Diamondbacks 4, Cubs 2: Next time, it matters

Scheduled start Vidal Nuno was pulled from the start. This may or may not have been connected to the following Tweet:

#Rangers and #DBacks discussed trade that would have sent RHP Vidal Nuno to TEX, but source says, "I don’t think it will happen."

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 4, 2015

Of course, I'm not sure how much faith to put in a Tweet from someone apparently unaware Nuno is left-handed, but that might explain why Vidal was yanked.

His stunt replacement was Anthony Banda, who was received from the Brewers in the Gerardo Parra deal, and hadn't pitched above A-ball. Given that, the young pitcher delivered an impressive outing, throwing five innings of shutout ball, on four hits and a walk, albeit with only one strikeout and against a Cubs team that was some way short of full strength. Joey Krehbiel allowed two runs in the sixth, Adam Miller worked a scoreless seventh, Silvino Bracho a perfect eighth and Jimmy Sherfy got the save for a hitless ninth.

On offense, it was the kind of day where Paul Goldschmidt got us on the board in the bottom of the first with an RBI double, banging one off the wall in the deepest part of the ballpark - and was immediately pulled for a pinch-runner. Mark Trumbo followed with an RBI double, and tacked on a two-run bomb in the third, after A.J. Pollock had doubled, and been similarly replaced. No errors for the Diamondbacks, but Jake Lamb was caught trying to steal second,

We're now awaiting official news on the composition of the 25-man roster, and will bring that to you as soon as we can finish filling in the names to the various blanks on our pleasingly color-coordinated chart. :)