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For the first time in six months, the roar of the crowd and the crack of the bat will echo around the skyscrapers of lower downtown Denver. Baseball is back in the Mile High City, and ain't that a fine thing indeed.
The Rockies return from Miami bruised and bloodied, but unbroken. They will look to wash those memories away as they face a team that's had an even worse start than them. The Arizona Diamondbacks have traveled across the globe to kick off their season, and so far opposing teams have gotten their kicks off them. The D'Backs lost a two game set to the Dodgers a week ago in Australia, then dropped three of four to the Giants in Arizona. Arizona, the team of #grit and #hustle are as hungry for wins as the Rockies.
They will turn to the pitching stylings of Randall Delgado, who has only made the rotation due to the unfortunate injury to Patrick Corbin. Delgado has pedestrian numbers through two seasons with the Braves and Diamondbacks; a career 4.08 ERA and 6.36 strikeouts per nine innings. An ace he is not (cue 8 innings of shutout pitching).
The Rockies counter punch with Juan Nicasio, who looked like a new man in Spring Training this year (standard caveats about spring performance go here). Nicasio has rounded out the bottom part of the rotation for parts of three seasons now, and the Rockies are looking for him to finally put it all together. The line on Nicasio has always been "great fastball, questionable off-speed stuff." Supposedly his slider has been much improved.
The A lineup gets the call today. Charlie Blackmon gets the nod in center field, as he did on Opening Day in Miami. After getting past Jose Fernandez, the lineup did solid work against the Marlins in a pitcher friendly environment. In the friendly confines of Coors Field, against their 5th starter, the Rockies might be primed for an offensive explosion.
Colorado Rockies
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Here is the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Rockies&src=hash">#Rockies</a> lineup for <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OpeningDay&src=hash">#OpeningDay</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23CoorsField&src=hash">#CoorsField</a>. <a href="http://t.co/BNW6rhLWOP">pic.twitter.com/BNW6rhLWOP</a></p>— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rockies/statuses/452112303375122432">April 4, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Arizona Diamondbacks
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Today's <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Dbacks&src=hash">#Dbacks</a> lineup: <a href="http://t.co/HK3YfkepEt">pic.twitter.com/HK3YfkepEt</a></p>— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) <a href="https://twitter.com/Dbacks/statuses/452140370982207488">April 4, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Their graphic is way cooler than ours.
Mark Trumbo is either going to strike out four times or hit two dingers. Maybe both.
Go Rockies.