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A roster move was made before today’s game, with yesterday’s starter Kris Medlen being optioned back to Reno, and Braden Shipley brought up. This presumably rules Medlen out for the next time we need a #5 starter (either next Thursday or Saturday, depending on how they handle Monday’s off-day), since he would have to stay in the minors for at least 10 days before being recalled. Though that does not apply in the case of an injury, and as we all know, there are ways and means of working around that... Interesting that they are pulling up Shipley, presumably as long relief cover while T.J. McFarland recovers; that may suggest he is not on the list to start next time, though we’ll see how this goes.
I’m hopeful that today’s pitching match-up won’t be the most one-sided contest since the Battle of San Jacinto. [What, too soon?] Charlie Morton has been pretty good so far, to put it mildly, but then, Zack Greinke has been pretty awesome at Chase Field of late. And also in inter-league play: his team has won his last 7 home games there, dating back before he joined the D-backs to June 18, 2015. Over that time, he is 6-0 with a 1.19 ERA (7 ER in 53.0 IP), a .169 opponent average, 6 walks and 52 strikeouts. But we saw last night how good the Astros’ line-up is at taking advantage of any mistakes or weakness, with extreme ruthlessness. He’ll need to be on top form.
We’ll see how many K’s the D-backs rack up. The previous team high was in 2010, when powered by Mark Reynolds’ 211 strikeouts, the team has 1,529 K’s. Through 32 games, they have struck out 308 times, putting them on pace to break that mark by 30. Paul Goldschmidt is currently on pace for a mind-blowing 223 K’s, This would tie Reynolds’ current all-time single-season mark for strikeouts, set in 2009. And Goldy isn’t even leading the majors: there are four players ahead of him, led by Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees. All of them are scheduled to set a new record thus far, with Stanton forecast at a staggering 258, which would shatter Marky’s mark by 35. It’s truly the year of the K.