Game #114: Diamondbacks vs. Royals

Yordano Ventura RHP, 8-8, 3.50

Josh Collmenter RHP, 8-5, 4.07

Norichika Aoki - RF	Ender Inciarte - CF
Omar Infante - 2B	Cliff Pennington - 3B
Salvador Perez - C	Aaron Hill - 2B
Billy Butler - 1B	Mark Trumbo - 1B
Alex Gordon - LF	Miguel Montero - C
Lorenzo Cain - CF	David Peralta - RF
Mike Moustakas - 3B	Didi Gregorius - SS
Alcides Escobar - SS	Roger Kieschnick - LF
Yordano Ventura - RHP	Josh Collmenter - RHP

Pennington comes off the DL and right into the starting line-up, taking over the third-base position from Andy Marte, and we'll probably see a platoon of those two at the position while Operation Silence of the Lambs is apparently in effect. I don't think that will really help the offense, which look likely to continue to struggle, particularly in the absence of Paul Goldschmidt. It's still a small sample size, but In 150 PAs this month (which includes exactly one by Goldie, the trip to the plate which saw his season ended with a fracture of the hand), the D-backs are batting .215/.284/.311, for an August OPS of .595.

Of course, it largely doesn't matter how well you hit, if your pitchers allow eight runs in an inning. I'm not sure what the record is for teams when that happens, but I think "probably not very good" covers it.  Again, small sample size warnings apply, but the Diamondbacks ERA of 7.05, worst in the NL, is equally problematic. We've been outscored 31-12 in the four games played this month. Probably less relevantly (since this goes back to 2008), the Royals have scored 34 runs over their last three contests at Chase Field. They clearly like coming here, like most residents of the MidWest. Just as long as they stay in the right lane on the freeways. :)