Preview: 4/19 vs. Giants

Particularly worth tuning in to tonight’s broadcast, as Randy Johnson will be making the first of his regular scheduled appearances in the booth for the third through sixth innings, as part of ‘Throwback Thursday’. He’ll be doing the same for each home Thursday game; hopefully, one of these might match up with a Patrick Corbin start, as I’m curious what insight the greatest left-handed pitcher of our time has to say about the resurrected Corbin. [Random aside: good job we didn’t trade him to the Yankees this winter. That would have sucked, big time...] Tonight, the team will also be wearing their 1998 home uniforms with the white alternate cap.

Tonight’s starter, Zack Greinke, would have been fourteen at the time, still four years away from being drafted by the Kansas City Royals, with the 6th overall pick of the 2002 draft. The only member of our roster who was playing professionally in 1998 was Jorge De La Rosa, who was signed at an amateur free agent by the D-backs on March 20 of that year. He ended up being sold to Monterrey in Mexico, who sold him on to the Red Sox, who traded De La Rosa back to Arizona for Curt Schilling, being dealt three days later to the Brewers in the Richie Sexson trade. It’d be another 13+ years before De La Rosa would eventually appear FOR the Diamondbacks, and this is now his fourth stint with the organization.

We could certainly do with Greinke tonight reproducing his last start against the Giants. That came last September, when he tossed eight shutout innings of two-hit ball. He has generally had San Francisco’s number throughout his career. Over 17 starts, he’s 11-2 with a 2.39 ERA against the Giants and a K:BB ratio of 95:26. All but three of those outings were quality starts, and he has allowed two or fewer runs on 12 occasions. With Greinke now owning the highest ERA of our starters, following Robbie Ray’s decent outing last night, it’s up to Zack to earn his million dollars and give Arizona a series win.