Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #9: Once more, to the Magic 8-Ball of De La Rosa

Rubby De La Rosa RHP, 0-1, 12.46

Alex Wood LHP, 0-1, 9.00

Jean Segura - 2B	Chase Utley - 2B
Chris Owings - CF	Corey Seager - SS
Paul Goldschmidt - 1B	Justin Turner - 3B
Welington Castillo - C	Adrian Gonzalez - 1B
Brandon Drury - RF	Yasiel Puig - RF
Jake Lamb - 3B	Yasmani Grandal - C
Yasmany Tomas - LF	Howie Kendrick - LF
Rubby De La Rosa - RHP	Joc Pederson - CF
Nick Ahmed - SS	Alex Wood - LHP

Also of interest: freeland's Wheel O' De La Rosa

Hopefully, the results this evening will be better than last time he started, when De La Rosa (and, let's be fair, just about everyone else we sent out there) was pasted by the Chicago Cubs, the Diamondbacks going down to a 14-6 defeat at Chase Field. Rubby lasted only 3.1 innings, allowing seven runs (six earned) on six hits and three walks, with just a pair of strikeouts. He's going to have to pitch much better than that, or the bullpen outing he had is going to become his permanent day-job - and my guess is, likely sooner, rather than later. Because, especially with Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller not exactly locking things down on top of the rotation, we can ill-afford to give away any more outings.

Unsurprisingly, De La Rosa finds himself facing a lefty-skewed line-up, but it might help that the opposing pitcher didn't exactly shine in his first outing either, Wood allowing eight hits and two walks over five innings in San Francisco, also taking the loss. We saw him three times last year, and the results were a bit varied shall we say. In June, he allowed one run over eight innings and beat us. But in September, he went 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA against the Diamondbacks; that's the pitcher I'm hoping we see tonight, obviously. But if Rubby isn't at least half-decent tonight, then it may not matter how much we put wood on Wood.

Be an interesting night in the outfield, with Brandon Drury, Chris Owings and Yasmany Tomas out there. I'm hoping for a very high number of ground-balls, that's all I can say. With no David Peralta in the line-up, Beef moves up to occupy the clean-up spot behind Goldschmidt. I can't say I am expecting too much from this one, but I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome yesterday, so let's see if we can put together the first winning streak of the season, and get one step closer to evening Arizona's record. Of note: tonight's game is on Fox Sports Arizona PLUS, so here's your channel finder for that, if you need it.