Will tonight’s contest be as weirdly entertaining?
Line-ups
This is odd. There has been no line-up announced ANYWHERE at the time of going to press. And that’s just 70 minutes before first pitch. It has not been Tweeted out. It’s not Gameday. We’ll see if there’s a reason for it, and I’ll update here whenever it shows up. Outside of a presumed Madison Bumgarner start, I’ve got nothing right now.
Random thoughts
I was surreptitiously watching the game on Gameday last night, as we “watched” (and I use the term loosely) an episode of Cursed on Netflix. But Chris the future ex-closer Devenski surrendered his contractually obligatory home-run as the episode ended, so I flicked on the game to see what I expected to be a quick finish. Y’know, what with the man on second and Coors Field. I mean, that was only the second ever game in Denver under the new rules, and the first was done in 11. I wasn’t expecting this one to last long. Yet it ended up being probably the four most entertaining innings of baseball I’ve seen since the 2017 wild-card game. Truly, you could not have scripted half of that nonsense.
Key to the game tonight: try and avoid allow five or more home-runs. For going into yesterday’s contest, the Diamondbacks were 3-36 when they did. The most remarkable of the three victories was an 8-6 win over the Blue Jays in 2010, where the D-backs gave up SIX homers – but like last night, they were all solo shots. However, Coors is gonna Coors. Over its entire history, the D-backs have an ERA in that park of 5.67, more than a run and a half higher than their overal franchise road ERA (4.16). And our Coors split is the best of any of the other National League West teams. We’ll need Bumgarner to be… well, let’s just say, considerably better, and leave it at that.
Torey Lovullo notes
No audio today, but Torey Lovullo did say that Caleb Smith will be moving to the bullpen. Smith’s stay in the rotation has been short-lived i.e. one start and three innings. He was scheduled to start the home opener on Friday, but it’ll now be Taylor Widener, courtesy of the off day on Monday. It’s interesting that the last man into the rotation is not going away. Admittedly, his start on Sunday was easily the best of anyone first time through. But small sample sizes, anyone? It’s all odd how things have been upended since spring training, with the pecking order upended. They will still need to find someone to start Saturday though.
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