Time to bank another win?
No Ketel Marte in the line-up today, because he has a dose of the flu. He might be available off the bench if needed though, according to Torey Lovullo. But I imagine he’ll probably be avoided unless the game is on the line. I remember the last time I had anything like that, and I just wanted to curl up and be left alone until it was all over. I just hope whatever Marte has, doesn’t end up going through the clubhouse, because I’m fairly sure a locker-room is basically a Petri dish in a jockstrap. I think there was something similar earlier in the season, where a bug of some kind made its way though the roster, but it didn’t seem to take out too many people at once.
Anyway, Corbin Burnes takes the mound, hoping to continue a good series of outing. He has posted a quality start the last four times up, and six of the last seven. That has chipped three runs off where his ERA was after his first two starts as a D-back, with an ERA of 2.08 over those seven outings. The FIP has been a bit higher during that time, at 3.53, but even that hasn’t been bad. He has a splendid ERA of 2.73 going into tonight’s game. The last time a qualified D-backs pitcher had an ERA that low after 54 games was Patrick Corbin’s 2.47 in 2018 (Burnes is technically four outs short of qualifying, but should get back above the line this evening).
Corbin was also the pitcher before that, with his stunning 1.71 in 2013. But the all-time mark is Randy Johnson’s figure of 1.41 in 2000. Most startling there though, is probably the fact the Big Unit had thrown 95.2 innings over a dozen appearances- basically averaging eight innings per start. Across his first four starts, the Diamondbacks bullpen recorded a total of exactly… one out. In contrast, it has now been an ongoing streak of 236 games since a D-backs starter went even eight innings. That was Zac Gallen’s complete game against the Cubs on September 8, 2023. It’s the only such start for Arizona since the end of the 2022 season. Baseball truly has changed.