Tonight marks the debut of Arizona Diamondbacks Spanish telecasts on FOX Sports Arizona Plus. For the first time ever, FOX Sports Arizona is offering D-backs games in Spanish, and there will be a total of 25 games televised in Spanish this season, including all seven games of the entire upcoming series with the Giants and Yankees, running through Wednesday. Oscar Soria will handle the play-by-play duties and Rodrigo Lopez (above, in his days as a D-back pitcher!) is the analyst. So, if you fancy an alternative to - or a break from! - Bob and Bert, locate Fox Sports Arizona Plus and enjoy. Knowing Spanish might help, but I've watched enough lucha libre, I'm sure it'll be fine...
Looking at the pitching match-ups, the addition of Bradley and pushing back the rest of the starters by a day suddenly makes more sense. We have our #1-4 going up against the Giants #2-5, so in theory, this should give the D-backs a pitching edge each night. Of course, I'm not sure Shelby Miller vs. Stephen Hawking would necessarily give the D-backs a pitching edge, but we'll cross that wobbly bridge with questionable mechanics and dubious control tomorrow night. I certainly fancy our chances on Saturday and Sunday, so if Greinke can beat Cueto, I'll be feeling a lot more optimistic about our hopes of taking this series.
Some good news on the David Peralta front (unless your Mrs. Peter O'Brien) with the word that the MRI on his wrist showed no structural damage, and the team is hoping to avoid the need for a DL stint. Jack Magruder quoted Chip Hale as saying "Right now the progress has been pretty good since we sat him down," though obviously, he's not in the line-up once again tonight, and we go with an outfield of Tomas, Owings and Drury. Will it be enough? We did beat Cueto during the series in San Francisco, but it wasn't easy - he allowed three runs over seven innings - and has historically done well against Arizona, being 6-2 with a 2.70 ERA in nine innings.