Two teams that have saved some of their best baseball for September go head-to-head Monday night when the Arizona Diamondbacks and host San Francisco Giants open a three-game series.
Arizona (72-72) recorded a pair of four-game winning streaks over its past 11 games. The second streak, however, came to a halt in a 7-4 home loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.
Corbin Carroll has been the hottest of the Diamondbacks of late. He had a single, double and homer as Arizona won its first two games against the Red Sox on Friday and Saturday. He singled and scored twice in Sunday’s loss.
Carrol, 25, insists he feels rejuvenated to be surrounded by one of the youngest rosters in baseball, the result of a veteran sell-off at the trade deadline.
“It wasn’t long ago that I was one of the least experienced,” Carroll told reporters during the Diamondbacks’ just-completed homestand. “It’s fun to have that new energy up here.”
Carroll enjoyed his last trip to San Francisco, going 5-for-12 with three homers as the Diamondbacks won two of three in May.
He sat out the clubs’ other series bridging June and July with a chip fracture in his left wrist. The teams split that four-gamer in Arizona.
In the series opener, Carroll will see Giants ace Logan Webb (13-9, 3.17 ERA) for the first time this season. It was not the right-hander’s turn in the rotation the last time Arizona visited San Francisco. Then, Webb took the loss in a 4-2 defeat at Arizona on June 30 while Carroll was out of action.
Webb, 28, has gone 7-4 with a 2.46 ERA in 13 starts against the Diamondbacks.
He is scheduled to make his 30th start of the season, and if he does, he would become the first in the majors to reach 30 in each of the past four seasons. Webb leads the majors in starts over that stretch (Monday will be his 128th).
Webb, who led the National League in innings pitched each of the last two seasons, has the lead again this year with 178 2/3. He is well aware of that, as is veteran teammate Justin Verlander, who led the American League in innings three times between 2009 and 2012, but never three-peated.
“To be able to do it again would be really cool. It’s something I can say to Justin,” Webb noted to reporters after his last outing, a 7-4 win at Colorado last Tuesday. “That’s one thing I’d have on him.”
The Giants (72-71) had won 11 of 12 before dropping 3-2 and 4-3 decisions at St. Louis over the weekend.
San Francisco has won Webb’s last four starts. He’s gone 3-0 with a 2.16 ERA over that stretch.
Diamondbacks right-hander Nabil Crismatt (2-0, 2.14) has been just as good. The 30-year-old will be making his fifth appearance as either a starter or bulk-innings reliever since making his season debut for the Diamondbacks on Aug. 17.
Arizona has won each of his past three outings.
The sixth-year major-leaguer has faced the Giants 13 times, but never as a starter, going 2-0 with a 5.24 ERA in those games for the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers.
–Field Level Media
