Game #69 Preview: 6/21, Arizona Diamondbacks vs. San Diego Padres

Andrew Cashner RHP, 2-8, 4.24

Jeremy Hellickson LHP, 4-4, 5.10

Cory Spangenberg - 2B	A.J. Pollock - CF
Yonder Alonso - 1B	David Peralta - LF
Justin Upton - LF	Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
Matt Kemp - RF	Yasmany Tomas - RF
Derek Norris - C	Jake Lamb - 3B
Will Venable - CF	Chris Owings - 2B
Will Middlebrooks - 3B	Jarrod Saltalamacchia - C
Clint Barmes - SS	Nick Ahmed - SS
Andrew Cashner - RHP	Jeremy Hellickson - RHP

Well, here's to a more relaxed and less fraught game than yesterday, where it seemed like all the forces of the universe were conspiring to make my recappage as difficult as possible. Thanks, gods of baseball: I don't know what I did to deserve the trifecta of a blowout loss, loathed trade during the game and losing Internet access, but whatever it was, I can only apologize. I feel I have paid my penance, and would appreciate it if you delivered to me for Father's Day, a nice, stress-free contest, in which the Diamondbacks cruise to victory in a crisply-played two hours, 20 minutes, with a smattering of interesting facts to discuss. KTHXBAI.

Perhaps worth noting, while our struggles when one game below .500 have been well documented, we have won our last three games when we were two games below .500, which is where we find ourselves today. In fact, we've been vibrating, like an over-excited electron, between one and two games under every day for the past week. It kinda feels like, one way or the other, when we eventually do break out of this narrow band of results, momentum will end up taking us in the same direction for quite a while, be that up above .500, or back down towards a projected win total in the mid-70s. With the next series against the Padres and Rockies, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Hellickson continues to do Hellickson kinda things. Five quality starts in the last six outings, though to be honest, they were more dollar-store "quality" than high-end boutique "quality". Hopefully, he can follow in the footsteps of Rubby De La Rosa, and join the "under five ERA" club. Good to see Tomas back in the line-up. When his elbow got smacked, I was not a happy camper, and visions of him being out for the rest of the season danced in front of my eyes. That wouldn't have been good: I know in terms of overall value he hasn't been awesome (0.2 bWAR, 0.3 fWAR), but I think that's hampered by his time playing third-base. Tomas in the OF seems better for all concerned.