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After yesterday's heavyweight contest, let's hope for something a bit more tidily-pitched - from Dan Haren, at least. Much talk in the off-season about how he and Brandon Webb pick each other up: this evening would be a perfect time to demonstrate that. It would also help out the bullpen if he were to give the team seven or so innings: and if the offense can take care of things too, so that a solid, healthy lead can be handed over to the bullpen, I don't think anyone clad in Sedona Red would object too much. Yesterday, all told, the bullpen did their job, allowing only two runs in five innings, but it was a patchwork effort, with performances varying from the highly-impressive to the deeply-disturbing.
On the hitting side, we face flamethrower Ubaldo Jimenez, who has caused some problems for Arizona in the past - he has a 2.77 ERA against us in 26 innings, with 30 strikeouts, but has yet to taste victory, mostly due to poor run-support [in just one of the four starts have his team-mates scored more than four] Curious to see how Bob Melvin constructs the line-up: dare he drop Tony Clark after his two-homer day yesterday? Not much track-record for him to go on, with Drew's 13 PA's the most for any Diamondback. Chris Young has probably had the best success, going 4-for-9 with two doubles, and Chad Tracy's 3-for-6 with a homer is not bad either. No-one else has more than a couple of hits.
I am reluctant to make any predictions for tonight, after the topsy-turvy world which we entered last night. The roof should be open, which will make the ball fly even better, but I can't bring myself to expect that. Haren was probably the most impressive of our rotation this spring, but I am reluctant to put any stock in that either. A quality start from him will be fine: anything more than that would be very welcome, but I'm not relying on it. I'll be at The Sets for IZW tonight, so will be about, wi-fi permitting, if largely relying on the Gameday Thread to keep me updated. Clear, concise descriptions of game action would therefore be appreciated. :-)
Update. Here's the lineup:
- Lopez, 2B
- Young, CF
- Drew, SS
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Tracy
- Jackson, LF
- Montero, C
- Reynolds, 3B
- Upton, RF
- Haren, P