Game #50 Preview: 6/1, Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Atlanta Braves

Alex Wood LHP, 3-2, 3.50

Archie Bradley RHP, 2-2, 5.28

Jace Peterson - 2B	Ender Inciarte - LF
Andrelton Simmons - SS	A.J. Pollock - CF
Freddie Freeman - 1B	Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
Nick Markakis - RF	Mark Trumbo - RF
Juan Uribe - 3B	Aaron Hill - 3B
A.J. Pierzynski - C	Jarrod Saltalamacchia - C
Jonny Gomes - LF	Chris Owings - 2B
Todd Cunningham - CF	Nick Ahmed - SS
Alex Wood - LHP	Archie Bradley - RHP

All told, it wasn't very different to last month: we finished June with a 13-15 record for the month, half a game worse than April's figure of 10-11. Interestingly, in both April and May, despite the losing records, we outscored the opposition: in May, it was by a margin of 137-134, compared to 96-86 for the first month. As you can probably deduce from this, our pitching was significantly worse last month, with a team ERA of 4.55, which is up from 3.88 in April. The split here is entirely due to our rotation struggling, its ERA going from 3.72 to 4.99; in contrast, our bullpen pitched better in May, going from 4.19 to 3.70.

The offense compensated by kicking it up a notch, at least on the power front. The triple-slash for April was .256/.323/.371. The on-base percentage actually didn't change, but the slugging percentage increased by 64 points, for a May line of .272/.323/.435. The home-run tally more than doubled, going from 14 to 35, albeit in about 44% more plate-appearances. We had only 14 home-runs as a team collectively in April. Goldie had ten, all by himself in May. Fun fact: we were only hit by pitches twice in May, down from seven times in April. Those two occurrences were not just in the same game, but the same inning: the fourth of Friday's game in Milwaukee.

For what it's worth, as we go into June, here's where the team stands in the National League in various categories, both hitting and pitching:

• Runs per game scored: 4.76 (#1)
• BA: .266 (4th)
• OBP: .323 (5th)
• SLG: .409 (4th)
• OPS: .732 (6th)
• ERA: 4.21 (12th)
• BB: 143 (5th lowest)
• SO: 358 (9th highest)
• FIP: 3.93 (8th)
• WHIP: 1.319 (10th)