Game #23: Diamondbacks @ Cubs

Brandon McCarthy RHP, 0-3, 7.11

Jason Hammel RHP, 2-1, 3.05

Diamondbacks Lineup

1. Tony Campana - CF
2. Martin Prado - 2B
3. Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
4. Eric Chavez - 3B
5. Cody Ross - CF
6. Gerardo Parra - RF
7. Chris Owings - SS
8. Tuffy Gosewisch - C
9. Brandon McCarthy - P

The victory yesterday for the Rockies means that last night's game in Chicago became the first and only time this season we have faced a team without a winning record. Of course, in several cases - the Rockies, Dodgers and Mets - the teams in question are only above .500 because of what they did against us, and are at or below .500 against everyone else. If this continues, I wonder how it will skew the overall standings: one imagines the rest of the NL West will be happy to play the Diamondbacks 18 times a season, in much the same way the NL Central used to benefit from beating up the Astros, especially when it came to the wild-card races.

I get the feeling tonight might be a low-scoring encounter [I certainly hope so, otherwise I'm gonna finally bite the bullet and dump McCarthy from my fantasy team, where he has been anchoring my pitching staff - in the sense of dragging them to the bottom - for the past few starts]. It's going to be very chilly at Wrigley, and Greg Schulte Tweeted a picture of the wind blowing strongly in, which should help keep the ball in the park. At least we're not facing a left-hander tonight. I was expecting this offense to murder southpaws, but so far that just hasn't happened, with a team line there of .214/.281/.297, which is 14th in the NL by OPS, and 134 points below league average.

It's really sad to be feeling such a sense of apathy about the season while it's still April, but it's rapidly turning into a season which is impossible to enjoy, and can only be endured. Masochistic gallows humor seems the only possible approach at the current point, until the Diamondbacks prove otherwise.

Dbacks' starting rotation has the fourth-worst opening month ERA since 1914: http://t.co/HiwWZ4DRgf (h/t: @dshemie8).

— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) April 22, 2014