Diamondbacks LHP Robbie Ray (2-0, 4.88 ERA, 1.518 WHIP) vs. Marlins LHP Wei-Yin Chen (2-4, 6.70 ERA, 1.691 WHIP): Chen’s nightmare season continues Wednesday night when the Marlins host the Diamondbacks at Marlins Park. Chen’s 6.70 ERA would be a career-high for the 32-year-old left-hander. He’s also striking out fewer batters than ever before (6.5 strikeouts per nine innings) and walking more batters than ever before (4.3 walks per nine innings). Chen appeared to turn a corner in late May, but followed up with four out of five starts shorter than five innings. Last time out in Colorado, Chen survived just four innings and allowed seven runs on nine hits. Chen has never started against the Diamondbacks. … Ray will make his first start back from a right oblique strain, his first major-league appearance since April 29. Ray is a high-strikeout pitcher whose 14.6 strikeouts per nine innings would lead all major-league starters had he thrown enough innings to qualify.<doc-sep>The Arizona Diamondbacks are ready for their next road trip. The team tweeted a photo from the locker room after sweeping the Pirates on Sunday. They took a little inspiration from Miami Vice. Chris Owings, wearing a white vest and blazer in the front row, isn’t as inconspicuous as he might need to be a real undercover detective. And Archie Bradley, posing next to Owings in a Dwyane Wade Miami Heat jersey, is instantly recognizable with his beard and sunglasses. The oft-seen fedora-and-sunglasses look could be a good one to keep their identity hidden, though. It’s not quite the South Korean soccer team switching uniforms so an opposing coach wouldn’t recognize them, but this look could give the D-backs a scouting edge over the Marlins. Arizona begins a four-game series against last-place Miami (30-47) on Monday. D-backs pitcher Shelby Miller is expected to make his first start of the season. Follow @AZSports<doc-sep>Will D-backs sweep? Shelby Miller will pitch Monday! Keep your expectations realistic. Shelby Miller said, “Not assuming my first one back [in the Majors] is going to be perfect. Command was the last thing for me to come back, but I think that’s there right now. I feel good. Everything out of the stretch and out of the windup feels solid. I think I’m in a good place overall. …” He started four games in the minors. He dominated: His ERA was excellent, except for one start (8 ER in 3 IP) when he got behind in the count. Excluding that start, his ERA was an impressive 1.10 for 16.33 innings. Including all four starts, his SO/9 was 13.0 (excellent! ), his BB/9 was 2.8 (better than average! ), and his HR/9 was 0.47 (excellent!). If he carried his stats for SO/9 and HR/9 into the Majors, he would rank #2 and #3 in the Majors. Will Alex Avila’s hot streak continue? On 21 June, Alex Avila broke his 7 game hitless streak with a double and a homer. He scored 3 RBIs. It was amazing! I was happy to see his offensive success. Ken Rosenthal’s opinion of Marlins: “Still, only four rebuilding clubs are truly awful — the Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds and Marlins. A number of others actually are outperforming expectations. “ Ken Rosenthal, June 18, 2018. In June, the D-backs swept the Marlins: This season, the Marlins have not yet swept a series, while the D-backs have swept three series, including the previous series with the Marlins. In that series, the D-backs outscored the Marlins 21 to 4. Peralta hit 3 homers, Marte hit 2 homers, and Descalso, Goldschmidt, Lamb, and Murphy hit one homer. I remember feeling great! D-backs will score many runs: Marlin starters rank 29th in the Majors (-4.5 WAA) and the Marlin bullpen ranks 30th in the Majors (-5.3 WAA). Run Differential Favors D-backs Team Runs Scored Runs Allowed Team Runs Scored Runs Allowed Marlins 266 378 D-backs 332 279 Wednesday’s game: Sadly, one fact lowers my hope – a game is played on Wednesday. It puzzles me that the D-backs have lost the last 9 games played on Wednesday. I did not find the root cause. Home and away games were evenly split (5:4). No D-back pitcher started more than 2 of the games. D-backs scored an average of 2.9 runs a game – so offense was not the cause. On the brighter side, the Marlins have lost all eight games they played on Thursday. The New Marlin Culture. The Marlins have many new players. The less obvious change is the Marlin’s culture. My preliminary view of the Marlin culture is subject to change as I learn more. The new culture has three main points: 1. Player Development: The Good: Prospects will have playing time in the Majors. And “…we will invest in player development and scouting.” Gary Denbo The Questionable: Develop players who immediately respond to requests from Marlin management, and ask, “how fast and how high should I jump?” Punish players who don’t. 2. Decision Making: The Good: Decisions will be made by the persons held accountable instead of top management. The decision maker will presumably have the best information available to make the decisions. The Questionable: Make decisions with fear for your survival as an employee. “He’s got a military mentality – the bad kind,” one Marlins employee says. “He manages out of fear.” 3. Best Organization: The Good: “We’re hoping to develop a sense of urgency to become the best organization in baseball. That is the objective.” Gary Denbo The Questionable: Instead of hiring different people top to bottom, we hope to create enough pain to make people urgently act differently to make our organization the best. Be prepared for Lewis Brinson . D-backs need to take what Brinson says on-the-field with a grain-of-salt. On 18 June, Brinson’s RBI single tied the game. He advanced to third, and when the Giants reliever Hunter Strickland was pulled from the game, the two players exchanged words as Strickland passed by third base. Strickland was so angry that he went into the dugout and broke his hand hitting a door. Better than hitting a door is to have a good comeback prepared: “Who has the most strike-outs on your team? (answer: Brinson) “My team is in first place, how does your team stand?“ (answer: last place) “My salary is bigger than your salary,” (fact: Brinson makes league minimum) Correction: JT Realmuto is good at pitch framing. Although my opinion is unchanged that John Ryan Murphy is better at framing pitches than JT Realmuto, I was surprised that JT Realmuto may be better than average. To read the reason, and how he works on his framing skills, read Ken Rosenthal’s around the horn written on 18 June in the Athletic. Who will pitch in this series? The match-ups show FanGraphs’ ERA- instead of Baseball References ERA+. ERA- is a better pitcher comparison because it assumes Chase to be a hitter-neutral park instead of hitter’s park as it had been before the humidor. For ERA-, smaller than 100 is better than average (unlike ERA+ for which larger than 100 is better than average). Monday. Dan Straily (126 ERA-, 7.6 SO/9, 4.9 BB/9) vs Shelby Miller (2018 debut) After Lewis Brinson was hit by a pitch, manager Don Mattingly said to Buster Posey, “You’re next.” He was accurate. In his last start, Dan Straily was ejected after 1.1 innings when his pitch hit Buster Posey. Later, Dan Straily was suspended for 5 games - he continues to play while he appeals. After Tommy John surgery, Shelby Miller is back in the Majors. How well will he pitch? Although his comments tried to keep expectations realistic, my expectations are high! Tuesday. To Be Announced vs Zack Godley (116 ERA-, 9.0 SO/9, 4.4 BB/9) On 23 June, Jose Urena was placed on the DL with a shoulder impingement. I do not know who will start for the Marlins on Tuesday.<doc-sep>But the first two innings were subpar for Straily. He served up a solo home run to Jake Lamb in the first inning. He hit Chris Owings, and Jarrod Dyson and Jeff Mathis each stroked singles in the second. Through two innings, the Diamondbacks dented him for three runs, and then Paul Goldschmidt led off the third with a single.<doc-sep>
Associated Press MIAMI – Zack Greinke grinned as he stepped to the plate in the sixth inning Thursday afternoon, and then swung at the first pitch for another hit. The Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander pitched seven innings and was an offensive dynamo , too, helping to beat the Miami Marlins 4-0. Greinke singled twice, drove in a run, stole a base and scored. No wonder he looked to be enjoying himself. “It’s more fun when you’re doing good,” Greinke said. “Today was a lot of good results, so it was a fun day.” MORE:Diamondbacks XTRA app: Get latest news, analysis, scores, photos His offensive feats were impressive, but maybe not that surprising. He leads Arizona pitchers this year with four RBIs and four runs, raised his season average to .300, and is now 7 for 7 lifetime in steal attempts. Greinke became the first pitcher since Bob Gibson in 1969 to have a hit, an RBI and a stolen base in at least two games in a season. “He’s a baseball player, and I don’t say that about a lot of pitchers,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “He probably has a better swing than 70 percent of the guys in the big leagues, and I’m serious about that.” As for pitching, Greinke (8-5) won for the fifth time in his past six starts. He allowed seven hits – all singles – but walked none and benefited from several good defensive plays. The outing matched his longest this year. “As the game goes, you kind of get that flat feeling,” Mattingly said. “He was just a handful. He’s able to do some different things with the ball and change gears on you.” Three relievers completed a 10-hitter for Arizona’s fourth shutout of the season. BOX SCORE:Arizona 4, Miami 0 Paul Goldschmidt continued his recent tear with three hits, and Nick Ahmed added two hits. Each scored and drove in a run. The Diamondbacks (47-34) finished 8-2 on a three-city trip “I can’t think of a day where we played bad really,” Greinke said. “The defense was good, pitching was good, hitting was good, baserunning was good. It was just a lot of good things, and we never beat ourselves.” The Diamondbacks matched their season high by climbing 13 games above .500. They won the season series against Miami 6-1. The finale started at 9:10 a.m. Phoenix time, but the Diamondbacks were ready to go and led 3-0 by the second inning. “The biggest thing was being ready to go on the first pitch and not sleepwalking into it,” Goldschmidt said. Greinke helped get his teammates going. In the second he singled, easily stole second and scored on Goldschmidt’s two-out single. He added a two-out opposite-field RBI single in the sixth to make it 4-0. Greinke improved to 7-0 in 12 games against the Marlins. At Marlins Park, he’s 6-0 in six starts with a 1.48 ERA. Trevor Richards (2-5) allowed three runs in four innings. Miami rookie Brian Anderson went 0 for 4, ending his 24-game on-base streak, the longest active string in the National League. READ MORE Coming up Friday: At Chase Field, 6:40 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Patrick Corbin (6-3, 3.24) vs. Giants TBD. Saturday: At Chase Field, 7:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Shelby Miller (0-1, 12.27) vs. Giants TBD. Sunday: At Chase Field, 1:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Zack Godley (9-5, 4.58) vs. Giants TBD.