The D-backs have already matched their win total for all of June. But this has been a tough place to get W’s of late.
Roster moves
The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves:
- Recall LHP Alex Young from Triple-A Reno.
- Reinstate RHP Taylor Widener (right groin strain) from the 10-day injured list.
- Following yesterday’s game, optioned RHP Humberto Castellanos and INF/OF Andrew Young to Reno.
Back into the hell which is Dodger Stadium go the Diamondbacks. And I don’t mean that in the usual sense. Well, not just in the usual sense. Arizona has lost nine games in a row here, and 13 of the last 14. That is almost entirely on the hitting. Over those nine consecutive defeats, the D-backs have not scored more than three runs in any game and managed a total of just 15 runs. To find the last time free tacos* were delivered here, you have to go all the way back to March 2019. The closest the Diamondbacks came to win of late, was Sep 2 last year, when they had a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the ninth. Then Mookie Betts homered and Arizona lost 3-2 in ten innings.
As Jack noted in the series preview, at least we won’t be facing Clayton Kershaw or Trev… He Who Shall Not Be Named in this series. The former is out with forearm inflammation, and it’s quite conceivable [though a long way from assured] that the latter may never pitch in the major-leagues again. Tonight may be the best chance for Arizona to end the streak, with the Dodgers assembling a bullpen outing. Their relievers have been average at best (-1.1 wins below average, per Baseball Reference), though that’s still considerably better than Arizona’s (-5.2!). A lot will depend on how Taylor Widener fares. Hopefully it’ll be longer than his aborted five-out appearance on May 23, his only outing since April 22.
Torey Lovullo notes
- Taylor Widener”We felt like there was enough data and information that was showing us from his last start in Hillsboro that he was ready for this challenge. He was healthy, felt good, landing pitches in the area that he wanted to. We felt like it was the best opportunity for us to win a baseball game today. Any time it lands on a healthy Taylor we’re gonna take that”
- Torey would not reveal the pitch count limit for Widener tonight. He threw 62 pitches in his last rehab outing, 40 in the outing before that, so 75-80 seems like a reasonable guess.
- David Price is projected to have a short outing tonight. It’s interesting to note that Stuart Fairchild is not in the starting lineup vs. the left-hander and they went with an all left-hand hitting outfield
- Humberto Castellanos , who was optioned out last night will continue to work on getting stretched out as a starter and get his pitch count up if needed to start after the all star break.