It's at times like this, when I have been untimely ripped from my bed to bring you a preview to this dawn feature, that I wonder why we bother with time zones at all. Really, what does it matter whether the sun rises at 6am or 9am? Just make the entire country one big time-zone: American Standard Time. Think how much confusion over flights, TV schedules, etc. this would save. I'd normally have done it last night, but I was writing up the minor-league report. And this morning, while I did get up early, to see Mrs. SnakePit off to work, we got caught up in Shark Week and a countdown of the 10 deadliest species.
Given the time, this will, therefore be a little briefer than my regular preview [not that anyone ever reads these damn things, mutter mutter]. I'm just hoping we get a bit of variety in the pattern of the first two games, which not just ended in the same score, they also saw Arizona take an early lead, before seeing their starting pitcher get blasted out of the game: between them, Chase Anderson and Patrick Corbin allowed five home-runs in just 9.1 innings og work. No great surprise that they took the loss in both cases, and we'll be hoping De La Rosa can do a better job og keeping the ball in the park this afternoon. Or morning. Or "middle of the freakin' night."
After a "prescheduled day off" yesterday - yeah, I still think Chip Hale might have been being a bit kind, and not wanting to throw his player under the bus - Nick Ahmed returns to the line-up, and the lead-off spot, for this one. With a left-handed pitcher, you will also be unsurprised to see Aaron Hill at third-base: we'll take the "Where is Lamb?" comments as read, I think. Clearly, the team has some reason for thinking Lamb has a sinisterophonia [may or may not be a real word...]. Either way, it would be nice for the team to go into the four-day break without being on the receiving end of a sweep.