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Diamondbacks line-up
- A.J. Pollock, CF
- Adam Eaton, LF
- Martin Prado, 2B
- Eric Chavez 1B
- Aaron Hill, 2B
- Willie Bloomquist, SS
- Gerardo Parra, RF
- Wil Nieves, C
- Wade Miley, P
Yep, you read that correctly: no Paul Goldschmidt, for only the fourth time this season. I'm thinking Kirk Gibson must be playing SnakeLines under an alias, and after Goldie's good night took him to the brink of a "push", Gibson is holding him out of the line-up, so that "under" will win. Let's see: which SnakePitters went for that option last week? AJV19 and preston.salisbury are the chief suspects in question... Does seem kinda odd that they give Goldie the night off, and replace him at first base with Chavez, when there's a left-hander on the mound. It's only Eric's second such start of the season.
Could also make for an interesting night on defense, considering Chavez has exactly nine career starts at the position, in 15 seasons of major-league play. [He may not be the oldest player on the D-backs this year - that'd be J.J. Putz. But Chaxez made his debut in 1998, almost four years before the next most veterany man on the roster, whom you might be surprised to learn is Wil Nieves. One of Chavez's team-mates on that A's roster was Tom Candiotti...] Still, at least we're not the New York Yankees, who have introduced a new second-baseman for tonight's game in Toronto: Mark Reynolds. Yep, that Mark Reynolds. Web-gens ensue, I'm sure....
Elsewhere, the Dodgers have already beaten the Cubs, so our scoreboard watching this evening will largely be confined to the Reds taking on the Cardinals in St. Louis, which will be getting under way in a few minutes. Cincinnati are facing Adam Wainwright, so will have their work cut out for them there: if they lose, and we beat up on Erlin to complete the sweep over the Padres, Arizona would be only four games back of the Reds. That represents the closest we've been to them since August 2nd. However, as we saw last night, probably best to get the game in the books before we count it in the standings...
After reeling off three wins in a row, Miley has returned three no-decisions in a row, despite all three games being quality starts, and a fairly respectable 3.86 ERA over those performances. One of those was the 16-inning marathon in Pittsburgh, and we'll be hoping not to see its like again tonight [or, at least, I suspect the recapper isn't!]. Trevor Cahill is available out of the bullpen tonight if necessary, according to Jack Magruder, who also added this little tidbit:
#Dbacks Gibson reiterated notion that D-backs could go to 6-man rotation in Sept. After using 6 relievers Tuesday, RHP Cahill in pen today
— Jack Magruder (@JackMagruder) August 28, 2013
Holmberg to come back for that? He is on the 40-man roster now, so it wouldn't require any additional moves to accomodate him. We'll see next week what that means.