The Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks have announced their lineups for tonight’s National League Wild Card game. There are no real surprised in either lineup as both teams are going with what got them here.
#rockies and #DBacks starting lineups for #NLWildCard game at 6pm MT (TBS) pic.twitter.com/lsRQFGr4Ja
— Jenny Cavnar (@jennycavnar) October 4, 2017
For the Rockies, Ian Desmond will be on the bench to start the game as Bud Black decided to go with Mark Reynolds at first base and Gerardo Parra in left field. While Parra’s bat has struggle as of late, his defense is much better than Desmond’s in left field and also adds another left-handed bat to the lineup against the right-handed Zack Greinke.
Carlos Gonzalez is batting third for the Rockies. His super-hot September and track record against Greinke give him the nod while Arenado slots in at fourth with Trevor Story providing protection. Considering how slow of a start that Gonzalez and Story had, it’s amazing that they’ve rebounded to being two of the Rockies best hitters going into this game.
The Diamondback chose to go with Jeff Mathis as their starting catcher for tonight’s game. His ability to frame low pitches might be the deciding facter as tonight’s ump is known for giving the low strikes.