacks by the score of 10-1 as they swept the Diamondbacks in a three game series.  The Diamondbacks are now 2-7 in theie last nine games and are 32-28 in the season.

Micah Owings only lasted three innings and took the loss for the D-backs.  Owings gave up eight hits and five runs as his record dropped to 6-4.  Edgar Gonzalez did a terrible job on the mound as he came in for Owings.  Gonzlez gave up six hits, five runs, and two home runs in only three innings of action.

Finally Doug Slaten and Brandon Lyon were able to calm things down as they pitched the eighth and ninth innings without giving up a run.  It was a little too late however, as there was no way the offense was going to get out of that big hole.

Once again the Diamondbacks hitters struggled at the plate as they only scored one run.  Mark Reynolds singled in Chris Burke in the third inning for the only rbi in the game for the Diamondbacks.

Arizona will now get a off day on Thursday and then play the Pittsburgh Pirates over the weekend.  This weekend I really see the Diamondbacks getting back on track and atleast winning three out of four games against the Pirates.

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The Milwaukee Brewers once again got the best of the Arizona Diamondbacks as the Diamondbacks continue to struggle.  This time it was a 7-1 loss to the Brewers that dropped the Diamondbacks record to 32-27 on the season.  You would think that they would get out of this slump somtime, but it just hasn’t happened yet.

Randy Johnson took the loss and is now 4-2.  The Big Unit tossed 6 1/3 innings and gave up six hits and four runs in the game.  Juan Cruz then came in and recorded the last two outs of the seventh inning.  Max Scherzer was called upon to pitch the eighth inning and gave up three hits including two home runs.  That pretty much put the game out of reach for the Diamondbacks especially the way they have been swinging the bats.

The one run for the Diamondbacks came in the fourth inning when Mark Reynolds doubled and scored Orlando Hudson.  Other then that, the Diamondbacks stunk it up once again.

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The Arizona Diamondbacks didn’t get off to a good start on their series with the Milwaukee Brewers as they lost 4-3 on Monday evening.  The Diamondacks are now 2-6 in their last eight games as they are struggling at this point in the season.

Doug Slaten ended up taking the loss for the D-backs as he gave up a solo home run to Prince Fielder in the eighth inning that proved to be the winning run in the game.  Slaten is now 0-2 on the season as he let his team down on Monday night.

Doug Davis went six innings while giving up six hits and three runs in the game.  Davis got the no decision and remains 2-2 on the season.

Chris Snyder had two rbi’s to lead the Diamondbacks.  He had a rbi double in the second inning and then added a solo home run in the seventh inning.  Mark Reynolds also had a infield rbi single in the fourth inning for the D-backs.

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