In one of the best pitching battles I have seen by the Diamondbacks in over a year, Nick Ahmed and Ketel Marte put their names in for the player of the game. Merrill Kelly pitched an amazing game, through seven innings walked one guy and allowed 0 hits with no runs scored. On the Cardinals side of the defense, pitcher Miles Mikolas only allowed two hits and zero runs. Nick Ahmed had the defensive play of the game against Paul Goldshmidt. With two outs and Yadier Molina at third base Paul Goldschmidt hit a ground ball that as soon as it hit the ground lost almost all velocity, Ahmed had to run to the ball grab it bare handed and deliver a perfect pitch to deliver the game saving out. After the seventh inning is when the saying “All it takes is one hit” helped the Diamondbacks win this game.

The team from St. Louis’s manager Oliver Marmot decided to leave his ace pitcher Miles Mikolas for one more inning and save his bullpen. The first batter up in the order is Ketel Marte, after going 0 for 26 and finally getting a hit his last time up yesterday it was his opportunity to shine after being 1 for 28. Marte “The Pike” hit a home run just over the wall of Busch Stadium, finally giving the Diamondbacks the lead and the first score of the game. Next up was Carson Kelly who proceeded to become out which put Nick Ahmed to the plate. Nick Ahmed with one out did the same thing “The Pike” did by hitting a home run off go Mikolas giving the Diamondbacks the 2-0 lead to make them feel comfortable. At this point Mikolas was replaced and as soon as the inning ended it was decided that Merrill Kelly will not pitch again either. In the 8th inning it was another 1,2,3 inning for both sides but the 9th inning is where it got scary.

In the 9th inning the D-Backs had another 1,2,3 inning which means for the bottom of the ninth they only have a 2 cushion. The first batter at the bottom of the ninth was no other than Goldshmidt, after a long duel between pitcher and batter Kennedy inevitably walked him leaving a potential scorer at first and a home run tying the game. With one out now Dickerson hit an almost assured home run to tie the game but fell about 3 feet from the wall allowing Pain Smith to make the easy catch and eventually end the game.

The D-Backs have officially won 4 of the last 5 games, the slow start was very concerning to fans, from 6-11 to 10-12 is a momentum builder that they can definitely build build off of. Tomorrow will another early game and the final game of a 4 game series against the Cards at 11:15 AM. The pitchers dueling this one out will be Zach Davies vs Jordan Hicks. If you like watching the ball get hit more than a pitching dual, tomorrow will be a great game for you to watch as both sides will be making more contact with the ball.