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Diamondbacks line-up
- A.J. Pollock, CF
- Willie Bloomquist, LF
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
- Martin Prado, 3B
- Aaron Hill, 2B
- Gerardo Parra, RF
- Chris Owings, SS
- Tuffy Gosewisch, C
- Trevor Cahill, P
As Zavada's Mustache has already pointed out, with his usual eloquence, this is the first real "must win" series of the season. Not that it will stop what is just about inevitable, but there's a big difference between reading about the Dodgers clinching the National League West somewhere else, and having to watch as they do it at Chase Field. Man, I swear, if that happens and Fox Sports Arizona interviews a grinning Y*s**l P**g after the game, I'll be leading the mob with torches down Jefferson.
Tonight's game is particularly important, because victory here would then allow us to enjoy SnakePitFest (presented by Asteroid) tomorrow night, without any fear of having to be there in person for the said clinching, as we can afford to lose one of the four games in this series. With all due respect to Brandon McCarthy and his new-found hitting prowess, I'm thinking Wednesday night's game, where he goes up against Clayton Kershaw and his sub-two ERA, is the one that'll be most problematic, so it's definitely important to get off to a good start in the series with a win over Ryu this evening.
We did pretty well against him last time: he seemed rusty after having a start skipped, and we took Ryu for 10 hits over six innings, and only striking out once. It was definitely a tad BABIP-y (10 of 24 batters who put the ball in play, reached base), but the lack of strikeouts is also encouraging. Cahill pitched pretty well against the Dodgers earlier in the series too. While he also allowed three runs over six innings, he was somewhat the victim of his defense, with only of the runs allowed being earned, and he held Los Angeles to four hits. He did walk four as well, while only striking out two, so that's something on which I hope he'll cut down tonight.
If familiarity breeds content, we should do well. This is the 16th time we have faced Los Angeles this season, and it's Ryu's 5th start against us. That'll put him alongside Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner of the Giants, and the Rockies' Jorge de la Rosa should join the group, scheduled to start on Saturday as expected. If you broaden the list to include 2013 relievers, Giants get the top four spots, led by Javier Lopez, who has appeared in 12 of the 18 games against SF. Seeing how Bruce Bochy manages, this is not a surprise. The all-time champ incidentally is Mike Myers, who appeared in 15 games against us, when with the Rockies in 2001.