Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #24: Pitching into problems

Michael Wacha RHP, 2-0, 2.82

Rubby De La Rosa RHP, 2-3, 5.94

Matt Carpenter - 3B	Jean Segura - 2B
Stephen Piscotty - CF	Jake Lamb - 3B
Matt Holliday - LF	Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
Brandon Moss - RF	David Peralta - RF
Yadier Molina - C	Brandon Drury - LF
Matt Adams - 1B	Chris Herrmann - C
Jedd Gyorko - 2B	Chris Owings - CF
Aledmys Diaz - SS	Nick Ahmed - SS
Michael Wacha - RHP	Rubby De La Rosa - RHP

Here are the stats for the Diamondbacks pitching staff through 23 games, compared to this point of the season for every year since 1998. As last time, the table is sortable by clicking on the column headers, once for ascending, twice for descending order.

That certainly shows the difference between this season and last year, with team ERA being 0.73 runs higher this year That's mostly the result of a 30% increase in the number of home-runs allowed, though the walk-rate is also up significantly, going from 2.80 per nine innings last season, to 3.80 this year. I was a little surprised to see strikeout rate up a bit, to 7.34 per 9IP from 6.82 at this point in 2015. I also note that we are actually posting a lower ERA and have more wins than the Diamondbacks did during the last season they made the playoffs, in 2011. I can't remember if we were as concerned about our pitching at that point.

Of course, the overall number does conceal a significant split. We are ranked 10th overall by ERA, but that position is buoyed considerably by our sixth-place position for bullpen ERA, which at 3.63 is the best in the NL West. If we look at the starting pitching ERA, it's a grim 5.93, which is ahead only of the Colorado Rockies, with the Brewers and Braves the only other teams currently to be above five. If this series against the Cardinals pitted the top two home-run hitting teams in the major leagues, the upcoming one in Coors Field may be even more explosive. The visiting and home pitching staffs there have allowed 36 and 38 runs respectively in their past four games.

And so, we spin the Wheel or shake the Magic 8-Ball of De La Rosa, who was the last Diamondbacks pitcher to give us a quality start. I'll take "Sentences I didn't expect to be saying in April" for $200, please, Alex. The shift of Peralta to center field appears to have been a one-night experiment, with Owings back out there again. No Welington Castillo either behind the plate - this might be a reaction to Herrmann having also caught De La Rosa's last outing, which was easily the best of his season. Fingers crossed we can win, return to .500 and then kick the Rockies while they're down, to escape the month which has lived up its hellish billing.