Game #49 Preview: 5/31, Arizona Diamondbacks @ Milwaukee Brewers

Chase Anderson RHP, 1-1, 2.59

Tyler Wagner RHP, 0-0, N/A

A.J. Pollock - CF	Jean Segura - SS
Cliff Pennington - SS	Gerardo Parra - LF
Paul Goldschmidt - 1B	Ryan Braun - RF
David Peralta - LF	Carlos Gomez - CF
Mark Trumbo - RF	Jason Rogers - 1B
Yasmany Tomas - 3B	Elian Herrera - 3B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia - C	Luis Sardinas - 2B
Chris Owings - 2B	Martin Maldonado - C
Chase Anderson - RHP	Tyler Wagner - RHP

Certainly, you feel we should have a chance: Anderson has been, far and away, our best and most consistent starting pitcher this month, undefeated in five starts, with a 1.39 ERA. Not that the D-backs have been able to take much advantage of this: our record when Anderson takes the mound is an underwhelming 2-7. But in our favor, we will be facing an opposing starter in Wagner who is making his major-league debut and has never pitched above Double-A. Over in the corner, Paul Goldschmidt is drooling... That said, he'll be the 17th starting pitcher to make his debut against us, and the results facing the previous debutants have been decidedly mixed

Overall, the Diamondbacks have gone 7-9, with the opposing starters having won all nine, against only five losses. It's been close to three years since the last time it happened, when we lost to Matt Harvey and the New York Mets. Of the list, I think the one which stands out - and not in a good way - is when Johnny Cueto carved us up for seven innings of one-hit ball, on the third day of the 2008 season. Those two, along with Edwin Jackson, are likely the best-known names present, which are otherwise a mix of journeymen and down. Henry Sosa, for example, made only 10 major-league starts and is now on his third season pitching in Korea.

A win today would get us back up to .500 and would give us a winning record on the road. It would also illustrate a sharp difference in our record against winning teams and the rest. We're currently 14-9 against teams with losing records, before the outcome of today's contest, but only 9-16 against winning teams. While, for obvious reasons, you'll see some kind of difference like that with most team, that's a sharper split than average (the MLB average for these two categories is 10-13 and 13-10 respectively). Put another way, our record against winning teams is 22nd best in the majors; against losing teams, it's 9th best.