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Diamondbacks line-up
- A.J. Pollock, CF
- Brandon Drury, 2B
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
- Jake Lamb, 3B
- Yasmany Tomas, RF
- Oswaldo Arcia, LF
- Chris Owings, SS
- Socrates Brito, DH
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Jeff Mathis, C
+ P Anthony Banda
First pitch is 1:10pm, and this one will last seven innings. Obviously, don’t expect many of the above to stick around and play the entire game, but that’s not far off a full-strength line-up. David Peralta is the only one missing, and according to Nick Piecoro is dealing with citizenship issues. That appears to be this spring’s “the dog ate my homework” of hip excuses. It does mean Arcia gets out of the gate first, in the race for the fourth outfielder’s spot. I’d probably hold off a bit, before penciling him onto the Opening Day roster.
It’ll be the first time the Diamondbacks have played Grand Canyon University, it being their turn in the cycle of local schools, which started in 2015. They beat Arizona State 4-0 in the opening contest, and last year, defeated the University of Arizona by a margin of 12-5, in another seven inning game, so they’re going for the sweep this afternoon. It’s somewhat amusing that the D-backs play GCU, when a good chunk of ASU teams refuse to have anything to do with them. There’s some kind of spat over GCU’s status as a “for profit” school, though personally, I think there is a bit of a difference between GCU and certain educational establishments we could mention.
No broadcast coverage of this game - that gets underway with the Cactus League opener on Saturday, so you’ll be reduced to refreshing the MLB Gameday page and hoping for nuggets on social media like the rest of us. But, hey, it’s Diamondbacks baseball - and that’s good enough, since it seems like forever and a day since the last time I was last able to say so!