Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #56: DH good, DH bad

Zack Greinke RHP, 6-3, 4.71

Dallas Keuchel LHP, 3-6, 5.58

Jean Segura - 2B	George Springer - RF
Michael Bourn - RF	Jose Altuve - 2B
Paul Goldschmidt - 1B	Carlos Correa - SS
Rickie Weeks - DH	Colby Rasmus - LF
Welington Castillo - C	Evan Gattis - C
Jake Lamb - 3B	Luis Valbuena - 3B
Chris Owings - CF	Carlos Gomez - CF
Brandon Drury - LF	Marwin Gonzalez - 1B
Nick Ahmed - SS	Tony Kemp - DH

The Diamondbacks start a run of morning games, Arizona time - the season finale today against the Astros, and then each of the three games in Chicago against the Cubs, will all start before noon. Which is kinda awkward as far as scheduling goes, since it means many fans here will be otherwise engaged with work and school, particularly today and tomorrow. Weeks is DHing again for Arizona, and is also batting clean-up. It'll be his fifth time hitting fourth, but (small sample size, obvs) the results haven't been great, going 2-for-14 with no walks and four K's. Still, add it to the list of "things I didn't expect to see in 2016"...

Following up on yesterday's preview, thought I'd look at the best and worst performances by a D-backs DH. In terms of total bases, look no further than Jay Bell, who is the only Arizona DH ever to hit for more than five bases in a game - and he did it twice, both times against the Rangers. In 2000, he went 4-for-5 with a HR, scoring two and driving in one, but the previous year, he hit a pair of homers against Texas, both solo shots, while also walking. The biggest WP game for a starting DH was the Wily Mo Pena homer game against Detroit, also mentioned yesterday, at +34%, mostly due to a game-tying HR in the seventh.

However, better still was a game from June 2007. Scott Hairston was the starting DH, but was PH'd for in with two outs in the eighth; Arizona was down by one, but had two men on. Orlando Hudson came off the bench and promptly hit a three-run homer in his only PA of the game, worth +58.2% of WPA. The worst was Miggy's -22.7%, in the second game of a double-header against Cleveland in 2014. In a scoreless game, he ended our sixth inning with men on the corners, and the eighth with the bases loaded, although the Diamondbacks actually won the game 1-0 in 12 innings, on an RBI from the day's actual catcher, Tuffy Gosewisch.