Friday’s here, and after a long week of watching the Dbacks struggle from one series to the next it couldn’t come any sooner.

No beercap today folks, I’m on a month long diet without the suds, so you’ll just have to endure my writing sans the ale. I’m sure you’ll survive and you might even enjoy.

J Dup starts things out with a strike for his first Major League start. Despite all the talk of the absolute glut of picks we have in this Monsieur Duplantier represents a very important part of our pitching future. I don’t expect his first start to shake the foundations of the earth, but I hope and pray it’s the first step upon a long and productive career.

One strike out, a walk and a double play later and I find myself rather content, but far from convinced. Love me them scoreless innings though.

Escobar gets our only hit in the 1st to keep his hot streak going, but with Wheeler throwing some serious heat that’s all we get. Spinning that prayer wheel right now to ensure our offense shows up at some point tonight.

Dup’s decent 1st gives way to a not so decent 2nd; leadoff walk, followed by a single to put men on the corners with nary an out to be seen.

Before things could get more dicey Umpire Jim Wolfe gets rocked by a fastball off his face mask and J Dup gets a break of sorts to collect his thoughts and hopefully reinforce in his mind how bad walks are.

Forever and a day latter (seemingly) Manny Gonzalez comes out to call this young game behind the plate in Wolfe’s stead. We’re back to baseball once more, but Dup benefits not at all from the break, as a Mets single followed by a double makes this a 0-3 game STILL with no outs.

We get out of the inning without any further bruising followed by Walker hitting again (God I hope he’s back) and gradually getting driven home to get 1run back: 1-3 going in to the 3rd.

Duplantier sure owes his infield a few drinks for how he got out of the 3rd; after allowing the first two runners to reach, followed by a double play and a ground out. That’s the kind of luck I can get behind!

Nothing doing in our half of the 3rd and Dup surprisingly navigates his way through the 4th without any drama. Still 1-3.

And STILL 1-3 after the 4th despite Walker with yet another hit. Followed by Duplantier throwing another scoreless frame, and likely his last as he breaks the 70pitch mark. So after 5 innings I give his first start a solid B-. That’s all.

The bottom of the 5th brings more of the same sputtering offense, and I could sure use some fire works right about now.

Crichton is brought in to take care of business in the 6th, and does just that.

Then the bottom of the 6th happens, and in a big way with Marte homering followed by Walker getting a THHHHIIIIICCCCCCCC blast of his own. 110mph off the bat and likely capable of shattering existence. So just like that we’re up 4-3. I like this kind of party!

Ugghhhh. Bradley walks out of the pen to greet me this fine 7th. Not what I or any fan (Dback fan at least) is eager to see after the last few weeks. Just what does Bradley need to do to get the boot? Burn the clubhouse down when his beard trimmer catches fire?

Blessedly the Baseball Gods saw fit to show pity upon the bearded one this time, though I doubt any consistency will follow. So we’re still holding the lead as we towards the finish line. Just gotta home those bats keep going.

I pen that and then notice Archie is at the plate. Please no. Why? I know the bullpen is spent but come on! We don’t need to tempt fate that much with TWO innings of beard guy.

Wheeeewwwwwww. You had me there Torey, you sly dog you. Thought Bradley was going to start the 8th, but our manager pulls a fast one on me and sends up Andriese.

Andriese suffers from a case of the Bradley’s and we’re tied after a two-out single. Then the fact we are dealing with a three man umpire crew leads us down even darker paths when an apparent foul ball was suddenly called fair bringing in another run, but it can’t be reviewed sooooooooo dammit. 4-5 Mets

Escobar! Pure hustle triple and suddenly my frown is turning upside down just a bit. Marte can’t bring Esco home, and the Mets have seen enough of Walker and send him walking. Lacastro just ain’t up to the challenge though and we’re sent to the 9th stranding Escobar at third.....

So here we are, down one-run in the bottom of the 9th, but ends up that no one is up to the challenge and Duplantier 1st start ends with a thud. Sigh.

Later ya’ll.

Bells and whistles, by Jim

Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com

Eduardo Escobar: Christian Walker, +42.5%

Ketel Marte: Eduardo Escobar, +16.9%

Archie Bradley: Matt Andriese, -44.5%

Matt Andriese: Jones, -18.1%; Dyson -17.0%; Ahmed, -14.9%; Locastro, -12.3%; Kelly, -11.1%

Present in the Gameday Thread were: AZDovs11, AZPerson, AzDbackfanInDc, AzRattler, Gilbertsportsfan, GuruB, Hannibal4467, Jack Sommers, Jim McLennan, Justin27, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, MikeMono, MrMrrbi, NikT77, Rockkstarr12, Samburt, Schilling2001, Sprankton, Ubersnake, West Valley Devil, katers15, kilnborn, redsedona and suroeste. Comment of the thread to Gilbertsportsfan, for calling Christian Walker’s shot:

For what it’s worth, tonight’s performance lifts Walker’s OPS for the year back above Goldschmidt, .830 to .810. But on the other hand, seven of the last nine D-backs losses have been by one run, and the team has lost the last eight games to be decided by one run. Either way, that ends the month of May, and we get to turn the page tomorrow and see what June brings. It begins with a match-up of Zack Greinke against Jacob deGrom, which should be a good one. A late start for a Saturday, with first pitch at 7:10pm.