Looking Ahead to the Diamondbacks Weekend in Colorado

The D-backs will face the Rockies for three games in Coors Field this weekend as Zac Gallen goes for history.

© Joe Rondone / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Arizona Diamondbacks are in Colorado this weekend to face the Rockies in a three game series at Coors Field. The highlight comes on Sunday with Zac Gallen chasing history, putting his 41.1 consecutive scoreless innings streak on the line. 

Arizona is in 4th place in the NL West, one game back of the Giants in the loss column. They are 10 games out of the Wild Card with whatever flickering hopes they had of catching the Padres extinguished when they lost the final two games of a three-game series to Padres earlier this week. Despite that it's been an encouraging season for the D-backs, having seen their youth movement finally start to kick in with good performances from many first and second year players. 

Standings:

Team	Won	Loss	GB
LAD	95	42	--
SDP	76	62	19.0
SFG	65	70	28.5
ARI	65	71	29
COL	59	79	36

The Rockies were a semi respectable 43-50 at the All Star Break but have gone 16-29 since. They are 5-5 in their last 10 however having just taken two of three from the Brewers. Randall Grichuk hit a dramatic three run homer against Taylor Rogers in the bottom of the 10th inning to walk off Milwaukee on Tuesday. On Wednesday they jumped on Eric Lauer for 7 runs early and held on to win 8-4.

The season series is tied 8-8 between these two teams, despite the D-backs having a sizable 79-61 run differential advantage. At Coors Field, the two teams are 3-3.

Who's Hot

Diamondbacks:  

Daulton Varsho had the first multi homer game of his career Wednesday night, smacking his 22nd and 23rd of the year. He has 7 homers in his last 12 games and is batting .341 with a 1.239 OPS during this stretch. That's raised his season OPS to .768 and OPS+ to 114

Christian Walker is 7 for his last 23 (.304) with two homers.

Since the All Star Break Varsho has 11 homers and Walker has 10. They are ranked T-4th and T-5th respectively in that category since the break. 

Right handed slugger Stone Garrett has been hitting well whenever given the chance, but the D-backs have faced mostly right hand starters lately. Garrett is 3 for 6 with a double and a homer in the last week, and 14 for 33, .424 B.A. with 4 doubles and 3 homers since getting called up. The Rockies will start three right handers this series. 

Rockies:

Yonathan Daza was recently activated from the IL and made an immediate impact going 4 for 8 with two doubles and homer in his first two games back.  The Rockies centerfielder is batting .304 for the year with a .738 OPS (98 OPS+).

September call-up Alan Trejo has been filling in for the banged up Jose Iglesias at shortstop. Trejo has a .471 OBP in 5 games on 4 for 13 batting, with 2 walks and a HBP. He also has one home run. 

Injury Note:  Kris Bryant is out with Plantar fasciitis in his left foot and there is no timetable for his return. 

Pitching Matchups

Friday, September 9th, 5:40 P.M. Arizona Time

Zach Davies RHP: 2-4, 3.74 ERA (110 ERA+), 113 IP

Davies went 4.2 IP in his last outing, allowing 1 run in a no decision. While he seldom goes deep into games he usually finishes 5 innings and has 31 IP over his last 6 starts with a 2.32 ERA.  Davies last faced the Rockies in Coors Field on August 12th, allowing 3 runs in 5 innings in a D-backs loss. He also faced Colorado two times in Chase Field earlier in the year, allowing no runs in 11.1 IP

German Marquez RHP: 8-10, 4.86 ERA (96 ERA+), 153.2 IP

Marquez has pitched very well in his last two outings, picking up wins against the Mets and the Reds. He went 7 innings both games and has allowed just 4 hits and two runs, both on solo homers in Cincinnati.  This will be Marquez 4th start against the D-backs this year.  He's 1-1 with a no decision, having thrown 19 IP and allowing 7 earned runs, (3.32 ERA).

Saturday, September 10th, 5:10 P.M. Arizona Time

Madison Bumgarner LHP: 6-13, 4.83 ERA (85 ERA+), 141.2 IP

Bumgarner has struggled with location issues and hard contact for most of the season.  This will be his first start in Coors Field this year. Like most visiting pitchers, he has struggled there in his career. In 19 games he has a 4.92 ERA and allowed 16 HR, .302 Batting average against.  Since joining the Diamondbacks he has two starts in Colorado, both coming in 2021. He allowed 12 runs, 10 earned, for a 8.18 ERA in those two outings, both times taking the loss

Jose Ureña RHP: 3-6, 6.13 ERA (69 ERA+), 69 IP

Urena was hit hard in his last outing against the Reds, giving up 7 runs, 6 earned on 8 hits in a 10-0 loss.  He faced the D-backs in back to back starts in August, getting a no decision in Coors Field on August 7th and taking the loss August 13th. The D-backs have rapped out 14 hits and 7 runs in 12 innings against the enigmatic right hander. His results have never seemed to match his stuff (mid 90's fastball, hard slider and a changeup).

Sunday, September 11th, 12:10 P.M. Arizona Time

Zac Gallen RHP: 11-2, 2.42 ERA (170 ERA+), 152.2 IP

With 41.1 consecutive scoreless innings, Gallen will be attempting to break Brandon Webb's franchise record streak of 42 scoreless innings in the first inning.  Gallen won the NL Pitcher of the Month award for August and followed that up with NL Pitcher of the week last week, propelling him into the Cy Young Award discussion. His 0.917 WHIP leads all NL pitchers. He ranks 3rd in ERA and ERA+. His innings total is much lower than Cy Young favorite Sandy Alcantara, who has 191 IP. With Arizona utilizing a 6-man rotation that gap will likely to widen. 

Ryan Feltner RHP: 2-7, 5.85 ERA (80 ERA+), 72.1 IP

The rookie right hander had been up and down from AAA a couple of times this year but has been in the Rockies rotation since late July. It's not gone great. Over his last 7 starts he has a 6.11 ERA. That included a loss to the D-backs on August 14th when he lasted just 4.1 IP giving up 7 runs (6 earned). He throws mostly fastballs and sliders, averaging 94.2 MPH on the four-seamer. 

The Denver weather forecast calls for low 70's, high 60's game time temperature on Friday, a cool and cloudy mid to high 50's on Saturday, and a warm sunny mid 70's day on Sunday.