What do Green and Tyler Clippard have in common? They are both pitchers who had to bat when they made their major-league debut for the New York Yankees. Clippard did so back in 2007, when he started in Shea Stadium. The most recent - both for the Yankees and in the majors as a whole - was Chase Whitley, in May 2014, but it's kinda rare: in the DH era, only 24 American League starting pitchers have had to hit in their major-league debut. Oddly, three of the four such Yankees did so against the Mets - including another who'd go on to play for the Diamondbacks, Brad Halsey. Elsewhere, Brandon McCarthy is another, since he debuted for the White Sox at Wrigley Field.
Looks like Bourn made his way to Phoenix in time for tonight's game, and gets to play center-field and bat second - our fifth starting center-fielder of the season so far. That ties the franchise high at the position, most recently in 2014, when we used A.J. Pollock, Ender Inciarte, David Peralta, Gerardo Parra, and Tony Campana. And only 121 more games to go after tonight! He'll be flanked in the outfield by Tomas and Drury, with Welington Castillo also getting the day off behind the plate. After being rested yesterday, Ahmed is back in the line-up, so we'll see whether he can help the D-backs terminate their home losing streak at seven games.
If not, then we will tie the second-longest such streak in franchise history. We dropped eight in a row at Chase during April 2014, against the Giants, Dodgers and Mets. The only time we've ever gone past that, was all the way back in the dark days of 2004, when the Diamondbacks lost eleven consecutive games at Bank One Ballpark, as it was called in those days. I trust there will be lots of nostalgia in this series, in particular harking back to our glory days of 2001, when the Yankees couldn't win any of their four attempts in Phoenix. Tonight is also a tribute to Joe Garagiola at Chase, and that kicks off at 6pm - it'll be carried on Fox Sports Arizona, so you might want to tune in early for that.