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Woo-hoo! First trip to Chase Field of the season for us this evening, to attend JenFest '09 - yes, all three editors (myself, 'charmer and 'Skins) will be in the same place at the same time, in flagrant contravention of SB Nation security guidelines. So, Azreous: if a plane falls into the park tonight, you're in charge, ok? We're currently debating whether to do the whole Park and Ride thing and take the light-rail down, but that may depend on how the SnakePitMobile - still suffering from a tendency to overheat - is feeling. Regardless, looking forward to it all.
We didn't face Marquis last time the Rockies were here, a scant two weeks ago, but he's pitched very well, earning wins over two reigning division champions, in the shape of the Phillies and the Cubs, including seven innings of one-run ball at Wrigley on Wednesday. But he's still an average pitcher [career ERA+ of 97], so I'm not anointing him among the front-runners for the Cy Young at this point. Where he is definitely not average is with the bat: he has as many hits this season as Eric Byrnes, but is 3-for-5 rather than 3-for-26, and more RBI than Snyder, Upton and Montero combined. Garland had better pitch carefully to Marquis, a career .211 hitter.
Indeed, the second clause in that sentence is somewhat redundant. I just hope we get Jon Garland v1.0 - the one who gave us a quality start in his first game - rather than the sequel, where he walked five and allowed seven hits before getting through the fourth inning. I know he pitches to contact, but an overall K:BB ratio of 2:8 is definitely not what we want to see. We need Garland to show us that signing him rather than Johnson was not a mistake; getting back on track this evening will help wash the sour taste of being one-hit by the Big Unit out of our mouths. But it's to the hitters we look, in order to turn this thing around - and pour encourager les autres, as Voltaire said, here's a little bit of incentive for the Arizona D-bears.
You'll notice I got specific on the number, since certain people got all rules lawyerish on my ass after i used the words 'some runs' last time. :-) 'charmer is on recap duty tonight - probably wise since [especially if we take the light-rail] I won't be in keyboard range until quite late. Maybe we should stop off at Denny's on the way home, test out the D-backs discount!
Lineup
- Ojeda SS
- Jackson LF
- Lopez 2B
- Tracy 1B
- Reynolds 3B
- Young CF
- Montero C
- Upton RF
- Garland/P