Diamondbacks 6, Padres 1: Cashner still winless since April

A series of unfortunate events led to a big 5th inning for the Diamondbacks, who took the lead and never looked back.

Our Padres had the chance to give Andrew Cashner his first win since April, but they came up short tonight. Really short.

Things started off a little shaky when Cash allowed a Diamondbacks run to score in the first inning. But after that he went on to retire 11 straight batters. Friars got on the board in the bottom of the 3rd when Alexi Amarista hit a two-out single and was brought home on a Seth Smith double (and by "Seth Smith double" I don't mean Tim Stauffer).

Cashner's streak of 11 straight retired came to an end when he led off the top of the 5th with a walk to Alfredo Marte. Then two batters later, Didi Gregorius doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Pitcher Josh Collmenter was up next and he swung on the first pitch and that's when things started to crumble for our Padres. Collmenter reached on a fielder's choice as Cory Spangenberg threw the ball to Rene Rivera to try to get the tag out at home. The home plate umpire, Cory Blaser, called Marte safe, to Rivera's surprise and indignation. Buddy Black came out to challenge the call and as the replay was shown both on our TV screens at home and the big screen at the ballpark, Padres fans thought there was a very good chance the call would be overturned. The Diamondbacks announcers were pretty sure it would be overturned too (as you can hear in the following video). Of course, it was not.

So with the Diamondbacks up 2-1 and one out in the inning, Cashner went on to pitch to the top of Arizona's lineup. Ender Enciarte came to the plate, hit the second pitch, and reached on another fielder's choice. This time first baseman Yasmani Grandal threw the ball to Rivera and beat out Gregorious by a mile. Gregorious was now in a rundown, but Yangervis Solarte was too busy watching him run and failed to pay attention to Rivera's throw, which sailed past his head, allowing Gregorius to run home and put the Dbacks up 3-1. This allowed Collmenter and Enciarte to each move up a base. Collmenter later came home on a two-out single by David Peralta, making it 4-1 bad guys, before Cashner could record the final out.

Cashner allowed only one baserunner through his next two innings before handing the ball (and the possibility of a win) to the bullpen. Only two of the four runs he allowed were earned and he otherwise kept Arizona to five hits and a walk while collective five strikeouts.

Frank Garces took over in the 8th and allowed another Dbacks run to score. He was replaced by Leonel Campos, who ended the inning by getting Marte to ground into a double play. Collmenter's night was also done after seven inning of work. He ended his outing having given up only that one run on five hits and two walks while striking out three. Daniel Hudson too over in the 8th and retired the Padres in order.

R.J. Alvarez came out in the top of the 9th to make his major league debut. He led off the inning with a walk before recording his first major league out, fielding the ball and throwing to 2nd base for the forceout. But then he gave up a single, another walk, and a sac fly to give the Dbacks their 6th run of the game. That's when Alex Torres came out and shut the door.

Our Padres faced Aztec-For-Life Addison Reed in the bottom of the 9th. We kept the faith and hoped for a miracle walkoff, but Addi only needed eight pitches to get the final three outs of the game and secure the end to the Dbacks' eight-game road losing streak. Hopefully our boys can get the Snakes BACK in the L column tomorrow as they wrap up the four-game set. Ian Kennedy and Randall Delgado will get the respective balls for their clubs in the finale.

It was a small, intimate party in the game thread tonight, led mostly by Friar Fever. I got three recs and CurbEnthusasm and Friar Fever split the only other two. But even with just six of us tonight, we managed to SHUT DOWN GLB. We'll try to keep it down next time, but no promises.