Game #29 Preview: 5/9, Arizona Diamondbacks vs. San Diego Padres

Tyson Ross RHP, 1-3, 4.15

Chase Anderson RHP, 0-1, 3.38

Wil Myers - 1B	Ender Inciarte - RF
Cory Spangenberg - 2B	A.J. Pollock - CF
Matt Kemp - RF	Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
Justin Upton - LF	David Peralta - LF
Yangervis Solarte - 3B	Yasmany Tomas - 3B
Derek Norris - C	Chris Owings - 2B
Will Venable - CF	Jordan Pacheco - C
Alexi Amarista - SS	Nick Ahmed - SS
Tyson Ross - RHP	Chase Anderson - RHP

This year, the part of Vidal Nuno will apparently be played by Chase Anderson. Poor Chase will be making his sixth start this afternoon, with a very respectable 3.38 ERA, and is still looking for his first victory. There are 64 pitchers in the National League to have made five or more starts. Only four are winless. The combined ERA of the other three (David Buchanan, Kyle Hendricks and Dillon Gee) is 5.92, more than two and a half runs worse than Anderson's to date. The only unluckier pitcher in the majors is probably Baltimore's Wei-Yin Chen, who has a 2.83 ERA but shares Anderson's 0-1 record.

This is probably the baseball gods' way of paying Anderson back for his 5-0 record over his first five games in the major leagues, when his ERA was a not dissimilar 3.14. If true, and this season is a mirror-image of his rookie year, that bodes well for today and the immediate future, because in 2014, Anderson then lost his next four contests. Which is kinda cool in itself: not many pitchers start off their careers by working ten games without getting a no-decision. Since the D-backs came into existence, three NL pitchers matched Anderson's streak, with the Phillies' David Buchanan last year the only one to go longer, posting a 6-7 record in his first 13 appearances.

Meanwhile, we'll see how we do against Ross. No shortage of experience here, as he started against us five times last season, going 1-2 with a 3.86 ERA. Goldschmidt has the best career numbers - this is my unsurprised face - among those with a semi-meaningful number of at-bats, having gone 5-for-16 with a pair of home-runs and a 1.201 OPS. Inciarte isn't far behind, at 1.145. The absence of Hill this afternoon is unsurprising, if you consider that Ross has dominated him handily in the past: Hill is 2-for-14, with no walks or extra-base hits. Anderson faced the Padres in mid-April, getting a no-decision and allowing two earned runs over six innings.