Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #143: 9/9 @ Cubs

Definitely going to be a tough game today, going up against one of the contenders for the NL Cy Young award. But Arizona is sending up Merrill Kelly, who has been very good at giving the team a chance to win. In 20 of his 25 starts, Kelly has held the opposition to three runs or less, and considering he’s averaging almost six innings per game, that’s all you can ask for. The pressure will certainly be on the Cubs today, after having lost the first two games. The D-backs are now guaranteed at least a split, and hopefully can take either today or tomorrow, to take the series and move within one of owning the potential tie-breaker. We will see how the offense can cope with Steele. It won’t be easy.

Since I’m short of time between work and the early start, I’ll just dump a few nuggets of trivia in here from the Gameday Notes sent out by the D-backs.

• Yesterday’s D-backs’ victory vs. Cubs marked the first-ever 1-0 game between the 2 clubs (home or road) in their 172nd matchup since 1998. There had been four two-run games, most recently a 2-0 loss at Wrigley Field on Sept. 5, 2015.
• Corbin Carroll’s 45 stolen bases are the most by a rookie in D-backs’ franchise history, ahead of Chris Young (2007, 27). He is rank tied for third all-time by a D-back in a season with Tony Womack in 2007, behind Womack (1999, 72) and Eric Byrnes (2007, 50).
• Carroll is one homer shy of becoming the fourth player ever to have 25+ home runs and 40+ stolen bases in a season in their age-22 season or younger. He would join Mike Trout (2012 - 30 HR/49 SB), Alex Rodríguez (1998 - 42 HR/46 SB) and César Cedeño (1973 - 25 HR/56 SB.
• Gabriel Moreno’s 42.9 caught stealing pct. (21-for-49) leads all Major League catchers (min. 75 games caught), ahead of Shea Langeliers of OAK (31.8%). The D-backs’ 71 stolen bases allowed this season are the third fewest in the Majors, behind the Tigers (62) and Orioles (69).
• Today’s starter Merrill Kelly lived in Lake Forest, Illinois, from third through eighth grade. His dad, Tom, is a former general manager of the Chicago Ritz-Carlton.