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Good news and bad news today. The good news is, we're facing a Giants starter who hasn't shut down the Diamondbacks this season. The bad news is, that's because we haven't faced him yet. Cain is the poster-child for why wins are a poor means of evaluating a pitcher: in the past two seasons, he's produced ERA+ of 122 and 116, yet has a W-L record of only 15-30, thanks to truly wretched run-support. Welcome to the Giants offense post-Bonds, Matt. We'll be hoping for more of the same in this afternoon's contest. with San Francisco return to the level of output we saw by the bay, rather than in the desert.
We send out Jon Garland, who bounced back very nicely after a poor second outing, to take the win in his last start, allowing one earned run in almost seven innings of work. Control was definitely the key, as he walked only two, a major improvement over the five in 3.2 innings during his previous appearance. He also struck out five, the most since July 20th last season. Like Cain versus the D-backs, he hasn't faced the Giants this season, so we'll see who adapts first to their new opponent. Hopefully it will be Arizona: the Diamondbacks may have already lost this series, but a win today would avoid the sweep and give them something to take into the Cubs series.
I am feeling pretty amped for this one, since I recently acquired the complete works of Front Line Assembly. have slammed them into heavy rotation on iTunes, and so will be listening at high volume to albums like Complete Total Terror, Gashed Sense + Crossfire and the ever-popular singalong favorite, Tactical Neural Implant between now and first pitch. Should be about for most of this one, though we may have to leave before the end, depending on how it goes - we've got a comedy show in a lesbian bar to run tonight. Long story... Dahlian will be on the recap for the first time this season - and no animals will be hurt in the course of today's game, however. So that's nice.
Lineup
- Lopez 2B
- Ojeda SS
- Jackson LF
- Tracy 1B
- Reynolds 3B
- Byrnes CF
- Upton RF
- Montero C
- Garland P
Young gets the day off in CF, which may be wise since he's 3-for-28 since the start of the previous series against the Giants, a streak that has seen his average drop from .257 to .190. Ojeda at short, and with Drew on the DL, we'd better get used to seeing that for a bit: Montero gets the start over Snyder: that may be performance-related [Chris has only one hit in his past 22 at-bats, which is positively Clarkian] or simply because it's a day game after a night one.
Update. Two roster moves were made before the game: Josh Wilson will replace Stephen Drew, who's being placed on the DL. And the ongoing struggles of Doug Slaten have earned him an option to Reno, with Esmerling Vazquez getting called up to take his spot. Here's Melvin's thoughts on both moves
Audio courtesy of KTAR 620