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A bit of a shake-up tonight, after the same eight position players started the first two games for the Diamondbacks. We get the first starts of the season for both Iannetta behind the plate, replacing Jeff Mathis, and Ahmed at shortstop. Owings also sees his debut in the Arizona outfield, with David Peralta sitting against a left-handed starter. I suspect this was mostly pre-planned, but you can't help wondering if there is perhaps some kind of reaction to the defensive woes which contributed to last night's loss.
I'm excited to see what the offseason's shiny new toy does, Walker making his major-league debut for Arizona. His first few spring starts were stellar and got everyone very excited. The last few... Not so much, perhaps. But he showed enough potential that I'm still enthusiastic about what he might bring to the table. Perhaps even pitching into the sixth inning! After the last couple of contests, that is beginning to feel like some kind of genuine achievement for our rotation. Walker won his only career start against the Giants, on June 15, 2015, allowing one earned run over seven innings.
We saw Matt Moore three times last year: he went 1-2 with a 3.72 ERA and a very good K:BB of 21:3 over 19.2 innings. Should make for an interesting contest. And it's also the SnakePit debut of David Castro, with his first regular season recap. Hopefully, it's a good game.