Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #87: Lamb to the Laughter

Colin Rea RHP, 5-3, 4.79

Shelby Miller RHP, 2-8, 6.85

Travis Jankowski - CF	Jean Segura - 2B
Wil Myers - 1B	Michael Bourn - CF
Matt Kemp - RF	Paul Goldschmidt - 1B
Yangervis Solarte - 3B	Jake Lamb - 3B
Melvin Upton Jr. - LF	Chris Herrmann - C
Derek Norris - C	Yasmany Tomas - RF
Ryan Schimpf - 2B	Brandon Drury - LF
Alexei Ramirez - SS	Nick Ahmed - SS
Colin Rea - RHP	Shelby Miller - RHP

It hasn't been the most enjoyable of seasons to be a Diamondbacks fan, but the way in which everyone on the team - players, broadcasters, the entire carnival - have utterly embraced Jake Lamb's presence in the Final Vote has been an absolute joy to watch. This afternoon, for example, a real lamb from a local petting zoo showed up at Chase Field for batting practice. The photo opportunities just write themselves, don't they - there may have to be a bonus edition of This Week in Tweets on tomorrow's off-day, just to cope with all the insanity. Oh, and we even got Paul Goldschmidt on Twitter - at least for the week. Such fun...

And then you look at the pitching match-up for tonight. What a way to come back down to Earth. A Shelby Miller start, going up against the team responsible for his shortest outing of the season so far: 1.2 innings on April 16. Admittedly, that was rather less to do with the Padres, than Miller repeatedly banging his knuckles on the ground, but it's still not exactly what you'd call a good omen. But maybe there's a chance: the Padres' offense ranks 11th in the National League this year by wRC+. Miller's two wins came against the teams ranked 14th and 15th, and he hasn't faced the 12th/13th ranked outfits. So maybe - just maybe - he can handle San Diego?

That said, I'd just settle for him getting through the game with the same number of functioning knuckles as he had when warming up in the bullpen. It'd be nice to win a home series: we certainly haven't had that to cheer about very often. Even if it's against the Padres.