Preview, #53: Arizona Diamondbacks @ Pittsburgh Pirates

It seems almost that we're unable to play the Pirates without one of our players being damaged as a result of being hit by a Pittsburgh pitcher. Last time it was Chris Iannetta, who had to go on the disabled list after one of the scariest incidents for the Diamondbacks in recent memory, taking a fastball to the face. He required stitches in his lip, broke his nose and fractured a couple of teeth, though it could have been worse. But he's not the only one: this is a trend which goes back to Aaron Hill's hand being broken in 2013, and also included Paul Goldschmidt. Is it just us? You'd need to do some study of DL stints and their causes to find that out.

Delgado starts again, having done a solid job five days ago, in his last spot start, allowing one earned run over four innings. He threw 61 pitches there, so I could see him being stretched a bit further today, possibly - all being well - to somewhere around the 75 pitch mark, which might be enough to get through five innings. If not, Archie Bradley hasn't thrown since Thursday, and only had 11 pitches in that outing, so should be good for a couple of frames. Worth giving a bit of praise to T.J. McFarland, for throwing three innings yesterday: while that probably means he's unavailable for a bit, he saved the bullpen. [Also of note: his ERA is now 0.77]

At least we don't have Rey Fuentes in the line-up. Mike said on Twitter over the weekend, "Fuentes is the worst hitter I've seen in a Dbacks uniform," and the stats bear that out at this point. His OPS+ is now -8. Yes, that's a negative.That's the lowest figure for a season by any non-pitcher for Arizona, with 30+ PA, having just surpassed the -7 put up by Geoff Blum in 2012. Bernard Gilkey's -3 in 2000 was the only other sub-zero figure. You do wonder why we haven't swapped Fuentes out for Jeremy Hazelbaker Kristopher Negron anyone with a pulse. While Gregor Blanco has been solid, I still can't wait for A.J. Pollock to return.