Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #103: To live and die in LA

Zack Godley RHP, 3-1, 5.88

Kenta Maeda RHP, 9-7, 3.25

Jean Segura - 2B	Chase Utley - 2B
Michael Bourn - CF	Corey Seager - SS
Paul Goldschmidt - 1B	Justin Turner - 3B
Jake Lamb - 3B	Adrian Gonzalez - 1B
Welington Castillo - C	Howie Kendrick - LF
David Peralta - RF	Yasmani Grandal - C
Yasmany Tomas - LF	Andrew Toles - RF
Chris Owings - SS	Joc Pederson - CF
Zack Godley - RHP	Kenta Maeda - RHP

Remember the golden, halcyon days when the 2016 Diamondbacks had a winning record on the road? That could come to an end tonight. For the team enters the opening game against the Dodgers in Los Angeles sporting a 25-25 mark away from Chase Field. The D-backs are 2-10 over their previous dozen road games, dating back to the middle of the last series in Coors Field, and the last time they prevailed in such a series was when they swept the Phillies in Philadelphia, from June 17-20. They’ve played five road series since, without taking one of them.

But maybe things will be different here, for in fact, the only series of any kind won by the Diamondbacks since that one versus Philadelphia, was the set at Chase where they took two of three from these same Dodgers. This opening game will be a semi-rematch of the finale there, where Arizona edged Los Angeles by a 6-5 margin, beating Maeda. However, it was Robbie Ray who started for us, rather than Godley, who will be facing Los Angeles for the first time in his career.

After being 6.5 games back of the Giants at the break, the Dodgers have pulled to two games behind, going into tonight. With SF having a tough task this weekend, hosting Washington, Los Angeles will be looking to continue that trend and pull even closer. Few things would be more satisfying than stopping that. Nothing to do with helping the Giants, of course, just taking the Dodgers down a peg or two. The return of Peralta - right back into the startling line-up this evening - should give the D-backs a psychological boost, but we’ll probably need a better start from Godley than the 10 hits and five runs he allowed last time out, in Cincinnati.