Game #48 Preview: 5/30, Arizona Diamondbacks @ Milwaukee Brewers

Jeremy Hellickson RHP, 2-3, 5.33

Kyle Lohse RHP, 3-5, 5.80

Ender Inciarte - LF	Carlos Gomez - CF
A.J. Pollock - CF	Gerardo Parra - LF
Paul Goldschmidt - 1B	Ryan Braun - RF
Mark Trumbo - RF	Adam Lind - 1B
Aaron Hill - 3B	Aramis Ramirez - 3B
Jordan Pacheco - C	Jean Segura - SS
Chris Owings - 2B	Martin Maldonado - C
Nick Ahmed - SS	Kyle Lohse - RHP
Jeremy Hellickson - RHP	Elian Herrera - 2B

Important points. No, this isn't a very early preview. The game starts at 1pm Arizona time. The reason for this - in case, for some inexplicable reason, you did not read every enthralling word of last night's recap (it's okay, just make sure you go and see the movie when it comes to theaters next year) - is that its is the Diamondbacks first exposure on national television, with the game on FOX SPORTS 1, not Fox Sports Arizona. Okay, being on FS1 rather than FOX, in "national broadcast" terms is a bit like dating a "nationally-renowned supermodel", where the nation concerned is Liechtenstein. I dunno about you, but I'M still gonna need to use my cable guide to locate the game.

After managing one quality start in his first seven outings, Hellickson has posted consecutive ones. Admittedly, neither were exactly dominating, and both snuck into the QS box by a narrow margin - one lasted exactly six innings, the other allowed exactly three earned runs. But with an ERA close to six over those first seven outings, I'm happy to settle for any improvement, reluctant as I am to call it a trend based on two starts. A third consecutive decent outing, even if it's against the worst team in the National League, would be helpful. I may even no longer feel the need to wrap the SnakePit puppy in bubble-wrap before Hellickson outings.

Interesting to note the Brewers batting their pitcher eighth today. Seven different teams have done that at least once already this season, ranging from the Cubs (47 times) to the Angels (once). This matches the previous high, set in 2009, and back then three of those teams only did it once, while the Angels are the only such franchise this year. It still remains a bit of an oddity - in total, it has been used in 76 of the 1,452 line-ups, so little more than 5%. But at the current rate, by the end of the year we'll have seen it more often than any other time in baseball history, passing the 222 times from 2008.