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Let’s see which Zack Godley turns up. The good one, who tossed seven shutout innings against the Rangers last start? Or the one from the previous couple of outings, where he failed to get through six innings and allowed four runs? It has really become “Spin the Wheel O’ Godley! See where she lands!” No A.J. Pollock again tonight, according to Torey Lovullo, Pollock’s legs are still a little fatigued, so they decided to give him an extra day. Interestingly, Deven Marrero is apparently here and healthy, so we’ll see what that means. He has played seven rehab games between the AZL and AAA, going 6-for-23. But even with the injury to Lamb, I’m not sure there’s a roster spot for him open right now.
Random not-so fun fact. If John Ryan Murphy doesn’t get a hit tonight - and he’ll have to come off the bench to do so, since Alex Avila is starting behind the plate - he’ll enter an elite unwanted club of Diamondbacks. That would be, those who have spent a month on the active roster without a hit. For Murphy’s last knock came on July 6, since when he has gone 0-for-28. It’s not entirely unprecedented for Arizona, though it’s hard to be sure in some cases, as you have to cross-reference game logs with transactions. But from what I could say, he’ll join the following players in franchise history:
- Bernard Gilkey: May 20-June 21, 2000 [0-for-28, 1 BB, 3 SO]
- Jay Bell: August 18-September 23, 2002 [0-for-20, 1 BB, 4 SO]
- Chad Tracy: August 25-September 26, 2009 [0-for-18, 1 BB, 4 SO]
- Oscar Hernandez: July 24-September 14, 2015 [0-for-16, 0 BB, 7 SO]
- John Ryan Murphy: July 7-current date, 2018 [0-for-28, 1 BB, 11 SO]
There are good reasons most of those were impacted to some degree by September. Pretty much no-one gets DL’d after rosters expand: not much point. So you can be hurt and ride the pine while still technically on the roster. And the additional bodies mean that playing time gets sliced thinner, especially for those at the back of the roster. We can see that particularly for Hernandez, who made just three starts in the 48 games between his hits. He was also a Rule 5 pick, so had to be kept on the roster all season. Playing? Not so much.