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Diamondbacks line-up
- Gerardo Parra, RF
- Martin Prado, 3B
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
- Eric Chavez, DH
- Aaron Hill, 2B
- Cody Ross, LF
- A.J. Pollock, CF
- Wil Nieves, C
- Cliff Pennington, SS
Wade Miley, P
Woo-hoo! It'll be a little bit harder for Prado to hit into double-plays today, as unlike yesterday, he won't be hitting behind someone with the speed of an arthritic sloth on beta-blockers. Actually, he's unlikely to hit into double-plays, as much because he's batting behind Gerardo Parra, who has an on-base percentage for the month of .230. Both Prado (17) and Paul Goldschmidt (15) are on pace to break the franchise all-time record for twin killings, currently held by Orlando Hudson, who hit in 21 in 2007. With 56 games still left, Prado has already reached a number passed only 11 times in D-backs history. You wanted a contact-oriented line-up, you got it...
After all the frantic excitement of this morning's trade deadline, I almost forgot that we have an actual baseball game going on, though the way the team has played of late, they've made slipping from my mind something easy to do. I spent last night watching episodes of Supernatural Season Six, as it became abundantly clear that this wasn't a game the D-backs were going to win. So it transpired, and with the Dodgers winning another walk-off, we're 3.5 games back in the division At this rate, by the end of the road-trip (actually, by about Friday), we'll be closer to the Reds, currently holding the second-place wild-card spot, than the division lead.
Another day off for Montero today, his back apparently still not feeling all that good. It's almost at the stage where they would have been better off putting him on the 15-day DL after the issue originally flared-up, on July 22. He'd be close to being eligible to return by this point, and we wouldn't be playing with a short bench. However, as he appeared in two games against the Padres, that effectively resets the clock, and if he was DL'd now, it would be August 12th before he'd be able to come back. On the other hand, a third-string catcher probably wouldn't see any real playing time. Much though I'd love to see Tuffy Gosewisch get the call.
Pollock gets the start over Eaton in CF, and I have to say, I've been kinda disappointed with Eaton so far. He was an on-base machine in the minors, but hasn't managed to translate that into the same skill at the major-league this season, with an OBP of only .288. Admittedly, we are still talking a fairly-small sample size, of barely 50 PAs, but considering we were talking about him possibly being a rookie of the year contender before the season started, it's not exactly hitting the ground running. We'll hopefully see better from Eaton going forward.
Kevin Towers will be joining the Fox Sports Arizona broadcast tonight, during the sixth inning, so be interesting to hear what he has to said regarding the trades - both the one that happened (Kennedy) and the one that didn't (Kubel).