Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #115: Sox and violence

Patrick Corbin LHP, 4-11, 5.37

David Price LHP, 9-8, 4.34

Jean Segura - 2B	Dustin Pedroia - 2B
Phil Gosselin - 1B	Xander Bogaerts - SS
Paul Goldschmidt - DH	Mookie Betts - RF
Rickie Weeks - LF	David Ortiz - DH
Chris Owings - SS	Hanley Ramirez - 1B
Brandon Drury - RF	Jackie Bradley - CF
Jake Lamb - 3B	Aaron Hill - 3B
Tuffy Gosewisch - C	Bryan Holaday - C
Michael Bourn - CF	Andrew Benintendi - LF

Into the land of the designated hitter go the Diamondbacks, and we see Goldie taking on that mantle for the third time in his career. Seems a bit odd having Gosselin starting at 1B, with Yasmany Tomas not in the line-up entirely, but after the sweep in New York, and with a four-game winning streak coming into this contest, I guess Chip Hale deserves the benefit ot the doubt. We've played the Red Sox an awful lot more at Fenway over the years than in Phoenix - by the end of this series, Arizona will have faced Boston a total of 18 times, with only three of those contests taking place at Chase Field, that series happening back in 2007.

Since then, the Diamondbacks have comes to New England on three occasions, in 2008, 2010 and, most recently, in 2013. They lost all three series - indeed, the only series in which they have beaten the Red Sox, was the first one ever, in 2002, when they swept Boston behind wins for Miguel Batista, Curt Schilling and Rick Helling. Arizona has lost seven of the last eight contests, Randall Delgado picking up the last victory, a 7-6 win in the opening game that last time these two sides met, a little over three years ago. Today's starter Corbin was also the starter in the second contest, and took the loss though didn't pitch badly, the D-backs losing 4-2.

The Red Sox are right in the middle of the wild-card chase. Boston currently hold the second spot, but there are only two games covering them, the Tigers, Mariners and Astros, so they have absolutely everything to play for. The D-backs certainly delivered one of their best series of the season in New York, but I think they're going to need to step up another level in Boston. It seems less likely the lackluster play we saw from the Mets, particularly in the final game, will be repeated by the Red Sox, especially in front of a passionate and partisan (read "rabid to the point of frothing") Fenway crowd. We'll need Corbin to be old Corbin, not new Corbin, to have much chance of prevailing.