Post by Fish Troll on Apr 2, 2007 22:30:51 GMT -5
D-backs rally late to win 2007 opener
Byrnes' clutch hit in eighth inning helps seal Arizona's victory
By Steve Gilbert / MLB.com
DENVER -- Two pitches into what proved to be the game-deciding at-bat, Eric Byrnes looked like he was in trouble.
And so were the D-backs, trailing 6-5 with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth.
As the late afternoon shadows crept across the field making it difficult to see, Rockies reliever LaTroy Hawkins threw two hard-biting sliders that Byrnes waived at.
"I didn't even remember LaTroy throwing a slider," Byrnes said of his past battles with the veteran right-hander. "He threw two of the nastiest pitches I'd seen since the start of Spring Training, and I had no chance. They came out of his hand looking like fastballs and broke about three feet at the end."
Hawkins missed with a slider for ball one, and then left a fastball up and out over the plate that Byrnes lined just out of the reach of a leaping Kaz Matsui and into right-center for a two-run single as the D-backs went on to win on Monday, 8-6.
"Everybody said I should have went to the slider, but I was trying to get that fastball away, then go back to the slider," Hawkins said of decisive pitch. "But it didn't work out. I'll come back and get them tomorrow."
Hawkins had come in to protect the Rockies one-run lead, but Chris Young led off the eighth with a single, and with Young running, pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspo perfectly placed a ground ball through the hole at short to put runners on the corners.
Callaspo moved up to second on Tony Clark's shallow flyout to left, and Colorado manager Clint Hurdle then decided to walk left-handed hitting Stephen Drew to fill the bases for Byrnes.
"I'm only human, right?" Byrnes said when asked if the walk to Drew gave him some added motivation. "I mean really, I'm not going to say it's a slap in the face, Clint's just playing the percentages, but at the same time, if you're a hitter, and you go up there and you say you're not motivated, you're full of it. It's definitely motivation. He's a manager that holds true to the percentages, and that's the way he manages, and I don't blame him or question him for that, but, you know, when he walks the guy in front of me, I'm going to be excited about the opportunity to make him pay for it."
Orlando Hudson followed Byrnes with a sacrifice fly to give the D-backs an 8-6 advantage that relievers Brandon Lyon in the eighth and Jose Valverde in the ninth were able to nail down.
The game was a back-and-forth affair with both team's starters -- Brandon Webb for the D-backs and Aaron Cook for the Rockies -- lacking their best stuff.
The D-backs hitters tried to help Webb out, as they spotted him a 1-0 lead in the first. But the right-hander who won the NL Cy Young Award last year didn't seem to have his best command as he allowed two Colorado runs in the bottom of the first.
After the D-backs retook the lead with a two-run third inning and ran their advantage to 5-2 in the top of the fourth, Webb once again was unable to hold it as he allowed three in the bottom half of the inning.
"The first inning, I think I started off on the wrong foot, almost 40 pitches, and I was just kind of getting out of my rhythm," Webb said. "I was rushing things and just wasn't throwing strikes. I was probably excited and was wanting to get the ball there before I was ready to get the ball there, and so, mechanically, probably wasn't very sound."
Webb left after five innings, and the Rockies grabbed the 6-5 advantage when pinch-hitter Jeff Baker greeted reliever Brandon Medders with a home run to dead center to start the sixth. Young looked like he had a play on the ball, and it actually did go into his glove.
But the fleet-footed rookie figured he was going to need every inch he could get to make the catch, so he had slid his glove up a bit on his hand. As he jumped, his shoulder hit the wall, and as he reached above the wall, the ball struck his glove and knocked it right off his hand.
"I knew I had a bead on it when he hit the ball," Young said. "I was like, 'I can go get this.' As soon as I was going up I knew that I had it, but I didn't realize the wall was right there."
Steve Gilbert is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Byrnes' clutch hit in eighth inning helps seal Arizona's victory
By Steve Gilbert / MLB.com
DENVER -- Two pitches into what proved to be the game-deciding at-bat, Eric Byrnes looked like he was in trouble.
And so were the D-backs, trailing 6-5 with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth.
As the late afternoon shadows crept across the field making it difficult to see, Rockies reliever LaTroy Hawkins threw two hard-biting sliders that Byrnes waived at.
"I didn't even remember LaTroy throwing a slider," Byrnes said of his past battles with the veteran right-hander. "He threw two of the nastiest pitches I'd seen since the start of Spring Training, and I had no chance. They came out of his hand looking like fastballs and broke about three feet at the end."
Hawkins missed with a slider for ball one, and then left a fastball up and out over the plate that Byrnes lined just out of the reach of a leaping Kaz Matsui and into right-center for a two-run single as the D-backs went on to win on Monday, 8-6.
"Everybody said I should have went to the slider, but I was trying to get that fastball away, then go back to the slider," Hawkins said of decisive pitch. "But it didn't work out. I'll come back and get them tomorrow."
Hawkins had come in to protect the Rockies one-run lead, but Chris Young led off the eighth with a single, and with Young running, pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspo perfectly placed a ground ball through the hole at short to put runners on the corners.
Callaspo moved up to second on Tony Clark's shallow flyout to left, and Colorado manager Clint Hurdle then decided to walk left-handed hitting Stephen Drew to fill the bases for Byrnes.
"I'm only human, right?" Byrnes said when asked if the walk to Drew gave him some added motivation. "I mean really, I'm not going to say it's a slap in the face, Clint's just playing the percentages, but at the same time, if you're a hitter, and you go up there and you say you're not motivated, you're full of it. It's definitely motivation. He's a manager that holds true to the percentages, and that's the way he manages, and I don't blame him or question him for that, but, you know, when he walks the guy in front of me, I'm going to be excited about the opportunity to make him pay for it."
Orlando Hudson followed Byrnes with a sacrifice fly to give the D-backs an 8-6 advantage that relievers Brandon Lyon in the eighth and Jose Valverde in the ninth were able to nail down.
The game was a back-and-forth affair with both team's starters -- Brandon Webb for the D-backs and Aaron Cook for the Rockies -- lacking their best stuff.
The D-backs hitters tried to help Webb out, as they spotted him a 1-0 lead in the first. But the right-hander who won the NL Cy Young Award last year didn't seem to have his best command as he allowed two Colorado runs in the bottom of the first.
After the D-backs retook the lead with a two-run third inning and ran their advantage to 5-2 in the top of the fourth, Webb once again was unable to hold it as he allowed three in the bottom half of the inning.
"The first inning, I think I started off on the wrong foot, almost 40 pitches, and I was just kind of getting out of my rhythm," Webb said. "I was rushing things and just wasn't throwing strikes. I was probably excited and was wanting to get the ball there before I was ready to get the ball there, and so, mechanically, probably wasn't very sound."
Webb left after five innings, and the Rockies grabbed the 6-5 advantage when pinch-hitter Jeff Baker greeted reliever Brandon Medders with a home run to dead center to start the sixth. Young looked like he had a play on the ball, and it actually did go into his glove.
But the fleet-footed rookie figured he was going to need every inch he could get to make the catch, so he had slid his glove up a bit on his hand. As he jumped, his shoulder hit the wall, and as he reached above the wall, the ball struck his glove and knocked it right off his hand.
"I knew I had a bead on it when he hit the ball," Young said. "I was like, 'I can go get this.' As soon as I was going up I knew that I had it, but I didn't realize the wall was right there."
Steve Gilbert is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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