Another day, another day game. It’s the second of four in a row for the D-backs which will start in the morning, Arizona time. This one is at least relatively civilized, which which I mean I have actually been able to enjoy breakfast first. But it’s still kinda weird trying to post a Gameday Thread while still yawning and stretching. As 1AZfan1 noted, his recap is going to be a bit late, for not dissimilar reasons, so feel free to keep on with any post-game discussions here until the recap arrives. Me, I’m going to keep this brief, having already written up a bit about the contest in our preview which I am sure you have all read. It will be on the end of semester test, just so you know…
I will point out that, here we are about to play the twentieth game, and there are only five D-backs position players who have been worth more than 0.1 bWAR. Here’s the standings there:
- Corbin Carroll: 1.6
- Geraldo Perdomo: 1.3
- John Naylor: 1.0
- Pavin Smith: 0.8
- Tim Tawa: 0.4
There are only four pitchers using the same criteria as well, and you probably will not have seen most of them coming either.
- Brandon Pfaadt: 0.6
- Jalen Weeks: 0.6
- Justin Martinez: 0.5
- Shelby Miller: 0.4
All told, the team has an OPS+ of 125 and an ERA+ of 101. So it’s clear that it is the hitting which has been powering the D-backs so far. You can say exactly the same about the Cubs, who have not dissimilar figures of 123 and 94 respectively. Based on that, I suspect we could be in for a high-scoring series, with victory, to quite the Duke of Wellington before Waterloo, going to whichever side can pound the longest.
