Today’s Lineups
The rubber game of the series, with the D-backs again seeking to get back to .500. That would be a good platform on which to build, because the rest of the month’s schedule is pretty favorable for Arizona. Indeed, right now, this will be the last game in May where we play a team who doesn’t have a losing record. We play twenty-two straight games against opponents below .500: seven against Colorado, six versus San Francisco, and series against the Mets, Rangers and Mariners. The best record among that lot are Seattle, who are currently 18-20. We definitely need to take advantage, and build a cushion above .500.
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Good to see the starting pitching have a couple of good outings in this series, after a couple of wretched turns around the rotation. We’ll see if Zac Gallen can keep things going. His outing in Wrigley Field was very poor, and I wonder if – indeed, I’m hoping – it might have been a reaction to the getting drilled by a comebacker which ended his previous appearance. I’d prefer normal service to be resumed. Gallen’s ERA jumped from 3.14 to 4.45 as a result of that outing, while his FIP hardly budged (3.59 to 3.63). I’d like to see some regression going the other way for once, Zac’s ERA coming down towards the FIP.
If the D-backs can hold the Pirates to zero or one runs again today, that’ll be quite the achievement. From what I can see, the last time Arizona conceded two or fewer runs over a three-game series was September 2017. They went to Los Angeles and swept the Dodgers by a margin of 19-2, winning games 13-0, 3-1 (in ten innings) and 3-1. That came at the end of a franchise-record 13-game winning streak, over which the team’s ERA was 1.91. When you only typically need to score two or three runs a game to win, that’ll help. Be nice if the Diamondbacks were to go onto a similar streak now, and as noted above, the schedule may not give them a better chance in 2026.
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