Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #43: Yankees SUCK!

Nathan Eovaldi RHP, 3-2, 4.85

Shelby Miller RHP, 1-4, 6.94

Jacoby Ellsbury - CF	Jean Segura - 2B
Brett Gardner - LF	Phil Gosselin - LF
Carlos Beltran - RF	Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
Brian McCann - C	Jake Lamb - 3B
Mark Teixeira - 1B	Welington Castillo - C
Starlin Castro - 2B	Brandon Drury - RF
Didi Gregorius - SS	Chris Owings - CF
Chase Headley - 3B	Nick Ahmed - SS
Nathan Eovaldi - RHP	Shelby Miller - RHP

I am, however, pretty glad that we already sealed our first regular-season series victory over the Yankees, because I did not want to go into this Miller start needing a win. While a victory would certainly be nice, giving us a sweep over a generally hated opponent, this feels like hanging around the blackjack table a little too long. If our hitting with runners in scoring position has sharply regressed from the drought seen over the weekend in the Giants series, the .333 average (9-for-27) we've seen there in the first two games, seems like a swing of the pendulum too far the other way. As usual, find myself wishing we could carry over some of Monday's blowout runs to this evening.

Tonight, we see another new name added to the list of Diamondbacks' outfielders: Gosselin. He had one start for us there last year, and started as many as 18 games in LF during a season back in his minor-league days (2013), but the approach the Diamondbacks seem to be taking is that experience is less important for outfielders than general athleticism. He'll be the ninth starting outfielder used by the team in 2016 - we had 11 for all of 2015. It will also be the fourth position at which Gosselin will have started; positional flexibility appears to be an essential for the Diamondbacks bench this year, as we have already seen with Chris Herrmann.

But tonight, it's all about Miller, who will have to face what looks like a close to full-strength Yankee line-up. Though that isn't what it used to be: at the time of writing, the Bronx Bloopers' 142 runs scored are ahead only of the Twins (141) in the American League, and their OPS of .675 is dead-last. That's more than 100 points less than the Diamondbacks - and we have out pitchers batting for themselves. So, given how Miller's best outing was against the equally-woeful Atlanta Braves, perhaps there's reason to hope tonight might be in the same general area of success. Be nice to win, and take a sweep into the off-day before a potentially-tough road-trip through St. Louis and Pittsburgh.