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That wheezing sound you hear is our bullpen in the corner, panting furiously after averaging 6.1 innings per game in the Padres series. Even with a day off, I don't there'd be any complaints from our relievers if Batista was to deliver a complete game. This was originally going to be Vargas, but his enforced outing on Wednesday leads to the rotation not getting a day off, with Batista working on his usual four day's rest.
While everyone else in the division gets to play their "natural rivals", we and the Braves are left in the corner, forced to dance with each other, because everyone else is out on the floor already. Mind you, we do have some history against the Braves: who can forget the 2001 post-season, or Johnson's perfect game, and it'll also give us a chance to see a couple of former D'backs, in Cormier and Villarreal. Both are doing well, with ERAs of 3.00 and 3.26, but Estrada is doing well for us too, so this trade looks like both sides should be happy.
The Braves were left adrift by the Mets in the first month of games; they have come back since, and are now just 3.5 games behind, having gone 8-2 in their last ten contests. They are still only one game above .500, however. As a random aside, wonder when was the last time we faced starting pitchers with the same name in back-to-back contests?
I'm thinking two out of three wins for Arizona: tomorrow's match-up, pitting Webb against some rookie should be a gimmie, but both today and Sunday could go either way, so a split seems likely. Talking Chop, the Braves SportsBlog, is calling it the other way, a 2-1 win for the visitors. We'll see.