1. The team probably could have been able to handle Ryan Braun or Corey Hart being out again, but both being out takes the lineup from being great to average (if not below average). They simply couldn’t get anything going against Barry Enright.
2. Chris Capuano should never be allowed to pitch in a tie game. Ever. Please stop doing it.
3. Todd Coffey inherited two runners, but continues to be very good in those situations. He did allow both runners he inherited against the Cubs on August 4th to score, but before that, you have to go back to June 28th to find the last time he did that. He’s had a rough go of it lately outside of those situations, but at least he’s been good at cleaning up the messes of others. Speaking of that…
4. Hey, Manny Parra only allowed one run on four hits! Of course, there’s those six walks. We did see some solid defense behind Parra for a change, though, which went a long way in keeping the Diamondbacks off the board until the 5th. Parra also worked out of a huge (self-inflicted) jam, perhaps keeping from going back to the “mental midget” meme again. The walks are a bit of a concern, but I’d rather see that than have him hang sliders on 0-2 or 1-2 counts.
5. Lorenzo Cain must be making it awfully hard for Ken Macha to think of reasons to bench him once Braun, Hart, and Carlos Gomez are back. He won’t hit .500 forever, but it’s been a blast watching him play defense so far. He makes plays look easy out there, unlike most of the other outfielders on the roster — he doesn’t have the speed Gomez does, but it looks like he has better instincts when it comes to tracking the ball off the bat, and he takes better routes to the ball.
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