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NOTE: Afternoon game today, since it's the home opener for Los Angeles.
My usual rule of thumb is that a team should look to win about two-thirds of home games and half of road ones. If you can do that, you'll be at 94-95 wins and set fair for the post-season. So far, so good for the Diamondbacks, who went 4-2 on the homestand, albeit against teams not expected to be contenders. Things now get tougher, as Arizona go on the road, facing Los Angeles in a three-game set, before heading down the coast for a rematch against the Padres. Anything better than a 3-3 road trip would be very, very acceptable.
More thoughts, line-up, etc. after the jump.
The Diamondbacks offense certainly enjoyed the home-stand, pounding out 6.8 runs/game - the Phillies are the only other team in the NL above six.Averaging two homers per game, the best rate in the league, will tend to do that to your production. Otherwise, however, our BABIP of .297 was almost exactly in line with NL average (.294) - that's something the Dodgers (.339) certainly can't say, so we'll hope for them to start hitting balls at people and regress towards the mean this series. They have still lost both series played so far, albeit three of the four games lost being by a one-run margin.
Kennedy made really only one mistake in his first game; unfortunately, Scott Hairston deposited it into the bleachers for a three-run homer. We'll want him to avoid that sort of thing this time. Kershaw only survived 4.2 innings in his first start, walking six at Pittsburgh but escaped with a no-decision. However, last year, he was a different beast in Chavez Ravine, where he had a 1.83 ERA. The Dodgers should also have Andre Ethier back, having missed the last four games with an ankle issue. My fantasy team thanks him...
Body-clock is still out of whack. Woke up this morning at 5:30am, so we caught up with some Tivo'd televisual treats in the shape of MI-5, Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Nurse Jackie. So it's probably a good thing this is a day game, since I'm not sure how long I'll be staying up! Of course, I'll be at work for this one, so my participation may be limited: you can also check out the FoxSportsArizona.com game chat with Jack Magruder, for another view on the game.
- LF Conor Jackson
- SS Stephen Drew
- RF Justin Upton
- 1B Adam LaRoche
- 3B Mark Reynolds
- CF Chris Young
- 2B Kelly Johnson
- C Chris Snyder
- RHP Ian Kennedy