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Yeah, that's not a typo on Marquis's ERA: it's what happens when you allow 21 earned runs in 12.1 innings of work. His four starts have not gone as well as hoped, it's safe to say, though his last outing actually lowered the number by more than five runs, as he allowed two earned runs in four innings against the Dodgers. The start before that, he faced seven Milwaukee batters, retired none, and all of them ended up scoring. Not quite what the Nationals had in mind when they signed Marquis to a two-year, $15m contract this winter.
Line-up and stuff after the jump.
- Chris Young CF
- Kelly Johnson 2B
- Justin Upton RF
- Adam LaRoche 1B
- Miguel Montero C
- Mark Reynolds 3B
- Stephen Drew SS
- Gerardo Parra LF
- Ian Kennedy RHP
It's hard to say why Marquis has struggled so much. From 2004 to 2009, only Oswalt and Zambrano had more wins in the National League than him, and he was a 15-game winner for the Rockies with an ERA+ of 113 last season. Despite batting .238 against Marquis as a franchise, the Diamondbacks have done a good job of handling him well enough - in eleven career starts, he only has two victories against us, with a 4.12 ERA. The current roster hits him at a .261 clip: Chris Young is 4-for-16, but three of those hits didn't come back. Mark Reynolds is 4-for-11 with a homer, and the best OPS of those with double-figure PAs.
Still: if we can't beat Marquis v.2010 today, then the return of Tankapalooza would seem fully justified. Not that Kennedy has been too impressive of late. In fact, you have to go all the way back to June 20th to find his last quality starting. This will be his ninth outing since then, with a 6.34 ERA over that time. Not good, and one wonders whether it's getting close to the time to stick a fork in Kennedy's 2010. He'll hit 140 innings this afternoon - unless he decides to emulate the Marquis game noted earlier. Hopefully not.