Game #36 Preview: 5/17, Arizona Diamondbacks @ Philadelphia Phillies

Archie Bradley RHP, 3-4, 5.27

Jerome Williams RHP, 0-2, 5.06

Ender Inciarte - LF	Ben Revere - LF
Mark Trumbo - RF	Andres Blanco - 2B
Paul Goldschmidt - 1B	Grady Sizemore - RF
A.J. Pollock - CF	Darin Ruf - 1B
Yasmany Tomas - 3B	Maikel Franco - 3B
Aaron Hill - 2B	Cesar Hernandez - SS
Chris Owings - SS	Odubel Herrera - CF
Jordan Pacheco - C	Cameron Rupp - C
Josh Collmenter - RHP	Sean O'Sullivan - RHP

Well, actually, I probably am supposed to be here today - it's not like I have some kind of pressing engagement at the White House or anything. But its 8:30am on a Sunday morning, so I feel I really should not be sitting at my desk, trying to come up with encouraging words, after we have lost the first two games. And coming in, there was only one team in the majors with a worse record than the Phillies. In the poll attached to Makakilo's preview, 81% of people said we would win the series. 81% of people were clearly wrong there. All that's left now, is to see if the 14% who said we'd win one game, will join the rest of us in our wrongness.

We certainly need Collmenter to pitch an awful lot better than he did in his last outing. Indeed, the last turn-plus through the rotation has not been good for our starters, with that streak of quality outings now seeming like it came from a different era. In the last eight games, since the last of that streak, our starters have posted one win, one quality start (which didn't get a W!) and an ERA of 6.94. While not the only reason - the offense and bullpen have their well-documented share of failures in that time - it's probably the main reason the Diamondbacks are 2-6 in those games.

Hill is back in the starting line-up after seeing precisely one pitch over the first two games in Philadelphia. I think he had to rush back to the restroom or something. Pacheco also starts behind the plate, probably with this being a day game after a night game. Something to note so far, though it's hard to be sure whether the sample size is significant yet. With Pacheco behind the dish (81.1 IP) our pitchers' ERA is 4.98, compared to the 4.14 figure posted when Tuffy Gosewisch is catching (232.1 IP). I'd have to dig in a bit further, see what specific pitchers each has caught; if you're working with Jeremy Hellickson, that's probably not going to help you!