BC867
Long time Phoenician!
So they walked Dunn to get to Upton, who had an inconsistent Chris Young hitting behind him.Diamondbacks blow it bigtime in the first. Runners on first and third with no outs and CoJack pops up to short center, Dunn walks(Int), Upton K's and then Young grounds out.
Wasn't it just a week or so ago when Melvin stumbled upon the magic ingredient of Upton hitting 3rd in front of Dunn? And Upton produced big time.
That lasted for two games. Since then Upton has batted 5th twice, then 2nd a few times (ahead of a slumping Conor Jackson), then 5th again a few times. The same with Chris Young -- up and down and up and down.
No wonder our young talent produces only when they leave for another team.
And Jackson popped up to short center. A line drive hitter trying to be a homerun hitter. The very reason that Upton was demoted.
We're lucky that Drew has been put at leadoff (with the heart of the batting backing him up) and left there. His average is up to .290 and he's becoming an elite shortstop.
It's also a good thing that Eric Byrnes isn't around to bounce in and out of leadoff, leaving Drew without an identity.
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Did you see that Bob Melvin was halfway out to the mound to change pitchers, then turned around and headed back to the dugout? According to Sutton, Melvin lost track of what was happening on on the field.
Is our manager the Mad Scientist or an Absent Minded Professor? Either way, he'd never get promoted to Department Head.
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BTW, Sutton really criticized Melvin at the end of the game for benching Mark Reynolds and Chris Snyder in this crucial game. In Reynolds case, he said that Melvin was damaging Mark Reynolds' confidence. He also criticized not starting Chad Tracy, who evidently had good stats against their starting pitcher.
It's not the first time that Sutton has criticized Bob Melvin on the air recently.
There is certainly a possibility that the D'backs top brass are allowing Sutton to prepare the fans for a Melvin dismissal. Just as Ken Kendricks did preceeding the Gonzo trade.