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Mark Reynolds' favorite pitcher shows up at Chase tonight: Reynolds met Figueroa last August 3, at Citi Field: Mark swatted the first pitch he saw to deep left-center, and in his next at-bat, the following inning, went the other way for another homer. So, 2-for-2 with two home-runs,. and he's far from the only hitter we've got to have had good success against the veteran journeyman. Current D-backs have a collective line of 12-for-24, giving them a line of .500/.538/.958 - an OPS of 1.497. That's a good bit better than the .545 off JA Happ, whom Figueroa is replacing in the rotation.
Line-up and details after the jump.
- Kelly Johnson 2B
- Stephen Drew SS
- Justin Upton RF
- Mark Reynolds 3B
- Adam LaRoche 1B
- Chris Young CF
- Gerardo Parra LF
- Chris Snyder C
- Adam Kennedy RHP
Same as last night, with the exception of Parra replacing Cole Gillespie, since it's a right-hander on the mound. I'm hopefully that the team will continue to have their hitting shoes back on at home
Chase: .286/.357/.507 = .865 OPS
Road: .241/.325/.373 = .698 OPSThis would explain why we have scored 6.3 runs per game at home so far, compared to only 4.2 away from Phoenix. Admittedly, our road series being in Petco and Chavez Ravine are not helping things, but it's still something of a stark contrast.
We will rely on Kennedy to do as solid a job of keeping the Phillies big bats quiet, as Kris Benson did last night. Only a couple of the Phillies have ever faced him, so the benefit of unfamiliarity will be on our side for once. I'm hopeful, after a somewhat unexpected win last night, that we can build upon this and take tonight's game - that would give us the series and present us with the potential to sweep tomorrow and get a 4-2 homestand. That would be fine: however, let's do this one game at a time, shall we?
Elsewhere, Nick Piecoro tweets that we "have not yet signed Wagner Mateo." Apparently, it's contingent on him passing his medical, which I imagine is not as much a done deal as is generally the case. $512K is the amount in question.