Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #154: Awkward start time is awkward

Robbie Ray LHP, 8-13, 4.66

Wade Miley LHP, 8-13, 5.65

Aargh. This is the kind of start time I hate when I'm covering a game. If it was a bit later, I could go out for dinner after Mrs. SnakePit gets off work at 5pm, watch the game from Islands or wherever, go to the supermarket, etc. and still be home in time for recappage. If it were earlier, I could knock out the recap and then go to dinner and the store. But instead, this is an awkwardly "neither one thing nor the other" start time here in Arizona, that probably means ordering out for pizza, then a post-recap run for supplies. Just a good thing there haven't been too many of these this season, I guess, and let's hope this doesn't end up going 12 innings like last night.

I'm probably not the only person who looked at today's match-up and went, "Wait, what - Wade Miley's an Oriole?" They're his third club since Arizona traded him to Boston for Rubby De La Rosa and parts, having first been dealt on to Seattle last December, then moving to Baltimore at the trade deadline this year. His performances since leaving the D-backs haven't been much, with an 85 ERA+ last year and this, compared to the 103 figure he put up over his four seasons in the desert. Miley left his last outing with a muscle strain in his back, but it doesn't seem to have caused him enough grief. to cause the Orioles to skip him this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Robbie Ray continues his quest to surpass Dan Haren for #8 on the single-season franchise strikeout list. With this start and one more, Ray is 13 back (223 vs. 210), and has averaged exactly seven K's per game, so is on pace to do it by the narrowest of margins. Meanwhile, looking forward, the team is still uncertain about who might take Zack Greinke's scheduled spot in the rotation on Tuesday. It's apparently not going to be Patrick Corbin, so I dunno. Matt Koch maybe? Zack Godley? The latter would be nice, because it would give Arizona eight different pitchers to have made 10+ starts for the team this year, a franchise record and one off the major-league most.