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Diamondbacks line-up
- Adam Eaton, CF
- Gerardo Parra, RF
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
- Eric Chavez, 3B
- Martin Prado, 2B
- Jason Kubel, LF
- Miguel Montero, C
- Didi Gregorius, SS
- Tyler Skaggs, P
Looks like Aaron Hill is getting his day off, willingly or not. Kirk Gibson said Hill is "fine" and wants to play, but that Goldschmidt is "Dragging a bit right now" and may get a breather tomorrow. Not necessarily a bad thing, though I'm not sure who we're going to see in his place. Of the 103 games so far, Goldschmidt has started exactly one hundred, with Eric Hinske getting the nod twice, and Chavez the other time. While the last-named was serviceable enough in his previous outing, I'd probably be more inclined to do it on a day when he's not having to make consecutive starts - I suspect overuse was part of what sent him to the DL earlier in the season.
However, the team gets Miggy back after a fairly lengthy absence by his standards. Wil Nieves started the last four games, and filled in admirably on both offense and defense. At the plate, he went 8-for-19, improving his season average to .371. Among all 394 major-leagues with 90+ PAs this season, that ranks Nieves #2, behind only Hanley Ramirez (.387), and ahead of Y*s**l P**g at .370. Perhaps also worth noting, the pitching staff put up a 1.85 ERA during the spell of Nieves' starts, and that has increased his lead over Montero in terms of catcher's ERA this year. With Wil catching, our pitchers have a 3.36 ERA, four-tenths lower than with Miggy there. Meaningful? Hard to say.
As promised, an update on the WAR standings after last night's very successful game for Prado and Delgado, which as expected, has resulted in bumps for both of their numbers.
| bWAR | fWAR | |
| Martin Prado | 1.3 | 0.4 |
| Randall Delgado | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Zeke Spruill | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| AZ TOTAL | 2.2 | 1.3 |
| Justin Upton | 0.7 | 1.3 |
| Chris Johnson | 1.0 | 1.4 |
| ATL TOTAL | 1.7 | 2.7 |
No doubt, Prado has been insanely hot of late. Over about the past two months (since May 25), he has hit over .300, with a line of .301/.352/.451, which is the kind of player the team thought they were getting when they acquired him from the Braves. And the past month has been bordering on the nuclear, with a line of 344/.398/.527. It's good to see him stepping up and helping Goldschmidt carry the offensive load, which was his alone for rather too much of the first half. Be nice to see a 17-hit, 10-run performance, like in the series opener, delivered today - though as usual, I can't help wishing we could carry forward some of those excess runs to the scorecard tonight!