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Diamondbacks Look to Rebound Behind Ryne Nelson vs. Cardinals
The D-backs 5th starter will need to come up big against the Cardinals if the team is to get untracked
When the Diamondbacks take the field at 5:10 MST tonight, it will be the eighth time they've faced an opponent not named the Colorado Rockies. They are 1-6 in the previous seven non-Rockies contests. The D-backs overall 6-8 record is inflated by going 5-2 against Colorado. They lost two of three to the Yankees, were swept in Atlanta, and dropped the opener of a three game series to the Cardinals last night 9-6.
The combination of poor late inning offense and inconsistent relief work from their second tier relievers continues to lead to losses and collapse late in games.
Pitching Matchup
The starter for the D-backs will be Ryne Nelson. He is 0-2 with a 8.22 ERA. In two starts he's thrown 7.2 innings and given up 10 hits, four walks, and two homers while strikign out nine. While he was better in his second start, lasting five innings and giving up three runs to the Braves, taking the loss. Nelson has one previous career start against St. Louis. He took a no-decision on July 24th of last year, going six innings but giving up five runs on eight hits, three walks and two homers. The Cardinals went on to win that game 10-6
As has been the case since the open of spring training, Nelson is pitching for his rotation spot. Jordan Montgomery starts for the Reno Aces today as well, and is lined up to take Nelson's turn in the rotation in San Francisco next weekend. With Eduardo Rodriguez injured, Tommy Henry is filling in at the third spot in the rotation. Depending how each of their next two starts goes, one of Nelson or Henry will certainly be bumped from the rotation while the other either goes to the bullpen, or down to Reno to stay stretched out.
Kyle Gibson (1-1, 6.23 ERA) will get the ball for the Cardinals. Signed to a one year free agent contract during the off season, the 36 year old veteran is being counted on to provide starts and innings towards the back end of the rotation.
Gibson utilizes a five pitch mix, featuring a sweeper, cutter, sinker, four seamer and changeup. The Sweeper has been by far his best pitch the last couple of years, registering +12 runs last year and +2 two so far this according to Baseball Savant. His four seamer averages just a hair under 92 MPH and his cutters comes in at an 89.4 MPH average.
Lineups
Lineups for the St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks on April 13, 2024 at Chase Field, Phoenix, Arizona.
Alex D'Agostino
The D-backs lineup features Joc Pederson in at DH. He's starting just his sixth game of the year and is batting .350/.500/.400 in just 27 plate appearances. Six of his seven hits have been singles and he's still looking for his first home run of the year. He's been patient at the plate, drawing six walks.
Pederson's opportunities have been limited due to the inordinate amount of left hand starting pitching the D-backs have faced in the early going. Typically lefties start about 30% of the games. But through the first 14 games Arizona has seen nine left handed starters. That ratio should start to normalize somewhat over the next couple of weeks however.
Paul Goldschmidt continues to hurt his former team. He had the go ahead an ultimately game winning hit last night, singling up the middle on a pitch down and away. In 25 games against the Diamondbacks since being traded prior to the 2019 season he's batting .303/.381/.616, .997 OPS with nine homers and 26 RBI.
Updates From Manager Torey Lovullo
Paul Sewald threw an 18-pitch bullpen Saturday. Lovullo hasn't talked to his closer yet, but heard "it went very well". Assuming he comes out of this session asymptomatic, they'll have Sewald throw another bullpen session in 2-3 days.
Furthermore, left-handed starter Jordan Montgomery will be stretched out to five innings/75 pitches in his final tune-up start with Triple-A Reno. Lovullo did not give a specific date for when Montgomery will make his first start with the D-backs, but it's likely to be around the 19th.
