Dan Haren RHP, 7-5, 2.19

Ubaldo Jimenez RHP, 6-7, 3.75

We turn the page on the first-half of the season - probably with a shudder - and start on the second-half today. Here's to it being brighter and more successful. Certainly, with the best pitcher in the National League over the first half going for us today [and if Timcecum gets the start in the All-Star Game, it's going to be the biggest traveshamockery since Clemens beat Johnson for the Cy Young], it has the potential to start, at least, on the right foot.

Yes, it's Dan Haren, now making his third consecutive All-Star game, going for Arizona today. As noted previously, he was simply phenomenal in June: six starts, each seven innings or more, never more than two runs in any of them, and an ERA for the month of 1.64. Here's to him continuing that in Coors: if he does, it'll be eight such games in a row, the longest streak in the majors since Matt Morris in 2001.

And with that, I'll get this up, since I got completely distracted by the announcement that Haren and Upton are on the All-Star rosters, and Reynolds is on the final man ballot - and the subsequent voting thereof. So, without further ado, on to the line-up:

Line-up

1. Felipe Lopez 2B
2. Alex Romero LF
3. Stephen Drew SS
4. Mark Reynolds 3B
5. Miguel Montero C
6. Chris Young CF
7. Gerardo Parra RF
8. Chad Tracy 1B
9. Dan Haren P

All-star he may be, but no spot for Upton in today's Diamondbacks' line-up - that should keep his hat-size in check! Both Young and Lopez return to the line-up, with Drew dropping back into the three-hole as usual. I like this line-up: not least because it doesn't have Tony Clark or Augie Ojeda in it. I smell runs, and a series victory. Let's do it!

Yusmeiro Petit RHP, 0-3, 8.03

Aaron Cook RHP, 8-3, 3.77

First things first: tomorrow is scheduled to be a spot-starter on the recap, so if anyone is still interested in writing about the team, speak up in the comments and let me now. It's a Dan Haren start, so the Diamondbacks might not suck as much as usual.

Today marks the end of my month of sobriety. I usually try to knock off the alcohol for a month each year, give my liver a chance to recover - this year, it was June, but I got out of the habit of drinking, so it carried over a bit into July. However, Mrs. SnakePit came back from the supermarket today with a twelve-pack of Blue Moon, and I will be taking full advantage of it during this afternoon's start. To borrow a quote - and bonus points if you know what film this is from - "My advice to you, is to start drinking heavily."

The reason for this is simple. Petit has the highest home-run rate among pitchers with 150+ career innings pitched. Not "active" pitchers: that's all pitchers in the entire history of baseball. He's the only one above two per nine IP, at a rate of 2.14. Sending him to start in Coors Field therefore seems like... well, to borrow a quote from another movie:
   "This is madness!"
   "Madness? This is your 2009 Diamondbacks!"

Lineup

   1. Stephen Drew SS
   2. Alex Romero LF
   3. Justin Upton RF
   4. Mark Reynolds 3B
   5. Miguel Montero C
   6. Gerardo Parra CF
   7. Chad Tracy 1B
   8. Augie Ojeda 2B
   9. Yusmeiro Petit P

Interesting line-up. No Young and no Lopez, perhaps the two most obvious targets for Reynolds' carefully-chosen words in last night's post-game comments. Drew moves back to lead-off, in Felipe's absence. We'll see what effect Special K's diatribe had on his team-mates. I'll be watching with interest, but reserve the right to get completely drunk and not produce a very coherent recap.

Max Scherzer RHP, 5-5, 3.67

Jorge De La Rosa LHP, 4-7, 5.64

Weird start time here: from what I can see, first pitch will be at 6:10pm in Denver, an hour earlier than I thought it would be. Maybe it's a bizarre plan to discomfort the Diamondbacks, who arrived there after another one-run loss, dropping a series despite their pitching allowing only six runs over the three games. We also extended our streak of losing one-run games - that's six of our last ten defeats, and we haven't been on the right side of one since June 11. Perhaps it's an omen that Max was the winner in that one?

Scherzer's ERA+ is 123; third-best on the Diamondbacks, behind Haren (206) and Davis (144). No other team in the majors have a trio of qualifying pitchers so good, and only a handful have two; indeed, four teams, including the Rockies, don't have a single such starter. It's clearly not the front of the rotation that's been the problem for Arizona in 2009. Max's last start wasn't up to much, though his defense has to be held largely responsible, tagging him for five unearned runs in a fifth inning where they gave the Angels six outs. None of that today, please.

Though, actually, the Rockies pitching hasn't been bad - though their top guy, Jimenez, has an ERA+ worse than our #3, it's not by much, at 121, and he's closely followed by Cook (120), Marquis (117) and Hammel (116). The good news is, tonight, we face the #5, former D-back de la Rosa, though he never reached the majors with us. He  was actually a D-backs twice: he initially signed as an amateur free-agent, then came back from Boston in the Schilling trade, left for Milwaukee in the Sexson deal, and then went through Kansas City on his way to Denver. I feel fairly confident we can take him down. We certainly should...

And this one's for Poseidon's Fist, who seemed alarmed at some of the methods previously used here to get the offense going, specifically, the threatening of defenseless animals unless positive action resulted. In deference to his sensitivities (hah! I bet he's kind to children and the elderly too!), we'll go the other way with the incentive program today:

Win, and we'll kill Barney

Line-up

1. Felipe Lopez 2B
2. Ryan Roberts 3B
3. Justin Upton RF
4. Mark Reynolds 1B
5. Gerardo Parra LF
6. Chris Young CF
7. Luke Carlin C
8. Augie Ojeda SS
9. Max Scherzer P

Ryan Roberts starting? Really? And in the two-hole? 2-for-37 in the past month? Well, that's the quota of question-marks used up for this Gameday Thread, and with the pitch increasing at the end of each sentence, I now sound like I'm communicating with dolphins. Should be about for much of this one, having got the day off work: yeah, I thought today was the fourth, but that's tomorrow. When I'm not working tomorrow, though I had to actually take a vacation day for that. You'll understand my confusion...

Doug Davis LHP, 3-8, 3.28

Aaron Harang RHP, 5-8, 3.95

Get your Sausage McMuffin and your caffeinated beverage of choice, because it's time for breakfast baseball - a day game on the East coast means that first pitch takes place at the time most of us in Arizona will be stretching, yawning and thinking about beginning the day. At least I won't have to worry about staying up late in order to write the recap, since I should be able to have it done in my lunch-break.

Rubber game of the series, which has so far been dominated by starting pitching, with only Arroyo's performance in the opener blotting an otherwise almost impeccable copybook as far as that goes. Doug Davis goes out there, knowing that so far, the only way to get the W, is pitching shutout baseball: one run has been enough to doom him otherwise. It's a startling record, which generates a new fun stat each time. Here's todays: Davis currently has an ERA+ of 139: only one pitcher in the past 20 years has had that good a season and a Win% of below .400 - Jim Abbott, who went 7-15 for the 1992 Angels, with a 2.77 ERA. Doug's Win% is currently .273.

Anyway, no idea what the line-up is going to be at this point. I'm writing this at 10pm and scheduling it to hit the Internet some time before I hit consciousness. I'm sure someone more awake than I will fill in the blanks...

Lineup

1. Feiipe Lopez 2B
2. Stephen Drew SS
3. Justin Upton RF
4. Mark Reynolds 3B
5. Gerardo Parra CF
6. Miguel Montero C
7. Chad Tracy 1B
8. Alex Romero LF
9. Doug Davis P

Looks like I'm the only mod awake enough yet. :-) Young sits, which is interesting: I wonder if he is still having an issue with his groin? Romero gets the start in LF, with Parra moving over to CF.

Jon Garland RHP, 4-7, 5.04

Johnny Cueto RHP, 8-6, 5.54

And the calendar turns to July. Let's hope the results for the Diamondbacks this month are a little better than June's 9-17 - though that bald statistic conceals some interesting numbers, which I'll be writing about this evening, while Azreous does the recap. Looks like a bit of an uneven match-up here, with Cueto (career ERA vs. Arizona, 2.37) going up against Garland, who had one of his 'bad' outings in May against Cincinnati, giving up seven runs and having to be bailed out before getting through four innings.

If only we could play eight Uptons, since he's the only one who really had a handle on Cueto - he's 3-for-6, with all three hits being for extra-bases, and two leaving the park. Parra and, of all people, Augie Ojeda, have also gone deep off Cueto, but overall, the current Diamondbacks are batting sub-Uecker, having gone 9-for-46 combined agsinst the Reds' pitcher. In contrast, Cincinnati are hitting .351 off Garland, with Brandon Phillips (6-for-14, five for extra-bases) leading the hit parade.

Good news about Brandon Webb not needing surgery, though part of me grumbles about having done all that research into labrums, needlessly. :-) Here's to him making a triumphant return in September and performing in such a way as to make picking up his 2010 option a lock, as it was before this season began.

Lineup

1. Felipe Lopez 2B
2. Stephen Drew SS
3. Justin Upton RF
4. Mark Reynolds 3B
5. Gerardo Parra LF
6. Chris Young CF
7. Miguel Montero C
8. Chad Tracy 1B
9. Jon Garland P

Tracy gets his first action since coming back off the DL, with Reynolds returning to third-base. Otherwise, business pretty much as usual for the line-up. Finally, some audio from Dan Haren on the Doug and Wolf show this morning.

Audio courtesy of KTAR 620

Matt Palmer RHP, 6-1, 4.70

Max Scherzer RHP, 5-4, 3.53

The _____ disaster / train wreck / collapse / or whatever you want to call it of a season, has just gone from bad to worse, with our beloved ______ being traded to St. Louis for basically blades of infield grass. INEXCUSABLE [Insert GMs name]! MAKE A MOVE OR RESIGN!

As a quick reality check for Diamondbacks fans out there, I present the above - which does not actually refer to us but comes from Bleed Cubbie Blue, in a fanpost entitled, Jim Hendry Should Resign Immediately. This, from a team which is currently 3.5 games out of first place. It seems fans of some other teams have an even more unrealistic sense of entitlement to success than the nattering nabobs on azcentral.com.

That said, I think I'm suffering from some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder after the past two games in this series. I'm not sure which was worse: the horrific pitching performance of Buckner in the opener, or the appalling way in which the team contrived to lose yesterday's opener. I feel a poll coming on. Today...well, let's just say my hopes for the game are set realistically low: say, if we can get through it without Max Scherzer's rotator cuff being torn out by hyenas, I'll consider myself satisfied.

Random notes. I want to wish a happy birthday to Mark Grace, born on this day in 1964. Did you know his middle name is 'Eugene'? And I just might watch the 10th Inning show after today's game, as they've got a surprise reunion between Jay Bell and the woman who won a million dollars thanks to Bell's grand slam in 1999. Hey, and Billy Mays died [no, this isn't more Twittered nonsense]. Not been a good week for celebrities, has it?

Lineup

1. Felipe Lopez 2B
2. Stephen Drew SS
3. Justin Upton RF
4. Mark Reynolds 1B
5. Gerardo Parra CF
6. Miguel Montero C
7. Alex Romero LF
8. Augie Ojeda 3B
9. Max Scherzer P

'Charmer on the recap, though she will likely have to pried away from the Team USA soccer game first. soco and 'Skins are actually in attendance [so we'll be getting an eye-witness report from them, I trust], so we'll see how many comments we get in the thread. 'Charmer is projecting less than 200, so let's see if we can prove her wrong...of course, the Diamondbacks co-operation - y'know, not sucking? - would also be appreciated...

John Lackey RHP, 2-3, 5.83

Doug Davis LHP, 3-8, 3.53

Great. This game is on Fox, so the entire nation gets to see Arizona getting humiliatingly beaten, if today is anything like the opening game of the series. However, the good news is it's the third game on Fox's slate, behind the Cubs-White Sox and Red Sox-Braves, so the odds are, no-one outside of Arizona and Anaheim will actually notice that it's taking place. Which is alright by me.

Not heard yet who has been called up to replace Buckner on the roster, but I'm thinking it may well be a relief pitcher, to help ease the burden on the pen after they pitched a total of 13 innings in the past couple of games. We definitely need Doug Davis to go deep into the game tonight - I suspect he'll be throwing at least 100 pitches, basically regardless of what the score might be.

Davis is, of course, the best eight-game loser in the major leagues, with an ERA+ of 130, despite a 3-8 record. To put that into context, only one qualifying pitcher in the history of baseball has had such a good ERA+, and such a poor Win % over an entire season. That would be Ned Garvin in 1904, who pitched for the Brooklyn Superbas and New York Highlanders, and went 5-16, posting an ERA of 1.72. Now, that's what I call poor run support. Time for some regression to the mean. Davis to pitch seven innings, allowing eight earned runs, but the offense pays his back by scoring eleven. Hey, we can but hope...

Lineup

1. Felipe Lopez 2B
2. Stephen Drew SS
3. Justin Upton RF
4. Mark Reynolds 3B
5. Gerardo Parra CF
6. Tony Clark 1B
7. Miguel Montero C
8. Alex Romero LF
9. Doug Davis P

Chris Young out of the lineup again. I did notice that he seemed less like a thoroughbred running the bases last night, and more like a Clydesdale. With arthritis. On ice. The bad news is, if he does end up having to go on the DL, yesterday's appearance resets the 15-day clock.

Jered Weaver RHP, 7-3, 2.53

Billy Buckner RHP, 2-4, 7.15

Ok. Hopefully, we should be back in full effect tonight. The last I heard from Mrs. SnakePit, there was a grumpy Cox employee traipsing round the house, muttering about the outmoded technology currently in place - the phone line was apparently installed by Alexander Graham Bell, or something. However, the hope is that the cable will be back on, so I can see the game, and even if I have to hijack SnakePit Jr's computer [the one to which the Internet is directly attached], I should be good for a recap of some sort tonight. Expect confirmation, once I get home, in the GDT, however - until that arrives, hopefully someone can take over [I think soco or kishi are next up in the rotation?]

After a disappointing comeback and extra-inning loss last night, another American League club comes to town, in the shape of the Angels. Their 38-32 record, means they are ferociously fighting with the Rangers for the lead in the West, which is weird, since neither their hitting [OPS+ 98] nor their pitching [ERA+ 96] are better than average. Most of the difference is because they are very good in one-run games, where they are 14-9 - their Pythagorean expected W-L record is dead even.

Billy Buckner goes for the Diamondbacks, back in the unhappy hunting ground which has been Chase Field for him. Is there anyone who has pitched as many innings [almost 40] and has a home ERA more than five times that of his road ERA? That's the case for Buckner, who is at 2.33 away from Chase, and 11.90 here. The long-ball has killed him, with seven allowed in Phoenix, over just 19.2 frames of work: keeping the ball in the park tonight should therefore be his first order of business.

Lineup

1. Felipe Lopez 2B
2. Stephen Drew SS
3. Justin Upton RF
4. Mark Reynolds 3B
5. Gerardo Parra LF
6. Chris Young CF
7. Tony Clark 1B
8. Luke Carlin C
9. Billy Buckner P

Some interesting changes in the line-up. With Byrnes off to the DL [not heard yet who'll replace him], we do get Young back, and I think the young outfield trio will be the default for a while. We also get the first Arizona start for catcher Luke Carlin, called up to replace Chris Snyder.

Stay tuned for confirmation regarding my Internet status...