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Diamondbacks Line-up
- Gerardo Parra, RF
- Didi Gregorius, SS
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
- Eric Chavez, 3B
- Cody Ross, LF
- Miguel Montero, C
- Martin Prado,2B
- A.J. Pollock, CF
- Brandon McCarthy, P
Dang. Three days in a row with the same starting eight? Hey, don't change what's clearly working, amIright? For Arizona are 8-3, since going into Los Angeles just one game over .500, and are tied for the lead in the NL West, thanks to Colorado managing to hold on for the win last night over San Francisco, by the odd run in nineteen. But there's absolutely no reason to let up, and we expect to see McCarthy get his first W today, ending an eight-game streak without a victory, that's the longest by a Diamondback starter since Joe Saunders went 11, beginning late in the 2010 campaign. [The all-time mark is 17, by Brian Anderson in 2001-02]
But does it count, if it happens in Marlins Park, and nobody sees? Last night's game there had an announced attendance of 13,444, the worst since they opened the new stadium - as kishi pointed out, factor in the usual no-shows and the number actually there was likely below an average game at Salt River Fields. The honeymoon is over, and the Marlins' average crowd is right back in to the same eighteen thousand range occupied from 2009-11, before the taxpayers handed over that shiny, new bauble. And the trend ain't good: the high over the last seven home games for Miami, is 16,680.
It's not inconceivable, once the true, historical wretchedness of this team becomes apparent, that we could end up seeing an average number at or below the 2006 number, of 14,372. It's all but certain Florida will go back to being the least-attended team in the National League, since they're already more than two thousand a game behind the 14th-placed Pirates. [Curiously, eight of the bottom ten teams in attendance right now are American League outfits, which seems to belie the idea that the designated hitter draws people to the ballpark] For what it's worth, attendance overall this season is down about 800 per game.
Anyway. I trust the Diamondbacks will deliver a kerb-stomping not dissimilar from last night's. If the Rockies co-operate, we could find ourselves in sole possession of first place by the end of the day. We then simply have to hang on to it for 119 games...