To say this season for the Arizona Diamondbacks has gotten off to a rough start would probably be the biggest understatement of the year. It has been one long nightmare where every game ends in disaster.

It started out with the Diamondbacks going to Australia dropping two games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was not just losing to the Dodgers that made it hard to accept but the fact that the Diamondbacks did not seem to be in either game at all.

04-01 Pollock SlideAfter the first loss you could use the justification that perhaps the team was suffering from jet lag after a 22-hour plane ride and they were facing Clayton Kershaw one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball.

Looking at the final score of the second game where the Diamondbacks lost 7-5 you would think that Arizona was just one bad break away from winning but the score was deceivingly close. Instead the Dodgers had built up a 7-0 lead by the time the Diamondbacks batted in the eighth inning. If it were not a 4-run ninth inning the game would have been a blow out.

After the team returned from Australia they looked lackluster in the remaining Spring Training and exhibition games. Other than a win against the Cubs on March 22 the Diamondbacks dropped the next four games going into Opening Day.

It appeared that the Diamondbacks had found their stride in the first regular season game at Chase Field in 2014 building a 7-3 lead through the first six innings only to see that evaporate when the bullpen would cough up six runs in the final two innings leading to a 9-8 loss.

For today’s game Arizona would find themselves in a four-run hole before they even batted in the first inning. This was not what was expected and things began to look pretty dim. But then every once in a while help comes from an unexpected place.

In the fourth inning Diamondbacks centerfielder AJ Pollock was on first base. Giants pitcher Matt Cain threw over to first nearly picking Pollock off. The play was closer than anyone expected. Giants manager Bruce Bochy came out and challenged the ruling on the field. After reviewing the video the play stood and Pollock was safe.

Later that same inning Pollock would run home from third base on a passed ball. Giants catcher Buster Posey threw the ball to the plate where Cain applied the tag. Everyone in Chase Field groaned in disbelief but then home plate umpire Eric Cooper held up the safe sign.

Everyone sat in stunned silence at the good fortune that the Diamondbacks suddenly received. Bochy came out of the Giants dugout to argue but unfortunately he had just used his challenge and lost so he could therefore do nothing but state his case. The run counted and the Diamondbacks were within one run.

Two innings later Pollock would hit a ground rule double scoring Chris Owings and Gerardo Parra would hit a sacrifice fly to left field scoring Pollock and the Diamondbacks had come back to take the lead.

As the final out was recorded in the ninth inning the Giants win. Oops, April Fools! The Diamondbacks won their first game of the season and that certainly isn’t a prank.

Jeff Summers

Just a digital guy in an analog world pondering the metaphysics of baseball and whether the knuckleball defies Newton's first law of motion.

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Jeff Summers

Jeff Summers

Baseball Epistemologist

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