I think it’s safe to say, most Diamondbacks’ fans are going into this game, more in hope than genuine expectation of winning. Shohei Ohtani has made nine starts this year, all but one going at least six innings. And just once has he allowed more than a single earned run. Opposing batters are hitting just .147, and of the 213 batters to have faced Ohtani this year, only two have homered. He has a 0.82 ERA. Kinda remarkable he is not 9-0. But Shohei has “only” got five wins. He lost 2-1 to both the Astros
and Marlins, and also has a pair of no-decisions. Both of those came in Los Angeles defeats, but he didn’t allow an earned run in either game.
On the other hand, we have Zac Gallen. He has allowed fewer than two earned runs in only three of his eleven starts – and one of those was a curtailed three-inning outing. He has precisely two quality starts all year. They came against the Tigers and Giants, the 26th and 27th-ranked teams in the majors this year, by runs per game. Tonight, he’s facing the second-ranked Dodgers, who have scored an average of 5.26 runs per game [Somewhat fun fact: #1 are the next visitors to Chase Field, the Washington Nationals, at 5.32 R/G] Gallen’s ERA has increased after five of his last six starts.
Of course, much of the above is written in the spirit of a reverse jinx. One of the great things about baseball is, any team can win on any given day. We’ve seen this often enough before. Why not tonight? At least we should be safe from any “Why are we making this scrub look like Cy Young?” comments in the GDT! It would be nice if they end up posting those over on True Blue LA instead. As mentioned in Snake Bytes, three of our four losses to the Dodgers have been by one run. Be nice if the gods of regression smile on the Diamondbacks tonight, and give us our first one-run win over the Evil Empire. Especially on a day where we got the bad news about the return of our former staff ace.
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
- New, improved notifications system!
