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After a nice rest-day yesterday, the Diamondbacks hit the road for a nine-day sweep through the rest of the NL West. Eventually, they'll go through San Francisco and Los Angeles, but they start off in Denver, facing a Rockies team which has been remarkably consistent all season. Take any seven game period so far this year, and only once has Colorado's record been outside of 3-4 or 4-3. We took two of three from them at the end of April, the last time we visited Coors, and it'd be nice to do the same again.
Line-up
- Kelly Johnson 2B
- Conor Jackson LF
- Stephen Drew SS
- Justin Upton RF
- Adam LaRoche 1B
- Mark Reynolds 3B
- Chris Young CF
- Chris Snyder C
- Ian Kennedy P
Johnson back in the line-up; his back was bothering him on Saturday, which is why Tony Abreu started and, unluckily, is now on the DL with a sprained wrist. His replacement on the roster is Ryan Roberts, who had almost become a forgotten man since failing to make the team out of spring training. His line in Triple-A has been .275/.381/.425, which is uninspiring for Reno, but he has had a solid K:BB ratio of 29:26, so hopefully that discipline will come with him.
Neither pitcher has faced the other team before as a starter in their careers. The Rockies have four at-bats of experience against Kennedy, all courtesy of Melvin Mora, while the Diamondbacks have exactly the same against Chacin, as he pitched the ninth inning of a 12-1 blowout win over Arizona on April 27th. He's made four starts since joining the rotation, but only one was at Coors and the Nationals lit him up for six runs in five innings. With Jimenez going for the Rockies tomorrow, and Haren for us on Friday, a split of those two games seems likely, so this could be the deciding contest in the set. Let's see if we can decide it in our favor.
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