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"So, are the Diamondbacks ever going to play again?" asked Mrs. SnakePit last night on the drive home. It certainly seems like quite a while since we last played, thanks to the All-Star break and a bonus day off after it. We now gird our loins for the second-half of the year; here's to it being an imprvement over the first. Though an interesting factoid - since Hinch took over, we actually have a better record (26-34) than we did over games #30-89 last season (24-36), when the team enjoyed a healthy Brandon Webb.
Chris Carpenter has been a revelation this year for the Cardinals, all doubts about his health being flushed away with a first-half ERA of 2.47. However, part of me wants to point out, that's based on a BABIP of .240, which is the second-lowest in the majors and likely unsustainable [Carpenter's career number is .301]. It's only part of me, because the lowest figure - at .233 and thus equally unsustainable - belongs to Dan Haren. Dear baseball gods: please ensure some heathy regression to the mean for Carpenter, starting tonight, but allow Dan Haren to continue beating the odds the remainder of the season. KTHXBAI.
Jon Garland goes for Arizona, having broken his winless streak last time out against Florida, with one of his best outings of the season - eight innings of one-run ball. He got smacked about pretty badly the last time he faced the Cardinals, back in April, allowing seven runs in 3.2 innings. However, that was at Chase and with Chris Snyder catching him, two factors which have been unfavorable for Garland this year. Carpenter, incidentally, also pitched against us that series - he left after three scoreless innings with a rib injury that sidelined him for five weeks, and we won 7-6 in ten innings, on a walk-off hit by Eric Byrnes. It did take threats to baby pandas to achieve victory, that day so let's see how we do without such encouragment.
Line-up
- Felipe Lopez 2B
- Stephen Drew SS
- Justin Upton RF
- Mark Reynolds 3B
- Miguel Montero C
- Gerardo Parra LF
- Chris Young CF
- Josh Whitesell 1B
- Jon Garland P
Whitesell at first. I'm kinda wondering how close this is going to look to our line-up for Opening Day 2010. Different pitcher, I guess, and maybe Jackson in LF rather than Parra. Lopez may or may not be at second too, but at the moment, there's not really any alternatives on the radar.