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Rubby De La Rosa
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Chris Heston
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| Ender Inciarte - RF | Norichika Aoki - LF |
| A.J. Pollock - CF | Joe Panik - 2B |
| Paul Goldschmidt - 1B | Brandon Belt - 1B |
| David Peralta - LF | Brandon Crawford - SS |
| Chris Owings - 2B | Casey McGehee - 3B |
| Jake Lamb - 3B | Justin Maxwell - CF |
| Welington Castillo - C | Jarrett Parker - RF |
| Cliff Pennington - SS | Andrew Susac - C |
| Rubby De La Rosa - RHP | Chris Heston - RHP |
This should be interesting. The D-backs' starters have no-hit the Giants' offense through the first five innings of both previous games this series, while Heston tthrew a complete no-hitter, last time out against the Mets. It won't be the first time we've seen Heston. He has already faced us twice this year, and has allowed only one earned run over 13.2 innings, leading to the predictable complaints from some quarters about "Why can't we ever beat scrubs?". But, as Heston showed in his last outing, completing blanking the National League East leaders, and before that with a complete-game two-hitter over the AL West leading Astros, he's not that.
It does seem likely that runs will be at a premium for the Arizona offense this afternoon, but having taken both games already while scoring a total of five times, that isn't necessarily a problem [much though delivering tacos makes it easier!]. It would, however, required De La Rosa to be a sight better than he has been over this last few outings. He hasn't had a quality start since the complete game in Miami, and over the four outings since, he has allowed 24 earned runs in only 21 innings. The good news is, playing at AT&T should help keep the ball in the park, which has been an issue of late, particularly of the "three run homer" kind!
Back to a more traditional line-up for the D-backs, with Inciarte at the top: I went into the reasons yesterday why I don't think this is the best of ideas, but in the scheme of things, line-up construction doesn't make very much difference, providing you put your best nine players out there. Your mileage may vary as to whether a middle infield of Pennington and Owings count as that, and whether Tomas should be left on the bench in the outfield.