Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #80: Score more, allow less

Jerad Eickhoff RHP, 5-9, 3.36

Zack Greinke RHP, 10-3, 3.61

Odubel Herrera - CF	Jean Segura - 2B
Peter Bourjos - RF	Michael Bourn - CF
Maikel Franco - 3B	Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
Ryan Howard - 1B	Jake Lamb - 3B
Carlos Ruiz - C	Yasmany Tomas - RF
Cody Asche - LF	Welington Castillo - C
Freddy Galvis - SS	Peter O'Brien - LF
Cesar Hernandez - 2B	Zack Greinke - RHP
Jerad Eickhoff - RHP	Nick Ahmed - SS

Interestingly, despite comments last night about Rickie Weeks Jr seeing more playing time in left, it's O'Brien who's out there for the second game in this series. Perhaps that's connected to Weeks' lackluster performance yesterday: He went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts and apparently bungled a couple of fly-balls which should have been outs. The sooner we get David Peralta and/or Chris Owings back, the better. But it looks likely to be a while for either, though Chip Hale is still hoping that Owings might be able to return before the end of the homestand. He'll probably need some rehab games to confirm his foot is indeed fully ready.

Brad Ziegler wasn't the only player who saw a streak end in Colorado. The same game also saw Greinke's run of consecutive wins come to a halt, as a result of Ziegler's eighth inning blown-save (with a severe assist to Daniel Hudson). Still, Greinke is 10-1 over his last 14 starts, and did a very good job of handling the Phillies when he saw them during the road-trip. He held Philadelphia to one run on three hits and a walk over eight innings, so I'm feeling confident this game should, at least, be a good deal closer than the abomination which unfolded at Chase Field last night, leaving tumbleweeds rolling across the Gameday Thread in the later innings.

I will actually have to pay somewhat more attention myself this evening. ish95 is recapping, but will be at the game, so I'm on quick recap duty. Mind you, it's usually possible to cobble together 200 fairly meaningful words from the box-score, unless something exciting happens that isn't recorded there. That could be an injury - hopefully not - or simply something entertaining such as an ejection or brawl. Or maybe I should simply wait for the final score update to appear on my phone, and then weave a work of semi-plausible fiction based on that result. Would certainly be more entertaining than having to endure another game like last night...