Game Preview #56: D-backs Go For Fourth Straight Win

Left-hander Tommy Henry has been working close with Brent Strom to make improvements.

The Diamondbacks have shown an impressive ability to bounce back this year. After suffering a brutal three straight losses last week, they have answered back with three straight wins. They'll look to continue that momentum tonight when they take on the Colorado Rockies at Chase Field for the third game of a four-game series. Game time is 6:40 P.M. MST.

At 32-23, Arizona is four games up in the NL Wild card race, and 1.5 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West. The Rockies are 24-32, in fifth place in the division. 

Pitching Matchup

Jack Sommers

In his previous start against Colorado, on April 29th, Tommy Henry cruised for five innings then hit a speed bump in the sixth. He allowed four runs on seven hits, one walk, and three strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings in an 11-5 win. When he's going right, Henry has a four-pitch mix that includes a 4-seamer, curveball, slider, and changeup. Facing a lineup of right-handed hitters, Henry will need to be able to execute his changeup and curveball at the bottom of the strike zone. 

Speaking before the game, pitching coach Brent Strom spoke about what Henry needs to do to take the next step in his evolution as a big league starter. 

"Tommy's next step is to eliminate the extreme misses that he has. You'll see games where you see extreme misses , especially to the arm side away to right handed hitters.  I think he's got one of the top two or three biggest horizontal misses to right handed hitters of any pitcher in baseball .....  That's a mechanical thing that we've been working on. It's not so much what his throwing arm is doing, it's what his glove arm is doing, that's kind of the control factor.  Hopefully today, we've been working on it, the front side part of the body and hopefully the misses he has will be more what I call pressure pitches"

Strom was referring to competitive vs. non competitive misses, that are right on the edge of the zone and make the batter hesitate, as opposed to a pitch the batter can see is a ball right out of the pitcher's hand. 

Dinelson Lamet is a former starter who was moved to the bullpen due to a series of injuries. With the Rockies rotation decimated by injuries, they've stretched out Lamet back into a starter in Triple-A. In his three starts with Albuquerque, he's pitched to a 0.84 ERA with 11 strikeouts and one walk. While his season ERA is 12.66, the D-backs are well-aware of the type of stuff he has when going well. Lamet averages 95 MPH on the fastball and has a very unhittable slider that he can throw to both sides of the plate. 

Lineups

MLB.com

Second baseman Ketel Marte enters play with an on-base streak of 28 consecutive games. Over that stretch Marte is hitting .294 with a .365 on-base percentage. 

The D-backs running game has come back to life on the homestand, with Jake McCarthy returning to the lineup. Arizona has stolen seven bases in their past two games against Elias Díaz, who is having an All-Star type season behind the plate.

Corbin Carroll leads all National League rookies with nine home runs and 16 stolen bases entering play. 

Bullpen

For the D-backs, Drey Jameson and Scott McGough are the two arms that are unlikely to be available. Jameson threw 59 pitches on Monday and McGough threw 40 last night. Because of those two, the rest of the bullpen is well-rested. Andrew Chafin has worked two of the last three games, with 22 pitches needed to record three outs.

The Rockies bullpen is fairly well-rested as well. Last night, Daniel Bard and Blair Calvo threw 18 and 11 pitches respectively. Matt Carasiti and Brad Hand threw 36 and 25 pitches on Monday.