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Diamondbacks Line-up
Not available at time of writing, because I'm doing this one on Saturday morning. We'll be leaving around lunchtime, leaving SnakePit Towers to the loving care of SnakePit Jr and the SnakePuppy - nothing can possibly go wrong there, can it? - and heading down the I-10 to Tucson to see the Reno Aces play the Tucson Padres. Looking forward to that, particularly as it seems it may be Aaron Hill's first rehab start, a big step to getting him back onto the roster, which would be a significant boost. So getting everything written up nice and early. I am informed there is free wifi at the hotel, but let's not risk it. If there's no preview tomorrow, you know why! Line-up in the GDT. Right, 'charmer? :) Wrong! It's right here. ;)
- Gerardo Parra - CF
- Didi Gregorius - SS
- Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
- Miguel Montero - C
- Cody Ross - RF
- Jason Kubel - LF
- Martin Prado - 3B
- Cliff Pennington - 2B
- Wade Miley - LHP
"Jason Marquis? 8-2? Isn't he... Well, crap?" I'm glad you asked. You're probably a little prejudiced because of his brief stint with the Diamondbacks in 2011, when he was indeed rather sucky: three starts, no wins and a 9.53 ERA. However, truth is, in the longer term, he has been a serviceable starting pitcher: you don't get to play 14 seasons in the major-leagues otherwise, and his career ERA+ is 99. That's where it sits this year too, and his sparking record is mostly due to excellent run support: six of his eight wins have come on the back of the Padres scoring six or more runs, which will help any pitcher. But he has also given them a quality start in 8 of 13 games.
Miley seems to be getting back on track, with consecutive quality starts, albeit with three earned runs allowed in each. That's still a significant improvement over the seven earned runs he gave up in each of the two ones preceding that - including a 3.2 inning outing against the Padres at Chase, which is concerning for tonight. Indeed, San Diego has done pretty well against Miley overall: he is 1-4 with a 7.52 ERA, which is twice as many losses as against anyone else, and the highest ERA of any team against whom he has started more than twice. We'll be looking for better than that tonight.
Bit of a mixed bag of results for us yesterday. Rockies blew a lead against the Phillies, but the Giants murdered the Braves, so we're now 1 1/2 up on them, going into today. The Dodgers lost too, which for obvious reasons was good to see. Seems neither team exactly received much of a psychological boost from the suspension announcement, scoring a total of one run. The Padres have owned us lately, much as we've owned the Dodgers: we're 6-13 against SD in the past year, though this season, the seven games played have strictly alternated wins and losses. Which means we're a lock to take this one. I'm off to mortgage SnakePit Towers and bet on that.
On the recap, it'll be BattleMoses subbing for Clefo, who subbed for 'charmer last night. I think I have that right.