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It's safe to say that both starters will be seeking to improve on their first starts of the season, what with a combined ERA of 24.00 'n' all. I think there's no doubt why the team didn't use Wade Miley last night, even after arguably the worst start in Daniel Hudson's time with the Diamondbacks. He was being held back for today, in case this evening brings the coming of the ApoCollmenterylypse. I think the plan will be to hope for the Thing With Two Heads to get through seven innings - exact ratio to be determined - and then turn it over to Hernandez and Putz for the last couple of frames to seal the victory, perhaps with a scattering of Joe Paterson if necessary.
Line-up and stuff after the jump. Wailord will be delivering his first recap of the season, though I expect something of an exodus around 7pm Arizona time, to follow the Coyotes game as they try to go 2-0 up over the Blackhawks. That's if this one goes ahead: batting practice was ended early at Coors, with a tarp on the field instead. Forecast for the evening is distinctly iffy, and gets iffier as it goes, with a 45% chance of rain by 7:45pm local. Which would have been about the end of the third inning in last night's game. We'll keep an eye on this.
- Ryan Roberts 3B
- Gerardo Parra LF
- Justin Upton RF
- Miguel Montero C
- Chris Young CF
- Lyle Overbay 1B
- Aaron Hill 2B
- John McDonald SS
- Josh Collmenter P
Bloomquist not leading off: less, I suspect, because Kirk Gibson reads Fangraphs, than because Willie simply isn't in the line-up. Looks like we are going for defense today, with Parra starting in left and McDonald at short. It's Jackie Robinson Day, so everyone will be wearing #42 in honor of the occasion. Wailord, I am expecting a Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference in the recap somewhere.
Bit of trivia from Stats Inc. "Each of the D-backs' fi rst seven games have been decided by 2 runs or less, marking just the 4th time since 1980 that has been accomplished in MLB...in 1986, the Padres and Dodgers each started the season with 10 consecutive games decided by 2 runs or less and in 1997, the Angels had 7 such games to start the year."