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A somewhat later start tonight, so the Diamondbacks and Dodgers can play on national TV over on ESPN - so the whole country will get to see the nightmare unfolding in the eighth inning. Ok, it's not certain, but last night was the eighteenth time this year we've allowed four runs or more in that frame - the next-ranked Nationals have just 13, with the MLB average all the way down at only 7.7 times. It's beyond a joke, but then, we stopped laughing about it several months ago, except in a kind of gallows humor way.
Tonight, we send our ace Dan to the mound, but its an intriguing match-up, as he takes on former team-mate Jon. I did think about taking down the Garland vs. Johnson watch, but the point of it - that signing Garland was a better move than signing RJ - remains, even as Garland now pitches for the Dodgers [and I didn't see anyone trading a prospect, even one to be named later, for the Big Unit...] However, after struggling through six consecutive defeats, I'll be quite happy to see an L by his name tonight.
I can't help feeling that we aren't necessarily trying too hard to "win" right now; things like the pattern of bullpen usage suggests we're trying out people to see how they cope with an eye to 2010, rather than who might give us the best chance of winning a game in 2009. Normally, a 'save situation' in the eighth would probably be turned over to Juan Gutierrez, but he never appeared - instead, the unholy cocktail of Blaine Boyer, Daniel Schlereth and Esmerling Vasquez got to blow the lead instead. The same goes for line-up construction, which has seemed...well, let's just say 'whimsical', over the past couple of days, and leave it at that...
Line-up
- Ryan Roberts 2B
- Stephen Drew SS
- Justin Upton RF
- Mark Reynolds 3B
- Miguel Montero C
- Chris Young CF
- Eric Byrnes LF
- Chad Tracy 1B
- Dan Haren P
Azreous on the recap, which gives me the capability of slinking off to do something more fun if this game sucks like most of the past week have done. At least I won't have to rely on the GDT to keep me updated, which proved a somewhat less than satisfactory method of following proceedings last night! Sure we'll see some Rockies fans appearing after their game finishes: somewhat in two minds on this, since one senses the interest in at least some cases is not so much for Arizona, as against the Dodgers. I think I have rather more tolerance for those who have a track record here, not just when we play LA. Still, we are hardly in any position to pick and choose support!