Diamondbacks 2, San Francisco 7: Out of Gas

The Giants started AA hand Yunior Marte today, and he walked Lars Nootbaar to start things off, but Nootbaar was quickly erased when Corbin Carroll hit a hard liner right to Bryce Eldridge at first base for an unassisted double play. Perdomo then rolled over to second for the third out. Bratt, meanwhile, started his day by walking Jonah Cox on four pitches, earning him an immediate mound visit so he could be reminded of where the strike zone actually was. That proved effective enough, as he got through the rest of the first with only eight more pitches thrown, but unfortunately Jonah Cox turns out to be a very speedy baserunner and he stole second and third before Eldridge singled him home with a grounder to left. 1-0 San Francisco

The middle of our lineup sat down in order against Marte in the second, but Bratt settled down quite well in the bottom half, only needing five pitches to retire the Giants. We broke through against Marte in the third, tying the game thanks to a one-out Ildemaro Vargas single followed one out later by a Lars Nootbaar bloop double into shallow left that left fielder Grant McCray dove for and missed. 1-1 TIE

Bratt pitched around a one-out Jonah Cox single (and subsequent stolen base) in the bottom of the third to put up another zero, and then retired the side in order in the fourth, with a total of 44 pitches thrown through four innings. It actually seemed to be shaping up to be a genuinely good and efficient Mitch Bratt outing, despite that first-inning blemish.