Game #7 Preview: 4/13, Arizona Diamondbacks @ San Diego Padres

Rubby De La Rosa RHP, 1-0, 10.12

Andrew Cashner RHP, 0-1, 9.00

Ender Inciarte - CF	Wil Myers - CF
Chris Owings - SS	Yangervis Solarte - 2B
Paul Goldschmidt - 1B	Matt Kemp - RF
David Peralta - LF	Justin Upton - LF
Mark Trumbo - RF	Derek Norris - C
Jake Lamb - 3B	Yonder Alonso - 1B
Aaron Hill - 2B	Will Middlebrooks - 3B
Tuffy Gosewisch - C	Alexi Amarista - SS
Rubby De La Rosa - RHP	Andrew Cashner - RHP

Neither starter here exactly set the world on first with their first appearance: De La Rosa actually had the worse outing, but thanks to some timely run support, managed to come away with a win in his debut as a Diamondback [Somewhere in Reno, Vidal Nuno weeps copious tears]. As azbaseballfan noted in the preview, the Padres are on a bit of  roll, having won the last three games against the Giants. To no-one's surprise, their home-park seems to be helping their pitching, who allowed only seven runs over 39 innings of work in the series, after conceding sixteen in three games on the road [Admittedly SFG offense

De La Rosa was very much as advertised in his first start, showing flashed of the raw stuff we saw in spring, but not being able to harness it with any degree of consistency.. A pair of long-balls from the Giants did half the damage: he gave up more fly-balls than normal, and a BABIP of .353 didn't do him any favors either. Hopefully, an evening game in San Diego will help mitigate the threat, and cause said flies to drop harmless into the gloves of Peralta, Pollock and Trumbo. On the infield, Owings moves back to shortstop, with Hill starting at second, and Lamb beginning what could be a fairly lengthy run, with a number of right-handed opposing starters on the way.

Rubby does have one previous start against the Padres, and it went very well indeed, as he tossed six shutout innings of one-run ball. However, that was all the way back in July 2011, when he was a Dodger [both he and Allen Webster were part, De La Rosa as a player to be named later, in the Adrian Gonzalez/Carl Crawford trade that Los Angeles made with Boston] On the other hand, we saw Cashner three times last season, and they went reasonably well for us, as he went 0-2 with an ERA of 4.00. Both the losses came at Petco, so hopefully we can hang another L on him this evening, and get the road-trip off to a winning start.

Game Notes

• The D-backs have won 4 of last 5 games vs. Padres and are 6-4 in last 10 at Petco Park.
• Today, D-backs bullpen catcher Mark Reed and Double-A Mobile trainer Masa Abe are celebrating their birthdays.
• Ender Inciarte has hit safely in 20 of his last 22 games, daring back to Sep. 12, with 10 multi-hit games.  Against the Padres, has hit in 5 straight (7-for-20) and 8 of the last 9 (12-for-38).
• Our bullpen's 24.2 innings are tied for most in the NL, with the Padres. This is my unsurprised face. Our 2.19 ERA is fourth: we have had two streaks of eight scoreless innings, and held opponents scoreless or not allowed inherited runners to score, in 20 of 26 innings.