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D'backs, Rockies meet in Colorado Friday
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 5/4/2017  at  2:20:00 PM
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ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS (17-13)

at COLORADO ROCKIES (18-11)

First pitch: Friday, 8:40 p.m. ET
Line: Arizona -105, Colorado -105, Total: 10.5

A pair of surprisingly good teams meet in Colorado on Friday, as the 18-11 Rockies host the 17-13 Diamondbacks.

The Diamondbacks and Rockies are both off to impressive starts this season, and they both have the talent to keep it up the rest of the way. Arizona was actually expected to make this leap last year, but things didn’t work out as planned. Now the Diamondbacks are thriving, and they’ll hope to make a statement with a series win over a good Rockies team this weekend. Colorado has won two straight games and four of its past six, and the team has surprisingly gotten some solid production out of its starting rotation this season. That is not common for a Rockies team, and they could contend if that keeps up moving forward. The starters in this Friday night matchup are set to be RHP Zack Greinke (2-2, 3.19 ERA, 40 K) for Arizona and RHP German Marquez (0-1, 7.20 ERA, 10 K) for Colorado. Greinke being on the mound is a good thing for the Diamondbacks, as his teams are 14-4 against the money line over the past three seasons when playing on the road versus teams averaging 0.5 or fewer stolen bases per game.

The Diamondbacks are hoping to pick up a nice win on the road and Greinke is definitely the guy they want on the mound to do that. The righty has pitched very well this season, allowing two or fewer earned runs in four of his six starts. He recently faced this same Rockies team on Apr. 29 and pitched six innings of three-run ball. Greinke struck out nine in that game, but things will not be as easy playing in Colorado. It’s important that he doesn’t hang many pitches, as they’ll almost certainly end up in the bleachers. Offensively, the Diamondbacks’ stars will need to show up in this one. That means that guys like 1B Paul Goldschmidt (.311 BA, 5 HR, 21 RBI) and OF A.J. Pollock (.305 BA, 2 HR, 8 RBI) will definitely need to play well. Both guys are having fantastic seasons, and Arizona should also get a little something from OF David Peralta (.323 BA, 3 HR, 7 RBI) and SS Chris Owings (.311 BA, 5 HR, 21 RBI) as well. This is a fantastic lineup from top to bottom, and things will not be easy on Colorado in this series.

The Rockies are rolling right now and German Marquez will be hoping to keep it going on Friday. After an embarrassing first start of the season, Marquez was excellent against this Arizona team in his second start of the year. That was on Apr. 30 and the righty pitched six innings of shutout ball. He struck out eight batters in that game and walked only one. He’ll be hoping for some of that same magic on Friday, but it’s no coincidence that his worst performance of the year came at home. It is difficult to pitch in Colorado and Marquez needs to get used to his home park. Offensively, a number of Rockies will be capable of doing damage in this game. The ones that stand out are SS Trevor Story (.160 BA, 6 HR, 13 RBI) and OF Carlos Gonzalez (.200, 2 HR, 6 RBI). Both guys are struggling this season, but they are a combined 18-for-48 with two doubles, seven homers, and 13 RBI against Greinke in their careers. All of the team’s best hitters have also done pretty well against the righty, so they could put up a lot of runs here.


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