Florida @ Arizona preview
Chase Field
Last Meeting ( Jul 8, 2010 ) Florida 4, Arizona 10
There have been two significant dates in Gerardo Parra’s season for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The outfielder was sent down to Triple-A Reno on May 8. Then, about a month after he was recalled, Conor Jackson was traded to the Oakland A’s on June 15.
When the 23-year-old Parra was demoted, he was struggling with the bat, hitting .247 with seven RBIs in 26 games, but he tore up the Pacific Coast League by hitting .427 in nine games.
Since Jackson was sent to the American League and Parra has taken over as Arizona’s starting left fielder, his offense has kicked in with regular at-bats while continuing to play tremendous defense.
His overall numbers (.274, 2 HRs, 14 RBIs) aren’t great because of the slow start. Breaking it down since the Jackson trade, however, shows that Parra is hitting .328 (19-for-58) with 10 runs scored and four RBIs in his last 20 games.
Parra, who hit .290 and drove in 60 runs as a rookie last season, has been especially hot on the current homestand, going 4-for-5 in Thursday’s series-opening win against the Florida Marlins and hitting in five of the seven games.
The confidence the organization is showing in Parra seems to be doing him wonders. His defense has been impressive and his swing has become more aggressive now that he has a better feel for the strike zone.
He’ll look to keep it going Friday at Chase Field against the Marlins in an attempt to back right-handed ace Dan Haren, who has pitched much better recently.
Over his last seven starts, the two-time All-Star has knocked nearly a run off his ERA to get down to 4.38 from 5.35, although he has gone just 2-2 in those outings.
This will be his last start of the first half and that’s normally not a good sign for Haren, who has had a bit of discrepancy in his splits in his career. His winning percentage drops from .566 to .549 and his ERA jumps from 3.29 to 4.21 over the last three months.
Haren (7-6) will be opposed by right-hander Ricky Nolasco (8-6, 4.69 ERA), who will look to keep the ball in the park against one of the National League’s more prolific home run hitting teams.
Nolasco has given up an NL-high 20 home runs after allowing 23 all of last season. It is one of the reasons that for the second season in a row he hasn’t come close to matching his 2008 ERA of 3.52.
Everyone keeps waiting for Nolasco to return that form, or at least a reasonable facsimile of it, but he makes way too many mistakes in the zone to be that effective again.
So the Marlins are going to need the offense to come through. The lineup features one of the more fearsome threesomes in Hanley Ramirez, Jorge Cantu and Dan Uggla, who have combined to drive in 152 runs.