Padres at D-backs August 11th, Lineups News and Notes

D-backs will try to snap eight game losing streak behind Ryne Nelson wearing Purple throwback uniforms tonight

The Diamondbacks and Padres face off for the first of a three game series tonight at Chase Field, game time 6:40 P.M. The two teams who have not met since April will play each other seven times in the next 10 days including four games in San Diego next weekend.

Lefty Blake Snell, 8-8, 2.61 ERA starts for the Padres against rookie right-hander Ryne Nelson, who is 6-6, 5.16 ERA. Be sure to check out our detailed series preview published earlier today. 

LINEUPS

Corbin Carroll is batting second instead of leadoff with a lefty on the mound.  Tommy Pham is moved up to 3rd in the order. Since joining the D-backs Pham is just 3-for-21 without an extra base hit. He had been hitting much better with the Mets, sporting a .268 average and .820 OPS.  One point of note is the usage. Pham was being platooned by the Mets, facing left hand pitching in 41% of his at bats. Since coming to Arizona 33% of his plate appearances have come against left hand pitching. 

Nine of the D-backs last 11 games have been decided by two or fewer runs, but they've lost nine of those 11.  They are 14-17 in one run games and 13-13 in games decided by five runs or more. 

The Padres, who are 6-18 in one run games but 23-16 in games decided by five runs or more.  They are also 0-10 in extra inning games, which is the worst record in extras since the expansion Montreal Expos went 0-12 in 1969.

One Bright spot for the Padres has been Gary Sanchez. Since joining the Padres he's hit 15 homers in 177 at bats and has an .812 OPS, or 122 OPS+. Surprisingly, he also has +10 defensive runs saved at catcher in just 45 games behind the plate. Earlier in his career passed balls were a major problem for him, leading the league in that dubious category several times. This year he has only been charged with one PB. 

Health Updates

Evan Longoria (Back) has started to swing off the tee and take flips in soft toss and they'll look to ramp him up early next week. Longoria had a cortisone shot earlier. 

Zach Davies (Back) threw 4.1 innings, 74 pitches in a rehab start yesterday and is going to have another rehab start with Reno on Tuesday. He gave up three runs on four hits including a homer, walked three and struck out two.  Torey Lovullo would not commit to bringing Davies back after Tuesday's start. He said that Davies was just "getting his coordinates" in that first rehab outing, and got in the workload. But he clearly expects better results next time. "I want to see a little bit different this next time. I want to see him start to sequence some pitches and sharpen up his stuff"

Gabriel Moreno (Left Shoulder) caught five innings and got three at bats yesterday in the ACL  is going to DH tonight in Reno.