VS.
After a season long marathon between these two teams to decide the division winner, finally decided with only one game remaining, they get to face each other right away to kick off the postseason.
Tucson's biggest strength is their hitting, as they finished fifth in baseball in runs scored. Their pitching, though, is still pretty good; they finished eighth in runs allowed. The strength of the Diamondbacks' lineup lies not in hitting homeruns- they finished 15th out of 24 teams- but in getting plenty of hits and walks- sixth in batting average and fourth in walks drawn. They do have one true slugger, though, in 1B
Israel Kutz, who smacked 38 HR this year.
Their rotation is largely top heavy, with
Peter Boughner and [b]Cleveland Lauria combining to go 42-15 this year.
Scott Council is a capable third starter, but beyond that, things are much more questionable. In a short series, however, that may not matter much.
Closer
Oren Yother is the only relief pitcher that stands out from Tucson's bullpen, so Denver's best path to victory may be in getting to that bullpen as quickly as possible.
Here are Tucson's hitting and pitching stats:
Code:
Name G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG SB CS
I. Kutz 152 571 169 27 2 38 113 110 82 153 .296 .382 .550 3 3
O. Santos 150 535 134 24 5 26 78 111 78 123 .250 .344 .460 12 7
E. Giancola 144 530 156 20 5 25 115 88 57 79 .294 .366 .492 7 2
R. Stair 153 524 120 36 0 24 86 82 70 93 .229 .322 .435 0 0
B. Carley 130 503 164 45 7 10 79 85 41 27 .326 .375 .503 1 8
A. Ramirez 130 481 144 28 2 15 74 88 63 37 .299 .393 .459 10 4
J. Morales 148 472 132 24 2 5 74 82 90 66 .280 .393 .371 13 5
C. Diemer 127 467 123 36 0 6 59 70 38 41 .263 .331 .379 3 1
R. Takanori 98 312 92 17 2 4 45 48 21 44 .295 .335 .401 23 6
B. Stocks 120 282 74 17 4 5 38 35 32 67 .262 .340 .404 2 2
B. Wilson 68 164 31 8 4 0 10 22 8 37 .189 .236 .287 5 3
J. Seldon 59 152 42 12 3 2 19 19 24 39 .276 .375 .434 1 0
L. Hawn 62 121 27 8 0 3 8 14 6 33 .223 .271 .364 1 0
B. Cousin 51 75 21 2 1 2 15 10 4 17 .280 .321 .413 0 0
A. Henrich 32 56 9 4 0 0 8 11 1 13 .161 .169 .232 2 2
J. Osborn 11 28 7 1 0 2 6 9 8 7 .250 .417 .500 0 0
D. Paiva 13 23 3 1 0 0 2 6 6 5 .130 .333 .174 0 0
J. Ruelas 15 21 4 1 0 1 2 2 1 7 .190 .227 .381 0 0
M. Serrano 10 17 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 5 .118 .167 .118 0 0
J. Evans 4 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 .000 .250 .000 0 0
L. Buttram 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 0
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K
C. Lauria 37 37 20 12 0 4.58 286.2 260 160 146 55 190
P. Boughner 30 30 22 3 0 3.01 245.0 239 90 82 49 89
P. Reyes 36 36 16 14 0 5.62 225.2 233 146 141 87 167
W. Bergan 31 31 9 13 0 6.03 195.2 213 140 131 77 147
S. Council 25 25 12 7 0 4.11 175.1 180 84 80 34 124
W. Braun 42 3 4 3 0 5.44 84.1 86 52 51 26 59
P. Reyes 44 0 2 2 0 5.75 67.1 75 44 43 16 39
C. Fleitas 44 0 4 2 1 4.63 58.1 65 35 30 31 42
O. Yother 58 0 7 3 41 2.89 56.0 53 18 18 14 58
B. Johnson 27 0 1 4 0 5.35 33.2 36 27 20 11 15
N. Parrino 8 0 0 2 0 9.24 12.2 19 13 13 15 1
R. Ugarte 5 0 0 0 0 8.68 9.1 13 9 9 6 7
Like Tucson, Denver's strength is obviously the offense. The Broncos finished first in AVG, first in runs scored, and second in HR. Of course, those numbers are inflated somewhat by an extreme hitter's park. Many of the Broncos' hitters are well rounded enough to not be affected much by leaving the friendly confines of Denver, but some of the more flawed hitters could have some problems, most notably
Joseph Swayze,
Alexis Vazquez, and
Booker Romero.
Surprisingly enough, despite the early season struggles of the pitching staff, their final ranking in ERA is 8th, and in runs allowed, 10th. The pitching really came on from the middle of the season to the end, and that could be an important key to winning in the postseason. The bullpen remains unreliable to a large extent, however, and it seems as though both teams will be taking the same offensive strategy: Get to the bullpen early.
One other thing to note is that Tucson's catcher,
Christopher Diemer, has a strong arm. This will likely serve to check any aggressiveness that
Asbel Fuentez or
Russell Thomas might want to show. The question is, will this be a positive or a negative for the Broncos?
Here are Denver's hitting and pitching stats:
Code:
Name G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG SB CS
R. Thomas 153 662 247 29 10 12 102 144 64 44 .373 .432 .502 29 9
E. Bolling 154 615 166 49 8 46 160 133 79 95 .270 .351 .600 4 1
A. Fuentez 149 613 222 40 15 15 82 150 70 27 .362 .424 .550 39 14
A. Vasquez 152 582 163 21 1 26 94 99 45 89 .280 .333 .454 24 2
J. Swayze 146 580 177 29 2 43 133 106 22 81 .305 .330 .584 2 0
T. Sato 147 565 190 28 9 14 108 94 42 28 .336 .394 .492 1 5
L. Chappel 138 535 183 60 9 42 158 135 92 33 .342 .439 .723 4 0
M. Bakke 138 517 176 25 2 29 108 97 33 32 .340 .383 .565 19 5
B. Romero 110 396 98 25 8 6 53 57 28 112 .247 .297 .396 8 5
P. Chason 56 135 36 10 0 2 21 21 11 9 .267 .327 .385 1 0
A. Navarro 52 103 28 8 1 3 14 17 12 13 .272 .350 .456 8 2
J. Cordero 32 82 14 5 0 1 8 7 4 24 .171 .227 .268 0 1
J. Rumfelt 33 78 20 4 0 0 9 13 10 11 .256 .348 .308 1 0
M. Phillips 22 63 16 2 0 0 1 9 8 12 .254 .338 .286 1 0
M. Stennis 25 61 16 8 1 4 14 12 11 15 .262 .375 .623 0 0
M. Grace 15 48 15 3 1 3 13 6 2 8 .313 .340 .604 0 0
J. Sermons 14 17 4 0 0 0 1 2 1 5 .235 .278 .235 0 0
P. Powell 5 6 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 .167 .286 .167 0 0
R. Matamoros 6 5 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 .200 .200 .200 0 0
N. Cadet 5 5 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 .200 .200 .200 0 0
S. Andrade 32 5 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 .200 .200 .200 0 0
L. Twigg 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 .000 .000 .000 0 0
G. Kibby 6 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 .000 .000 .000 0 0
C. Hosler 1 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 .333 .500 .333 0 0
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K
K. Pillsbury 34 34 18 10 0 4.04 260.2 260 129 117 63 192
C. Kirk 34 34 20 10 0 4.36 249.2 278 131 121 46 135
R. Mcnett 35 34 21 7 0 4.14 232.2 239 114 107 48 165
R. Lockridge 25 25 6 7 0 4.67 146.1 151 83 76 30 105
L. Waltz 24 17 7 9 0 4.07 137.0 149 72 62 20 69
J. Virgen 42 0 10 3 8 2.53 74.2 74 24 21 20 46
S. Andrade 43 0 2 2 3 4.17 58.1 70 34 27 16 23
G. Buentello 7 7 7 0 0 3.88 51.0 52 22 22 13 23
R. Gomez 43 0 1 9 16 5.19 50.1 66 31 29 5 48
L. Salguero 32 0 2 1 2 3.89 44.0 50 23 19 16 28
F. Lemire 24 0 1 1 0 8.48 40.1 52 41 38 13 45
V. Mcgurk 3 3 1 1 0 7.07 14.0 20 16 11 11 4
D. Pasco 9 0 0 0 0 7.07 14.0 21 15 11 8 9
R. Soto 11 0 0 0 0 2.77 13.0 15 6 4 3 5
O. Lopez 6 0 0 0 0 5.63 8.0 13 8 5 0 2
L. Gwinn 7 0 0 0 0 2.35 7.2 7 6 2 2 3
J. Myatt 2 1 0 1 0 8.10 6.2 8 6 6 4 5
Next up, the other American League matchup:
Washington VS. Miami