Game #154: Diamondbacks @ Giants: Preview, Lineup

Welcome to the first Storystream of the United era, and things will be a little bit different under the new scheme. Everything that's associated with the game will become part of the stream. That's beginning with this preview, moving on through the Gameday Thread, a quick post-game recap, and finally the full recap. So the stream will provide a one-stop shop for everything to do with this contest. At least, that's the basic principle, as worked out on Friday when we had a super, double secret Gameday Thread on the beta test. We'll see how it works out tonight.

That's fine for me, since no-one ever read the Gameday Thread intros anyway. :( We'll see if anyone pays attention when they're not rushing to the comments... It'll be Josh Collmenter's first start since July, but his 10th overall: the result have been a lot better when he works out of the bullpen, where he has a 1.32 ERA, compared to a 5.83 one as a member of the rotation. However, a lot of the latter may be down to his early struggles. When he returned to a starting role in June and July, over those five games his ERA was a much better 3.21. Which tells you how badly he pitched at the beginning of the season.

The Giants send up Tim Lincecum - or, as he's known in these parts, "Goldie's bitch." No, really: Goldschmidt is 7-for-13 with four home-runs against the two-time Cy Young winner, for a line of .538/.600/1.538 and a 2.138 OPS. That means, on average, Goldzilla is halfway between first and second every at-bat against Lincecum. Except, he's safe, and not thrown out. Er, put another way, Goldschmidt has one less hit off Timmeh in 13 AB, than Chris Young has in 51. Needless to say, Paul was the one running round the Arizona locker-room yesterday, with his shirt over his head, miming beer-drinking, when he heard Lincecum's start had been pushed back to today.

Of course, it's still Lincecum, who has a 3.08 ERA over 20 career starts against the Diamondbacks. So you never know. But it's a much less worrying prospect, given that in his last five starts versus Arizona, going back to August last year, Lincecum is 0-5 with a 5.52 ERA. Again, that probably tells you how much he dominated us up until that point. I'm wondering how motivated the Giants will be, since they don't have much chance of improving their seeding, being three back of the Reds (so they'll likely start against Cincinnati, without home advantage). Be nice to beat them, and guarantee ourselves at least a split of the season series.

Line-up

1. Adam Eaton CF
2. Aaron Hill 2B
3. Justin Upton RF
4. Miguel Montero C
5. Paul Goldschmidt 1B
6. Jason Kubel LF
7. Ryan Wheeler 3B
8. John McDonald SS
9. Josh Collmenter RHP