Preview, #2: 3/30 vs. Rockies

Last night’s win was all the more impressive, when you consider that we managed to beat the Rockies’ supposed “ace”, with the guy who, going on last year’s performance, was very clearly our #5 starter. For Patrick Corbin’s overall ERA of 4.03 was more than half a run worse than the next-highest of our 2018 rotation, Taijuan Walker’s 3.49. The shuffling of our rotation needed as a result of Groinkegate might have ended up benefiting the D-backs, because with Robbie Ray going tonight, and Zack Greinke tomorrow, you could argue a strong case that Arizona has a definite edge in both contests. It would certainly be nice to cash in on that, and sweep the Rockies, making a strong statement to open the season.

A number of changes to the line-up for Arizona, as we face a left-handed starter for the first time. Chris Owings replaces Jarrod Dyson in right field, and interestingly, John Ryan Murphy will be catching Ray. This will be only Murphy’s second start for the Diamondbacks. For what it’s worth, his first, on September 25 last year, was as part of a battery with Zack Godley. There are also some changes in the batting order: Ketel Marte moves up to the second spot, with A.J. Pollock batting clean-up behind Paul Goldschmidt, and Jake Lamb (the only pure left-hander in the starting line-up this evening) dropping from fourth to sixth. [We saw last night that the whole “Lamb can’t hit lefties” meme is still very much alive]

We’ve yet to beat Tyler Anderson in four career starts against Arizona, but he has a very different beast here and in Denver. In the two Coors Field outings, he has allowed only three earned runs over 11.2 innings. But at Chase, the D-backs have hit him hard: 16 hits, 5 walks and 11 earned runs in only 9.1 frames. Of course, that was in the pre-humidor era, so we’ll see what happens tonight. Last night, the humidor seemed perhaps to keep one Arizona hit in the park (Lamb’s first inning double), while both of the Colorado homers still dropped just over the fence. This isn’t quite how I wanted it to work! Still, the end result was fine, so here’s to a repeat of that, and the D-backs’ first 2-0 start since 2012.