Diamondbacks suffer costly rain-out

For a meaningless spring game, called in the fifth inning due to rain, this was quite the disaster for the Diamondbacks. They had no less than THREE players leave the game injured, and though two are probably not as bad as initially feared, the third was the nastiest of the lot. It began on the first play of the game, a groundball back up the middle off Miguel Castro. Both Geraldo Perdomo and Diego Castillo went for it, and came together in a nasty collision, with Castillo's head driving into Perdomo's chest. Both players went down as a result, and we held our breath. The good news is, they were both able to make their own way off the field, as they left the game.

Normal service was resumed. Castro dialed up groundballs and Jake McCarthy used his speed to manufacture a run. Walk, passed ball, steal of third, sacrifice fly. However, the worst was yet to come. Corbin Martin, who had been having a very solid spring, went down in obvious and serious pain, after throwing a pitch, and immediately left the game with a trainer. According to the team, he has “right shoulder discomfort,” which may be the understatement of the year. There will be tests carried out. The only good news, if at all, is that it wasn't his elbow. Corbin had Tommy John surgery in July 2019. My first concern was a repeat if that, but it doesn't seem to be an elbow issue.

Adding to the injury issues today, manager Torey Lovullo announced that Mark Melancon has a shoulder issue, and will probably have to miss the start of the season. So that's probably two bullpen spots which now need to be filled for Opening Day. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments as to who they should go to. But our thoughts are with all the injured players tonight, and I hope everyone of them make a full recovery. Tomorrow, the team travels to play the Cubs. No starter announced as yet, but I imagine it'll probably be one of the rained-out starters from today, so either Madison Bumgarner or Brandon Pfaadt.