After last night, I’m going with no comment more predictive than “Watch this!”
Roster moves
The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ 40-man roster is at 40.
- Recalled from Triple-A Reno: LHP Joe Mantiply
- Optioned to Reno following last night’s game: RHP Cristian Mena
Well, I was right enough about Mena making an appearance last night, and that was likely close to the only positive thing which could be said about Arizona’s pitching. As noted in the recap, by Win Probability, it was the worst collective performance in franchise history, creating not one but two deficits which were almost impossible to overcome. That they did come back from the first is no real credit to the pitching staff, except for Mena’s ability to stop the bleeding. But with his arm out of commission for a few days (though he will surely be back up again before long), and Kendall Graveman not quite ready yet, it’s the return of Mantiply – at least for tonight. Suspect he’ll be the man replaced by Graveman, real soon.
Did originally have the intention of going to this game. However, checking the ticket availability and prices soon put the kibosh on that idea. It was either, pay through the nose, or sitting up at a level where it’s eagles who circle the stadium looking for scraps, rather than seabirds. So, instead, will be meeting ish95 and Spencer at a comfortable and lower-priced sports bar to watch the contest. If it’s anything like last night’s game, an alcoholic stupor would be an inevitable result of proceedings. Which would be unfortunate, since we’re supposed to be going on from there to meeting other friends at an eighties night! Not used to so much peopleing in one day.
Just to follow up on something I posted on Twitter last night, about the D-backs having a losing record when they score more then ten runs, currently being 1-2 (the two losses being the Cubs and Dodgers games, obviously). The only team with a losing record over the entire season in such games, and more than one such contest, were the 2015 Braves. They beat the Marlins 12-2, but then later on lost to Washington 12-13 and Miami 11-12 that season. So what the D-backs have done is not unprecedented! But it would sure be nice if they could put another dozen or so runs this evening, and get back to Mt. .500 in this particularly unwelcome category!