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Diamondbacks Line-up
- A.J. Pollock, CF
- Didi Gregorius, SS
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
- Cody Ross, LF
- Miguel Montero, C
- Martin Prado, 2B
- Gerardo Parra, RF
- Josh Wilson, 2B
- Trevor Cahill, P
It's interesting to compare the line-up from the last time we won six in a row. Even though it was less than two years ago, of the thirteen players who appeared for us that day, nine are no longer with the organization in any capacity, and only two - Montero and Goldschmidt - will play this afternoon. Quite some wholesale changes since. Even the line-up which last faced Lee, and that was only August last year, has largely been revamped, with five of that day's starting eight now elsewhere, and Goldie the only man to return. Paul is 2-for-7 against Lee lifetime... But both of those hits are homers.
Elsewhere, Prado has had the most experience against Lee, having gone 6-for-26, albeit with no walks and nine strikeouts. The sitting of Eric Chavez, who is 2-for-19, is kinda understandable, although it's kinda interesting to see both Montero and Parra getting to start against one of the toughest of tough left-handed starters. On our side, Cahill had been excellent over the past month, with a 1.83 ERA over his last five starts, holding opposing hitters to a .221 average. Every one of our rotation put up a quality start this last time through, with a collective 2.62 ERA. Up to Cahill to keep the momentum going, as I suspect scoring chances will be hard to come by for us this afternoon.
We do need the victory, to keep us up with the Giants, who are blowing past the Braves in the third game of their set. A win for Arizona would give us a better record this year than Atlanta, a psychological edge for next week, and mean we'd be tied with San Francisco for the second-best record in the league. Top of the heap there are the Cardinals, who followed up their one-hitter of the Rockies yesterday, with a two-hit shutout this afternoon. As mentioned in the SnakeBytes comments, the two games included a streak of 40 consecutive Colorado hitters retired. Having gone 6-13 since April 20, the wheels are coming off that bus fairly quickly. Though, I guess, they're still not the Dodgers....