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There are only two starters in the NL who have four wins in their four starts. Both of them pitch in the NL West and both start tonight, trying to shut down high-powered offenses - Tim Lincecum against the Phillies and Jimenez at Coors against the Diamondbacks. Only Milwaukee have scored more runs in the NL than Philadelphia and Arizona. Yep: you may not be used to hearing the words "Arizona" and "high-powered offense" together, but the team's current .811 OPS has only been bettered by one month since July 2006 [April 2008, when we hit .813] But we'll see how that holds up against a pitcher who has been rather good so far...
Line-up and other stuff after the jump. Let's hope for a quick game so we can cheer on the Coyotes in Game 7.
- Kelly Johnson 2B
- Stephen Drew SS
- Justin Upton RF
- Mark Reynolds 3B
- Adam LaRoche 1B
- Chris Young CF
- Gerardo Parra LF
- Chris Snyder C
- Edwin Jackson RHP
Parra back in the line-up, his finger hopefully no longer twice the size it was. I was initially comforted by the fact that only one of Jimenez's starts have been at Coors, but in his career, his ERA is actually half a run lower in Denver than on the road. So I am trying to forget I ever looked at that. The best numbers among current Diamondbacks are Stephen Drew (6-for-20) and Adam LaRoche (4-for-8), but Justin Upton is 0-for-12 with six strikeouts. The way he has been swinging of late, I'm not optimistic that will turn around tonight.
Jackson continues to roll up ground-balls at an impressive rate: his current GO/AO ratio of 2.32 ranks seventh in the National League. That should certainly play well in Coors, but I think the question is more what will happen when the unstoppable force of Arizona's offense meets the immovable object of Ubaldo Jimenez. I won't be about much for this one, as I'm helping Mrs. SnakePit's sister move, but should be back in time to do the recap.