One for the Team

The line of the day yesterday belonged to Eddie Oropeso of the Diamondbacks:

1-2/3 innings pitched, 9 hits, 10 runs (all earned), 3 walks, 1 strikeout, and 2 HRs

His performance came in Arizona's 19-1 loss at home against the Dodgers. Oropeso relieved Mike Morgan in the top of the sixth with LA up 8-0. His first full inning wasn't so bad: 3 hits (all singles) and 2 runs, plus a walk and a passed ball on Damian Miller (who also struckout twice in an 0-for-4 night). The seventh featured five of the eight position players being swapped out as Bob Brenley decided he was playing APBA baseball--like in he past All-Star game. In his two-thirds of an inning, Oropeso allowed two home runs (back-to-back), a single, two doubles, 2 walks, and a hit batsman. When Oropeso was finally, mercifully pulled, the score was 16-0. The relief that Bret Prinz provided proved to be a misnomer, as he allowed a double to score two of the inherited runners and drive Oropeso's runs allowed to 10. Oropeso's ERA rose almost 50% during the outing (7.77 to 11.03). It figures that they would let the scab take the brunt of the scoring.

Oropeso's 10 runs allowed are high but nowhere near the record 35 allowed by David Rowe of the Cleveland Blues NL club on July 24, 1882. So there was a bright side.

Postscript: Mark Grace finished out the game pitching one inning of one-hit ball. That one hit happened to be a homer, however, the first of Dave Ross' career, on what Grace later described as a 65-MPH fastball.