The D-backs Look to Win Their Second Series of the Season Against Colorado

Arizona needs another strong start from Tommy Henry and a performance from the bullpen to win the series finale in Colorado.

The Arizona Diamondbacks face the Colorado Rockies in their series finale early Wednesday afternoon at 12:10 PM AZ time. Last night saw Arizona get back in the win column with a gutsy 3-2 victory that included a great outing by Merrill Kelly and the bullpen. Kevin Ginkel got his first save of the season. Now, the D-backs can get their 5th win of the season against Colorado and climb to one game under .500 at 6-7 if they win today. The Rockies enter today with a record of 3-9. These games against much weaker competition are the exact games that the D-backs must win and win a lot of if they hope to contend this season.

The D-backs trio of Ryan Thompson, Kyle Nelson, and Kevin Ginkel combined to allow no runs over three innings for the bullpen's first scoreless outing since April 2nd when the D-backs shut out the New York Yankees. Plus, they got Manager Torey Lovullo his 500th win. This was done despite once again rough defense by Blaze Alexander and a lack of hits in the later innings. Those issues can be fixed today just as the team looks for the bullpen to continue its positive momentum.

The starting pitching is a rematch from the third game of the season as it's dueling left-handers in Tommy Henry and Austin Gomber. The Diamondbacks are hoping for Henry to continue the success he had in Atlanta. That's equally true for Colorado as they look to Gomber to replicate what he did against the Rays last week.

Henry is once again in a fight for a roster spot against Ryne Nelson as one of them will be sent down next weekend or moved to the bullpen once Jordan Montgomery is ready to join the rotation. Henry is filling in to replace Eduardo Rodriguez who is on the Injured List.

Henry has had a mixed couple of games to start his season. His season numbers of a 7.00 ERA and 0-1 record through two starts and nine innings leaves plenty to be desired. He's given up 12 hits, seven runs, and four walks. However, he's inducing a career-high in whiffs and chases outside the zone and has struck out nine hitters. The sinkerballer might have trouble locating his typically off-speed heavy repertoire in Colorado's thin air. Conversely he can utilize his sinker in order to continue inducing ground balls at a 60% clip as he has so far.

If Henry can locate, he'll look to replicate what he did against the Atlanta Braves and not what he did against the Rockies two weeks ago. Against the Rockies, he lasted just 4+ innings and gave up six hits, five runs, a homer, two walks, and struck out four. It was a tough outing that saw him unable to locate his pitches how he wanted. Against the Braves, he was able to work around the zone and keep Braves hitters off-pace and gave up just two runs and six hits in five strong innings. He did give up a homer and two walks, but he struck out five and was in line for the win against the vaunted Braves lineup.

Henry has faced the Rockies four times in his career so far. He's 3-1 with a 4.98 ERA over his 21.2 innings. He has given up 20 hits, 12 runs, eight walks, and 17 strikeouts. Similarly, at Coors Field, Henry is 2-0 over his two starts with a 5.91 ERA across 10.2 innings. He has allowed 12 hits, seven runs, and struck out six against four walks.

Austin Gomber has had a mixed couple of starts to begin his season. On the year, he's 0-0 with a 6.23 ERA in 8.2 innings and has given up 10 hits, six runs, six walks, and has 10 strikeouts. In his March 30th start he barely bested Henry by going 4.2 innings and allowing six hits, four runs, three walks, and three strikeouts. He took a no decision in a Rockies 9-4 victory.

Last week, he faced off against the Rays and had another four inning outing and allowed four hits, two runs, three walks, but struck out seven. Gomber has four pitches that are a four-seamer, changeup, slider, and knuckle curve. He throws all four of those at least 10% of the time with the fastball the highest at 38%. It averages 90.1 MPH.

In his career, Gomber has faced the D-backs 11 times and started seven games against them. He's 3-0 with a 5.61 ERA over 43.1 innings. He has given up 47 hits, 29 runs, 10 homers, 14 walks, and struck out 25 batters. At Coors Field, he has a 5.06 ERA over 204.2 innings.

Starting Lineups

The D-backs and Rockies lineup for April 10th, 2024

Jake Oliver

The D-backs are running their new-look lineup when facing a left-hander on the mound while also keeping Ketel Marte mostly off his feet in Colorado. Marte will DH for the second time this road trip and get back in the lineup after sitting yesterday. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. also missed yesterday's game but is back in the lineup today. Gabriel Moreno gets the day off after catching two games in a row while Barnhart starts the day game. Newman will get the start at second as the team hopes his bat can catch fire against the left-handed Gomber.

Christian Walker loves hitting in Coors Field. Over his career and 40 games there, he is hitting .340 with a 1.083 OPS and 18 walks to 20 strikeouts. He's homered 13 times and has 33 RBI there. So far this series, he has walked four times and has four hits already. Against Gomber, Walker has two homers and three RBI in 13 at-bats. Suárez also has two homers and four RBI against Gomber, including a homer hit against him earlier this year. Meanwhile, Ketel Marte is looking to break out of his slump. He has two homers and five RBI in 18 at-bats against Gomber. Kevin Newman and Gurriel Jr. each have a homer against Gomber in their career.

The Rockies are trotting out their lefty lineup and "B" team lineup with their backup outfielder, first baseman, and catcher all playing today. The D-backs will look to contain Ryan McMahon who has five hits and two RBI in 10 at-bats against Tommy Henry and is on an 8-game hitting streak. Henry will look to have success against Ezequiel Tovar who has homered and has two RBI in six at-bats against him.

Today's a critical day to win and the Arizona Diamondbacks will depend upon Henry and the bullpen to get the win today along with hopefully, some late-inning offense.