Today’s Lineups

BRAVES

DIAMONDBACKS

Ronald Acuna – RF

Ketel Marte – 2B

Drake Baldwin – C

Corbin Carroll – RF

Matt Olson – 1B

Geraldo Perdomo – SS

Austin Riley – 3B

Gabriel Moreno – C

Mike Yastrzemski – LF

Adrian Del Castillo – DH

Ozzie Albies – 2B

Nolan Arenado – 3B

Michael Harris – CF

Jose Fernandez – 1B

Dominic Smith – DH

Alek Thomas – CF

Mauricio Dubon – SS

Jorge Barrosa – LF

Bryce Elder – RHP

Michael Soroka – RHP

A slightly unusual start time for a Saturday, rather than the typical 5:10 pm. That’s because today’s game is a Fox Sports national broadcast, so we must all bow to their commercial demands. More irritatingly, that means that, a mere nine games in, this will be the fourth different subscription-based service you need to have in order to watch the Diamondbacks. In addition to dbacks.tv, we have already had Netflix on Opening Day, and Apple TV last night. I know you’ll need to add Peacock to the list in June. I will not be engaging with this nonsense, and so will be following this game purely on Gameday, if at all.

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After Eduardo Rodriguez proved his first start was no fluke, with an even better one last night, we turn to Michael Soroka to see if he can reproduce his sterling debut as a Diamondback. Right now, he has a FIP of -0.22. Yes: that’s a negative figure. It’s possible because FIP just goes off things like K-rate and BB-rate. Soroka fanned ten batters in only five innings last time on the mound, while walking one. The joys of small sample sizes. It’d be nice if he could keep anything in that solar-system up, though right now, I’m more concerned about the offense. The D-backs now have a collective OPS of a mere .648. Carroll is our only active player with 10+ PA and an OPS+ above a hundred.

To this end, things have been shaken up a bit this afternoon. Jose Fernandez replaces the woeful Carlos Santana at first, and Adrian Del Castillo makes his first start as the designated hitter. Santana’s .043 average is the lowest for any D-back through ten games (25 PA or more). The previous worst was Geraldo Perdomo’s 1-for-20 start in 2022, and he at least had the ability to draw seven walks. Santana’s much-praised plate discipline hasn’t really been seen, with just two walks and eight strikeouts. I know Torey doesn’t want to pull the plug hastily, but Santana has been such a black-hole on offense, he could be a literal black-hole on defense and he’d still be of questionable value.

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