Diamondbacks at Rangers Game Preview March 16th
The Diamondbacks travel to Surprise today to face the Texas Rangers. It will be a split squad game for the Rangers. The game starts at 1:05 P.M. and can be found on MLB.TV, Rangers broadcast. The D-backs radio broadcast will be on 98.7 F.M. Friday's game against the Brewers in Maryvale was rained out. Brandon Pfaadt, who was scheduled to pitch in that game, will instead throw in a minor league game at Salt River Fields to get his work in.
Pitching Probables
Ryne Nelson has a chance to convincingly take over as the front runner for the fifth starter's spot with a strong outing today. He might already be there. As shown in our previous article on March 11th, his performance in spring games to date has far outpaced any of the other contenders, including Tommy Henry. Henry had another very rough outing on Thursday, and Torey Lovullo sounded disappointed after the game.
Nelson will be targeting five "up-downs" with 75-80 pitches. Last time he went 3.2 innings and threw 66 pitches. Other pitchers scheduled to pitch today are Jose Castillo, Joe Mantiply, Corbin Martin, and Andrew Saalfrank. The Rangers starter will be 26 year old left-hander Cody Bradford. He made eight starts and 12 relief appearances last year, going 4-3 with a 5.30 ERA in 56 innings. He threw two scoreless innings in two games without allowing a baserunner against the Diamondbacks in the World Series.
Lineups
Article has been up dated to include Rangers lineup
Gabriel Moreno, who last caught in a game Monday, March 11th, is out of the lineup again with lower back tightness. Torey Lovullo had said the other day the soonest he might be back in a game was Saturday, but with the rainout yesterday the team has opted to give Tucker Barnhart the start and allow Moreno more time to recover.
Geraldo Perdomo is still out of the lineup as well with a sore lower half. He last played Monday, injuring himself on an awkward slide into second base. Elvis Andrus was scheduled to play in Friday's rainout and is in the lineup for this game. The team has a sticky dilemma to sort out their backup shortstop/infielder situation. In addition to Andrus they've been giving reps to Jace Peterson, Emmanuel Rivera, and Blaze Alexander.
