Game #148 Preview: 9/19, Arizona Diamondbacks @ San Francisco Giants

The La Russa Heartbreakometer

What is this?

Patrick Corbin LHP, 5-4, 3.29

Mike Leake RHP, 10-8, 3.72

A.J. Pollock - CF	Angel Pagan - CF
Ender Inciarte - RF	Kelby Tomlinson - 2B
Paul Goldschmidt - 1B	Matt Duffy - 3B
David Peralta - LF	Buster Posey - 1B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia - C	Marlon Byrd - RF
Phil Gosselin - 2B	Juan C. Perez - LF
Jake Lamb - 3B	Brandon Crawford - SS
Chris Owings - SS	Trevor Brown - C
Patrick Corbin - LHP	Mike Leake - RHP

With two games left to play, the Diamondbacks are currently 7-1 in AT&T Park this year. Only once in team history have they won more games than that for a season in any road location, back in 2005 when they went 8-1 in Dodger Stadium. That's a real change: as mentioned last night, we have already won the season series against San Francisco for the first time since 2008. Not even the division winning squad from 2011 bested the Giants during the regular season, going 9-9. And it hadn't typically been even that close: from 2009-14, our overall mark versus them was feeble: 41 wins to 69 losses.

There's no doubt what has powered this year's success: stellar Arizona pitching, as we saw in last night's two-hit shutout from Rubby De La Rosa and the bullpen. Our current ERA there of 1.46, is the lowest in team history for any location where we played more than a single series, eclipsing the previous 1.87, set over ten games last year in - and this is my unsurprised face - Petco Park. It's also the lowest inflicted at home on the Giants since they moved to California. We've allowed a total of 13 runs in eight games, six of those coming in the 12-inning season opener. Over the last 49 frames? Three runs.

I'm not sure why our staff this season seems to love pitching at AT&T, but it has certainly worked out. Maybe we should offer to trade De La Rosa to the Giants, since he has given up three earned runs in 20.1 innings of work there this year, for a 1.33 ERA. Our bullpen has been even better of late, not allowing a run in the past seven games at AT&T, with an active 13.1 inning scoreless streak in San Francisco too, giving up just seven hits and a walk with 11 strikeouts in that time. Part of me knows this can't last forever. But as long as it last for about the next 36 hours, I'll settle for that!