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Odd phrase starting off mlb.com's preview for tonight's pitching matchup: "Hernandez hasn't been the pitcher the D-Backs thought they were acquiring when they got him from Washington." Actually, so far, he's been pretty much what I expected: 1-4 with a 4.84 ERA, but vacuuming up innings at a welcome rate, going almost seven innings per outing so far. The main problem is, he's simply been too easy to hit, giving up more knocks than innings every start - 48 all told, in only 34.2 frames.
We lost last night, with only two rookies in the lineup, though Arizona certainly had their chances to come back into this one - I'm looking at you, Messrs. Clark and Byrnes. It'd be nice to see Quentin and Jackson back in the lineup tonight: the latter seems more likely than the former, though Byrnes might move over to CF and let Quentin in there. No doubt who'll be playing in LF: the Luis Gonzalez Farewell Tour continues with a celebration to mark a large, but fairly unimportant, number of doubles being hit by Gonzalez. In an ironic twist, I notice tonight is also Singles Night at Chase Field...
Rewarding someone for doubles just seems a bit weird. It seems like a bit of a consolation prize of doubtful meaning, almost a made-up award. Quick: anyone know who the single-season leader for doubles is? Earl Webb: 67 in 1933. Okay, fair enough, that was seventy-plus years ago. So who led the majors last season? If you know it was Derrek Lee and Miguel Tejada, with 50 apiece...well done, and now get a life. :-) Or do you think Gonzo now wishes those 57 homers he hit in 2001 had stayed inside the park to boost his doubles tally? Oh, well: congratulations, anyway!
Will be here, but perhaps a little after first pitch, since I've got a bunch of stuff to take care of [not the least of which is a meat-encrusted pizza 8-)]. Here's to a better result than last night - and, more importantly, a significantly increased rookie quotient.