Game Preview # 84 : 6/28 @ Giants

The Wild Card Race

“At 41-41, these next 7 games are crucial in deciding what the team should do going forward. As shoewizard mentioned on twitter, the NL Wild Card race is, for lack of a better term, wild.” — Steven Burt.

Each of the contenders does something better than the other teams. The following table shows some interesting differences between the contenders:

Yesterday’s Game.

The D-backs won. The D-backs hit the ball hard!

Alex Young’s debut was great!

Alex Young joined a list of D-back starting pitchers who have won their debut.

Today’s game.

In his first game against the Giants, Merrill Kelly allowed zero earned runs in 5.1 innings. He struck out 4.

Although in his second game he allowed 2 earned runs in 6 innings, that second game was in some ways better. He struck out 9 batters! Those strikeouts reflect that he improved his strikeout to walk ratio to 8.0 in June.

• “Kelly has been impressive since coming over in a free agent deal from the KBO this past offseason with no prior MLB experience.” — Keegan Thompson, 12 June
• “Merrill Kelly continued to throw the ball extremely well.” — Torey Lovullo, June 23.
• “Merrill Kelly pitched another strong game as the D-backs snap a 6 game losing streak.” —Jay Ego June 24

Today will be the third game that Merrill Kelly has faced the Giants. He will face Shaun Anderson, the same pitcher he faced on June 23.

Line-ups for June 28