That's One!

It was rather warm out there last night.

(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

"He never ceases to amaze me. The guy is not fazed by it. He's a Cy Young Award winner. He's not going to let something like the postseason get in the way of what he does."
--Eric Byrnes

It was a pitchers' duel that lived up to its billing.

Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs and Brandon Webb of the Diamondbacks hooked up for 6 innings, and when the dust settled, the score was 1-1, the Diamondbacks run coming courtesy of a Stephen Drew homer.

Then Chicago manager Lou Piniella lifted Zambrano after only 85 pitches; in the post-game press conference, Piniella stated that he intended to use Zambrano again on three days rest in Game 4 and he trusted his bullpen. What Piniella did not mention, but the announcers did, is that Zambrano had problems with heat exhaustion and dehydration several times this year. Pitching at Chase Field last night was like pitching in an sauna. The roof was open and the air conditioning is focused on the seats, not the field. Part-way through the first inning, Brandon Webb's hair was plastered to his skull with sweat. Perhaps Piniella does not want to advertise a physical weakness or sensitivity in his ace. In any case, he had reason to trust his reliever: Carlos Marmol's 2007 numbers are sick; opponents batted just .169 against him.

But .169 means that roughly 17% of the time, batters get a hit off Marmol, and those 17% showed up in the 7th inning. Mark Reynolds hit a solo homer, redeeming himself after having air-mailed a throw across the diamond to the first base seats earlier in the game. In the same inning, Chris Snyder walked, went to third on Augie Ojeda's triple, and scored when pinch-hitter Conor Jackson hit a sac fly. The announcers then said that we'd just seen how the Diamondbacks win their games. Indeed, the Diamondbacks tied the Mets for the league lead in sacrifice flies in 2007.

D'Backs manager Bob Melvin got a 1-2-3 7th inning out of Webb before calling on Brandon Lyon to hold the 8th and Jose Valverde to close the 9th. Webb finished with 9Ks and 3 BBs. It was exactly the kind of outing the Diamondbacks needed from Webb to start this round of the playoffs.

Now Doug Davis takes on Ted Lilly in Game 2. Davis needs to be aggressive. Even though he's not a fireballer, he's at his best when he goes after the hitters instead of trying to finesse them around the  corners.  Again, walks, or the lack of them, will be a deciding factor. If Davis limits the free passes, his chances of winning are good. The Diamondbacks won the last time Davis and Lilly locked horns.

Game 2 will also be a fine time for Eric Byrnes to get rolling. He ran into some bad luck in his first two ABs last night, shattering his bat in the first, and lining out to Soriano in left in the fourth. Sori was hobbling out there and Byrnes' drive stayed up just long enough for Alfonso to get it. But Eric took a decent swing. His later pop-up and strikeout were ugly. (How did he not make any contact that last time up?)

BTW, who the heck was the dork behind the plate who was flashing a Cubs light in the direction of Jose Valverde???? Jose apparently wasn't bothered by it, but the second base umpire sure was, and put a stop to it. I've never seen anything like that and hope never to again. Given the incident its most charitable spin, since the light was not a laser or a very bright light that could have temporarily blinded Valverde, I'll say that some people will do anything to get noticed on camera.

Also, my latest website poll asks how the D-Backs will end the post-season: Losing the NLDS, losing the NLCS, losing the World Series, or winning the World series. If the poll is not available, you may indicate your choice as a comment to this article.

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