Game #30 Preview: 5/10, Arizona Diamondbacks vs. San Diego Padres

Andrew Cashner RHP, 1-5, 3.16

Daniel Hudson RHP, 0-1, 6.17

Cory Spangenberg - 3B	A.J. Pollock - CF
Abraham Almonte - RF	Mark Trumbo - RF
Wil Myers - 1B	Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
Justin Upton - LF	David Peralta - LF
Will Venable - CF	Aaron Hill - 3B
Jedd Gyorko - 2B	Cliff Pennington - 2B
Alexi Amarista - SS	Tuffy Gosewisch - C
Austin Hedges - C	Nick Ahmed - SS
Andrew Cashner - RHP	Daniel Hudson - RHP

It's just not fair. If we lose this afternoon's game by less than seven runs, we will have dropped three of four at home to the Padres... but will still have outscored them over the series. We really should have kept some of the offense back from that blowout in the first game, because we could sure have used those runs late on, in the last couple of games. Mostly because our bullpen was giving them up at a hellacious rate. Our bullpen ERA for the year is now up to 4.37, well above the National League average of 3.70. It's currently the highest figure posted by a Diamondbacks bullpen since the nightmare which was 2010, and trust me, we do NOT want to go back there.

There has been a broad spectrum of performances. Brad Ziegler and, even including last night when he was pushed to a third inning, Randall Delgado have been very solid. Andrew Chafin has also been good. But the rest of the 'pen have all had their struggles. We'd likely be more concerned about Addison Reed, for instance, if we'd had more save opportunities. As is, if there's no save today, we will become the first team since 1988 to have a single save over their first 30 games. Two of the stalwarts from last year, Oliver Perez and Evan Marshall, have also been disappointing, while Daniel Hudson's issues are, at least, understandable given how long he was out.

But that hasn't stopped the team from giving today's ball to Hudson, who will be making his first start in close to three years - since June 26, 2012. I can't imagine what must be going through his head at this point, but I'm sure he'll get a warm welcome from the Chase Field. He likely won't go more than four, tops, so the team additionally, brought up an extra reliever, after Danny Dorn was optioned back to Reno last night, adding J.C. Ramirez to the 25- and 40-man rosters. Patrick Corbin was moved to the 60-day DL to make room on the latter for Ramirez. It'll leave the bench a bit short, but effectively gives us an eight-man bullpen for the day.