PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks are one of the hottest teams in baseball as we head into the 2nd full week of the season, having won their last 3 games and winning a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Diamondbacks will take on the Milwaukee Brewers in a three-game series starting Monday evening at Chase Field, then get an off day to travel to Miami, where they will play three games against the Marlins starting on Friday.
Here's what to watch for from the D-backs this week.
Drey Jameson to the starting rotation
Jameson, who MLB Pipeline rated as the D-backs' number six overall prospect coming into the season, will head from the bullpen to the starting rotation this week after the injury to former Mesquite Wildcat Zach Davies (strained left oblique).
Jameson almost won a spot in the rotation out of Spring Training but lost out to Ryne Nelson. At the time, Jameson had a good attitude about it, telling manager Torey Lovullo, "I don't give a ****. I just want to win baseball games."
Jameson has pitched well in his relief outings. He is 2-0 this year with a 2.16 ERA and one save. Jameson also has 8 strikeouts in 8.1 innings pitched.
The D-Backs haven't announced their starting rotation past Tuesday's game against Milwaukee, but Jameson is listed as the fifth starter on the depth chart, so his first start should come on Saturday against the Marlins.
Will Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly find their forms?
Speaking of the starting rotation, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly have yet to look like the pitchers they were in the 2022 season, but will they be able to find their forms this week?
Gallen takes the mound Monday night against the Brewers. In his two starts so far this year, Gallen is 0-1 with a 7.59 ERA.
However, the D-backs aren't worried about Gallen yet and say he needs to make some adjustments, especially when it comes to the new pitch clock.
“There’s been a lot of runs scored, I think that’s probably an adjustment to the new pace of the game,” D-backs General Manager Mike Hazen said on Arizona Sports' Wolf and Luke last Friday.
“For the guys who have not lived the rules, Drey Jameson, Ryne Nelson, those guys have lived the rules, they’ve already done it, which is pitching at a much quicker pace than certain guys have," Hazen added. "I do think that is a real adjustment. You look around at some of the starters in this league that have given up a ton of runs early. I think there’s still an adjustment that is needed.”
As for Merrill Kelly, who will start on Tuesday night against Milwaukee, he is 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA, and Kelly admits the change in how he got ready for this season due to playing in the World Baseball Classic may be a factor.
"I'm not naive to think that I didn't get my normal buildup this Spring Training with the amount of games and the amount of reps and amount of innings that I normally would have gotten," Kelly said after his start last Thursday. "I think the games around Spring Training were around the same amount, but obviously they were different circumstances and not just building up innings and getting the reps in that I need to. So, I've definitely dealt with bouts of inconsistency throughout (my) career without the different buildup. But I wouldn't take it off the table that it's kind of leaking from the preparation into this season."
Can the Diamondbacks' offense keep it up?
The Diamondbacks' bats woke up in the last three games against the Dodgers as they scored 29 runs (8 more than the previous 7 games combined) on 43 hits and had a .384 team batting average, 11 doubles, 2 triples, and 4 home runs.
"I was pleased with the last couple of days," Lovullo said after Sunday's win over the Dodgers. "It's just being patient, taking what the pitcher gives the hitter per count, per situation, I just felt like we were counter-punching a lot of key pitches that were made. And it showed up. And then when you become unpredictable from an offensive standpoint, you start to get some mistakes and you start to jump on mistakes and I think that was what happened over the past couple of days."
But will they be able to keep the offense going? We'll get a real test this weekend when the D-backs will likely face reigning NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcántara in Miami. And Alcántara looks like he is already in midseason form as he logged the first complete game shutout of the season, giving up just three hits against the Minnesota Twins last week in a game that lasted only one hour and 57 minutes.
Wade Miley Returns to Chase Field
On Monday night, the Brewers will start Wade Miley against the D-backs. Arizona drafted Miley back in 2008 and he made his MLB debut with Arizona just 3 years later.
In four years with the Diamondbacks, Miley was 38-35 (102 starts) with 3.79 ERA and a 1.323 ERA. Miley was also an All-Star in 2012.
Other notes
After playing the Dodgers in eight of their first 10 games, the D-backs won't see Dodger blue for a long time. The next time the two teams will square off is August 8-9 for a two-game series at Chase Field.
Also, coming into this week the Diamondbacks are in 1st place in the NL West! Time will tell if they can keep it up for the remaining 152 games.
Arizona Diamondbacks Schedule
Monday, April 10: vs. Milwaukee Brewers, 6:40 pm (Zac Gallen vs. Wade Miley)
Tuesday, April 11: vs. Milwaukee Brewers, 6:40 pm (Merrill Kelly vs. Corbin Burnes)
Wednesday, April 12: vs. Milwaukee Brewers, 12:40 pm (TBD, likely Madison Bumgarner vs. Brandon Woodruff)
Thursday, April 13: Off
Friday, April 14: at Miami Marlins (TBD vs. TBD)
Saturday, April 15: at Miami Marlins (TBD vs. TBD)
Sunday, April 16: at Miami Marlins (TBD vs. TBD)