Game #63 Preview: 6/15, Arizona Diamondbacks @ Los Angeles Angels

Robbie Ray LHP, 1-1, 1.53

Jered Weaver RHP, 4-6, 4.61

Ender Inciarte - RF	Erick Aybar - SS
A.J. Pollock - CF	Mike Trout - CF
Paul Goldschmidt - 1B	Albert Pujols - 1B
David Peralta - LF	David Freese - DH
Yasmany Tomas - DH	Kole Calhoun - RF
Jake Lamb - 3B	Johnny Giavotella - 2B
Chris Owings - 2B	Carlos Perez - C
Welington Castillo - C	Kyle Kubitza - 3B
Nick Ahmed - SS	Dan Robertson - LF

Into the land of the Angels go the Diamondbacks, and a rare meeting with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange County of California of the United States of the World of the Solar System of the Western Spiral Arm of the Galaxy. Obligatory joke is obligatory: at least I got it in early. There are teams we have met less often in our 18 seasons of play, but none that are so close: If not quite Chase Field's closest neighbor, Google informs me that Anaheim Stadium is 357 miles from Chase, barely a detour for tacos further than Petco Park (355.5). Yet we've only played the Angels once since 2009, dropping two of three here in 2012, not managing a run in the losses.

Coincidentally, that series started three years ago to the day. Aaron Hill is the only survivor from the D-backs starting line-up that evening in Anaheim, though some guy called Goldschmidt came off the bench to pinch hit for Lyle Overbay. The starting pitcher for us is also gone - that was Trevor Cahill, who threw seven shutout innings of three-hit ball: yes, it was The Good Cahill Start. We do still have the two reliever who followed him, as David Hernandez and Brad Ziegler completed the three-hitter, in a 5-0 D-backs win. I'd not mind repeating the score, and extending our run of pitching further.

The series in San Francisco was the first time we had conceded two runs over any three-game span since August 25-27, 2011 against the Padres That was actually part of a remarkable seven game span against the Nationals, Padres and Rockies, where we never allowed more than two, and gave up a total of six runs, which remains the best overall week of pitching in franchise history, even ahead of any time when we has Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling going 1-2. So the current run, while nice, has a bit of catching up to do before it reaches that level of domination.