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There's still clearly some kind of lurgy going around the D-backs clubhouse. Chris Owings was a late scratch due to illness, with Blanco replacing him in right field. Let's just make sure he doesn't come anywhere near Pollock and Goldschmidt.
I was curious to see how our starting pitchers had done facing opponents the second time facing the same team in a season. So here are how the game scores have changed for members of our rotation when they have seen the same team twice:
- Taijuan Walker: Giants (-3), Dodgers (-17)
- Robbie Ray: Dodgers (-32), Giants (+15)
- Zack Greinke: Rockies (+11), Padres (-6),
- Patrick Corbin: Padres (-2)
Small sample size, and this doesn't take into account the location of the second chance will have been different as well. But over these seven cases, the average Game Score has dropped for our starters by about five points, when a team gets another opportunity to see them. Of course, this works both ways: the D-backs in general, and Paul Goldschmidt in particular, seemed to have a much better approach against German Marquez last night, than when he blanked them at Chase Field.
If the trend continues, that should bode well for the D-backs, because although both tonight's pitchers threw in that series, Corbin's results were a great deal better than those of Anderson. Patrick, in fact, shutout the Rockies on two hits over 6.1 innings, which his opposite number was tagged for seven hits and six earned runs in just five frames. Though in another illustration of the vagaries of wins as a pitching statistic, neither man featured in the final verdict, both getting a no-decision. Anderson has struggled particularly with the long-ball. Last year, he gave up a dozen homers in 114.1 IP; this year, he's already at nine, in barely thirty inning. Hopefully, that trend will continue.
Tonight's battery is Corbin and Iannetta, which is something of a trend. It's Patrick's seventh start, and will be his fourth throwing to him, with two to Chris Herrmann and just one to Jeff Mathis. But outside of the steady Greinke-Mathis pairing, Torey Lovullo has been apparently intent on mixing up his combinations, with no other regular batteries. It's probably relevant that we don't really have an "everyday" catcher. Mathis's 15 starts this year only ranks him tied for 27th at the position in the majors. In other words, 26 of the other 29 teams have had a "more regular" catcher than Arizona - everyone bar the Braves, White Sox and Rockies.