D-backs Try to Salvage Series Finale Against Blue Jays

After back-to-back very disappointing losses, the D-backs are hoping to right the ship and play their brand of baseball.

The Diamondbacks (52-41) have dropped the first two games to the Toronto Blue Jays (52-41) coming out of the All-Star break. The two teams play the series finale this morning at 10:37 A.M. MST.   

Arizona played sloppy on defense and made some poor baserunning decisions that have led into outs. With the team struggling to score runs in the month of July, scoring 27 runs scored in 10 games, those mistakes have become magnified and have put an extra burden on the pitching. 

That being said, the D-backs are still very much in the playoff picture today. However they will need to avoid a long losing streak or stretch of games that could derail their entire season in one fell swoop. Arizona is 3-7 in July, so there is a risk of that happening during this current stretch of games. 

Pitching Matchups

The D-backs will send left-hander Tommy Henry to the mound to try to stop a sweep and four-game losing streak. Henry threw six scoreless innings against the Mets in his last start. He lives on inducing weak contact for outs early in the count, which shows up in his xERA of 4.08, but also can lose batters on walks and serve up home runs when missing out over the plate. The key is working his fastball to the edges of the zone and using his secondary pitches to induce those chases.

Kikuchi will put up huge strikeout numbers thanks to an upper-90s fastball, but can be prone to the long ball as shown on the graphic above. For the D-backs the key will be getting runners on base in front of those home runs. While previewing the starting pitcher matchups for the series, Jack Sommers noted that Kikuchi has fairly even splits based on the handedness of the hitter. 

Lineups

Jack Sommers

Corbin Carroll has been dropped to 6th in the order against the left-hander Kikuchi. He is hitting .282/.333/.385, .718 OPS in 86 plate appearances against left-hand pitching this year. Emmanuel Rivera has been moved up to the 2nd spot in the order. He's hitting .351/.362/.474 vs LHP 58 PA this year and .289 with a .780 OPS for his career against south paws.

Whitt Merrifield is on fire with three straight two-hit games and six in his last eight. He's 12-for-32 .375 B.A. with four homers and 12 RBI in this stretch, which has raised his season OPS+ to 110.

Bullpens

Most or all of the D-backs pen should be available today.  The Blue Jays are still waiting on the return to action for closer Jordan Romano who left the All Star game with left lower back tightness. He had an MRI come back clean but is still experiencing soreness and is day to day. Yesterday Yimi Garcia took the save in the 9th for Toronto.