Happy Memorial Day. Take a moment to think of those who gave their lives so that we could barbecue and buy new cars, if I'm reading the commercials correctly. Remember the Memorial Day double-header the team tried back in 2013, against another American League West team, the Rangers? That was kinda cool, but it's interesting the Diamondbacks rapidly discarded the idea; looking at the attendance, didn't seem to help attendance much, with only 23,622 sticking around for the night-cap. Interestingly, the following year, it was a 5:10pm first pitch and that got 35,580. We were on the road last year, so curious to see how today's crowd stacks up.
The team will be wearing another of its special uniform sets for this one, as shown above. I think this is one of the nicest of the commemorative specials, being very clean and restrained, rather than the smorgasbord of different colors bleeding into each other that are, apparently, part of the Evolution [Make Baseball Fun Again!] I wonder if these jerseys will be available for sale - not just the ones worn by the players, but as a regular item in the team shop. Not quite so sure about the caps, mostly because the pattern on them looks very blocky, and appears to have been printed out from a 100x100 JPG found by Googling "camouflage."
Anyway, as for the game, there'll be close to an unknown quantity starting for us in Escobar, but it helps that the Astros have struggled against left-handed pitching. Their team line is .215/.304/.363, with an OPS of .666 that ranks 24th in the majors - the .215 batting average is ahead only of the Twins. But I'm still managing my expectations for Escobar's performance. Anything approaching a quality start would be fine, as that's an area we've struggled in - our QS rate is only 40%, which is well below the NL average of 51%, and ranks Ariona 13th in the league, above Cincinnati and Milwaukee. Hopefully, Escobar will be closer to a cure than the disease.