Preview, #9: 4/6 vs. Red Sox

Days like yesterday do not come along very often. Now in their 22nd season, the Diamondbacks have scored 15 or more runs only 22 times - an average of once per year. So it’s quite possible we used this season’s allocation up. Still, doing so before a full house in the home opener, and against the reigning World Series champions, is not a bad way to do it. You could hardly have hand-picked a better regular season game to do it, I’d say. Though it’s not quite the earliest in the season we reached that total. In the sixth game of the 2010 campaign, we beat the Pirates 15-6 at Chase Field, behind five RBI by catcher Chris Snyder, including a franchise record thirteen-run fourth inning.

Another win today, and for all their previous success and momentum, the Red Sox may be just about buried. Only ten games in to a 162-game season might seem a bit early to say that, but teams that start 2-8 are very rarely able to come back to make the playoffs. Since the D-backs entered the league in 1998, only three of the 29 teams with that record after ten games were able to recover and reach the post-season - the most recent being the 2011 Rays. And for what it’s worth, all three teams were knocked out in the first round, collectively going 3-9 in the playoffs. It’s a quite shocking start. Though as of 1pm, not one World Series winner from the last 10 years currently has a winning record.

Luke Weaver starts, and is now chasing Zack Greinke for home-runs by an Arizona pitcher this season. We may just be eight games in, but only two previous D-backs seasons have we seen more HR by our men on the mound. In 2011 there were four (two by Zach Duke, one each by Daniel Hudson and Barry Enright); and in 2007 we had five (four by Micah Owings and one by Livan Hernandez). So, plenty of time to catch those campaigns. We’ve also matched our pitcher homer total for 2014-18 combined. Now, if we could just dial back on all the home-runs they’ve been giving up, that would be GREAT...