:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/50647071/usa-today-9500067.0.jpg)
 |
Robbie Ray
|
 |
Jorge De La Rosa
|
| Jean Segura - 2B | Charlie Blackmon - CF |
| A.J. Pollock - CF | DJ LeMahieu - 2B |
| Paul Goldschmidt - 1B | Nolan Arenado - 3B |
| Welington Castillo - C | Carlos Gonzalez - RF |
| Yasmany Tomas - RF | Ryan Raburn - LF |
| Jake Lamb - 3B | Nick Hundley - C |
| Brandon Drury - LF | Stephen Cardullo - 1B |
| Chris Owings - SS | Cristhian Adames - SS |
| Robbie Ray - LHP | Jorge De La Rosa - LHP |
The Rockies are eight games ahead of the Diamondbacks, which is pretty much a damning indictment of the way the 2016 season has gone for Arizona. Not that it helps the Rockies much: even if they do currently have their best W% since 2010, they're still on course for a sixth consecutive losing season. Still it looks likely to be their highest finish over that time, having finished 4th, 5th, 5th, 4th and 5th in that time, though I'm not exactly detecting a wave of excitement over at Purple Row about this unsurpassed (in the recent era) success. So, yeah: we D-backs fans don't have much to complain about, at least in terms of medium-term futility.
Robbie Ray draws the short straw. He was bumped by Shelby Miller from a cushy start by the sea, against the slumping Giants, to a mile high outing against the team who have scored more runs than anyone else in the National League. Yes, 30 more than the Cubs, since you ask. The Rockies actually have a run differential of +24, which would be enough to get them a wild-card spot, if only these things were decided on the basis of run differential rather than, oh, wins and losses. It's a result of their awful 9-17 record in one-run games. Interestingly, more than one-third of Colorado's contests (45 of 133) have been decided by five runs or more.
Anyway, whatever the over-under on runs scored this weekend is, you should probably take the over, since we've got the league's highest scoring offense (Colorado) going against the highest-conceding defense (Arizona), and the fifth scoring offense (Arizona) against the third-conceding defense (Colorado). If that isn't a recipe for some slugfests, I don't know what is. Good job the games start an hour earlier, due to the time-zone difference, so there's still a chance we'll be able to get the recap of the impending 17-15 battle up before midnight. Probably written in the blood of the relievers sacrificed over the middle innings.