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Josh Collmenter
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Tyler Matzek
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| Ender Inciarte - LF | Charlie Blackmon - CF |
| Mark Trumbo - RF | Troy Tulowitzki - SS |
| Paul Goldschmidt - 1B | Corey Dickerson - LF |
| A.J. Pollock - CF | Nolan Arenado - 3B |
| Yasmany Tomas - 3B | Justin Morneau - 1B |
| Aaron Hill - 2B | Carlos Gonzalez - RF |
| Jordan Pacheco - C | Nick Hundley - C |
| Nick Ahmed - SS | Tyler Matzek - LHP |
| Josh Collmenter - RHP | DJ LeMahieu - 2B |
A trip to Denver may end up being a tonic for the Diamondbacks, if previous years anything to go by. For example, last season, in 10 games in Colorado against the Rockies, we had a triple-slash line of .307/.344/.482, an .826 OPS that was almost a hundred and fifty points better than our overall figure for the season. If there's anyone who'll have been particularly eager to get on the plane, it will be Mark Trumbo, who was 8-for-22 with five home-runs in this park. That 1.485 OSP probably explains why he is hitting ahead of Goldie today - who was no mean slouch himself, with a 1.173 OPS. But then, he hits just about anywhere!
However, if that is the reckoning. it doesn't make much sense to have Pollock batting clean-up, since in his seven appearances at Coors Field in 2014, he batted .207 with no walks and a .448 OPS. So, go figure. Maybe this will be the series where Yasmany Tomas gets his first home-run of the season? With this being May the Fourth, who better than our own Jedi Master, Josh Collmenter, to negotiate the tricky task of dropping strikes into the thermal exhaust port of the Rockies offense? The Rockies will be feeling a bit on the Dark Side themselves, having also just been Jar-Jar Binked by a divisional rival too, in the Padres.
The commonly-held wisdom before the season began, was that these two teams would be fighting it out to avoid the cellar in the NL West, and after the first four weeks of the season, that's where they sit in the standings. We showed we were able to handle the Rockies at Chase Field when we first met them, taking two out of three. Here's to more of the same. The early threat of rain is still a possibility, but the current indications are better, and we appear to be on track for a first pitch at the scheduled start time of 5:40pm. Here's to seeing our hitters get back on track, and feasting on some Dinger McNuggets by the end of the night.