The D-backs go for the sweep this afternoon in Seattle, a good way to start a tough ten-game road-trip. But standing in their way is King Felix. In his last five starts, Hernandez has allowed four earned runs in 33 innings, a 1.09 ERA. with close to a batter per inning struck out (32 K's in 33 IP). While he has been around for virtually a decade now (making his debut in August 2005), the only three batters to have faced him are Cliff Pennington, Aaron Hill and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, all of whom came to Arizona from the American League. Penny and Hill have decent numbers (.760 + .883 OPS), but none of those PAs were recently, as Felix last faced Arizona over six years ago.
Meanwhile, Corbin will look to build on a very solid last start, easily his best since coming back from Tommy John surgery. He went seven innings, allowing one run on four hits, and struck out 10, tying his career high. His pitch count is still likely to be low - he hasn't throw 90 pitches in an outing yet, stopping one short of that in his last appearance. But with an off-day tomorrow, and the bullpen benefiting from the solid starting pitching we've seen lately (six quality starts in a row, averaging 20 outs per game), the should be able to handle things even if Corbin is unable to go more than five this afternoon.
We have, however, lost Randall Delgado, who has been placed on the DL after turning his ankle before yesterday's contest. Returning to replace him is... Addison Reed. Yeah. I'm going to presume he will need to work himself back into high-leverage situations, first proving himself worthy of them with solid outings in less important innings. But judging by the reaction on social media, Diamondbacks' fans haven't exactly forgotten or forgiven the issues Reed had before being sent down, with a 5.92 ERA over 25 appearances. I think our tolerance for failure is likely to be quite short for the foreseeable future.