Preview: Game #40, Diamondbacks vs. Braves

Julio Teheran RHP, 2-0, 4.84

Patrick Corbin LHP, 5-0, 1.75

Diamondbacks Line-up

1. Gerardo Parra, RF
2. Didi Gregorius, SS
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Eric Chavez, 3B
5. Martin Prado, LF
6. Miguel Montero, C
7. A.J. Pollock, CF
8. Cliff Pennington, 2B
9. Patrick Corbin, P

Last night, I watched a drama about the Spanish Civil War called Libertinas (rather dry and politically heavy-handed for my tastes), then caught the last hour of Monday Night Raw, and finished off with two episodes of The Thick of It, all completely untroubled by the Diamondbacks. Then I checked Twitter. I think I'm still mopping the blood out of my keyboard. Wow. Of course, Justin Upton's performance last night doesn't "prove" anything about the trade, any more than his going 0-for-5 would have. But if Kevin Towers had to envisage a nightmare scenario, I imagine Upton and Chris Johnson going 7-for-9 with five RBI would have been close to it.

We turn to Patrick Corbin tonight, to stem the bleeding which is our current three-game losing streak, and do a better job of keeping the Braves in check than Wade Miley did. So far, he has been reliable in that department, all seven of his starts having gone six or more innings, and with no more than two runs allowed. Frankly, the way the hitters have been playing of late - now, with a total of nine runs scored in the five games this homestand - even allowing two runs feels almost like it would be an offensive milestone to overcome. Montero, Pollock and Jason Kubel have all been hitting particularly poorly, and are below the Uecker Line over that stretch.

But it has mostly been our complete failure in the clutch that has been the problem. The Diamondbacks had just two hits with runners in scoring position over the four games of the Phillies series, and followed that up with an ohfer evening against the Braves last night, leaving us hitting 2-for-37 with RISP on this homestand. I dunno if they keep stats for this kind of thing, but I'm hard pushed to think of such a brutal stretch of futility in this area (we also went hitless with RISP the last game in LA). On the season, the team is now down to a .214 average there, which ranks second-last in the NL. We've had our chances - we're 4th in PA with RISP - just not done anything with them.

Stat for the day. Paul Goldschmidt is the ninth D-back with 10-plus homers (11th time) and sixth with 31-plus RBI (sixth time) before team's 40th game:

Home Runs by Game No. 40

1. 18 Luis Gonzalez (2001)
2. 14 Steve Finley (2000)
3. 13 Matt Williams (1999), Steve Finley (2004) and Jay Bell (1999)
4. 12 Reggie Sanders (2001) and Luis Gonzalez (2004)
5. 11 Troy Glaus (2005) and Kelly Johnson (2010)
6. 10 Paul Goldschmidt (2013) and Mark Reynolds (2010

RBI by Game No. 40

1. 45 Matt Williams (1999)
2. 37 Luis Gonzlaez (2001)
3. 35 Steve Finley (2000)
4. 32 Reggie Sanders (2001)
5. 31 Paul Goldschmidt (2013) and Conor Jackson (2008)