MLB: NL Wild Card Preview: Rocktober in the desert?

In the National League’s Wild Card Game, the Arizona Diamondbacks receive the Colorado Rockies (live on DAZN at 2am on Thursday night).Both teams had to wait a long time for a performance in October, but now they have a lot of star power.Do the snakes take advantage of their home advantage or does the rocktober continue?

nearby

Arizona Diamondbacks (93-69) – Colorado Rockies (87-75)

Arizona played an excellent season overall and even made it to third place in the National League – NL Central winners Chicago Cubs won “only” 92 games!A close look at the balance sheet shows how well the D-backs, which are back in the postseason for the first time since 2011, performed.

If you look at the NL West games, the snakes were even the best team in the division – four victories better than the Los Angeles Dodgers!What’s more, Arizona won both the season’s series against the Dodgers and the Rockies 11-8.At home, they are also the second strongest team in the MLB with 52 wins.Only the Dodgers had more success in front of their home crowd (57).

Even though the Diamondbacks ended the season a little more calmly, having made the playoffs clear at a very early stage, they ended the season with six victories from the final ten games.

Colorado is back in playoffs for the first time since 2009.And even if they did bag their wild card prematurely at the end, they had to fight much more than the Diamondbacks.The reason for this was a weaker phase in August and early September.During this time, the D-backs also set themselves apart decisively.

Nevertheless, it should be enough because Clint Hurdle’s team has overcome its characteristic weakness.The Rockies won 41 games in a foreign place, the highest number since 2009.

Otherwise, the troops live off their offensive – Colorado scored the third most baseball runs and most of the National League.The pitching was only average.What is alarming, however, is that outside of the thin mountain air, Denvers was only ranked 25th place in the runs achieved – with just under 500 runs less than at home.

Zack Greinke is not only the Ace of D-backs, he is also one of the best pitcher of the National League.And he has a lot of postseason experience.It will be his tenth start in the postseason as a whole.So far he’s 3-3 with a 3.55 ERA.His last performance in October 2015 was for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

For Gray it’s the first appearance ever in the playoffs.The right-handed player is in good shape, however, and has a streak of 13 games in which he has allowed three or less runs.Within this series he collected 80 strikeouts and only 16 walks.In the Chase Field of Phoenix/Arizona he started twice this year and came up to 20 strikeouts.

Actually, in the context of Arizona, one automatically thinks of Paul Goldschmidt.The First Baseman had another MVP worthy season and made it to 36 home runs and 120 RBI.The “Ribbies” were the fourth most of the NL, his 94 walks were as well.Making it out will be a big challenge for any opponent.

However, the player most talked about these days in this team is another: Summer Access J. D.Martinez!The outfielder beat 45 home runs this year, including 29 in just 62 games for the snakes (16 for the Detroit Tigers).Martinez is probably the team’s most dangerous hitter these days.

The Rockies also have one, if not two, possible MVP candidates.Third Baseman Nolan Arenado finished second in the NL with 130 RBI, while Center Fielder Charlie Blackmon won the batting title of his league with. 331.Both came to 37 long balls and beat at the head of the batting order.

The key to defeating the Rockies is to spot these two power-bats, especially as they both moved around the magical 1,000 mark in terms of OPS.

If the old motto is still true and pitching in the postseason makes the difference compared to hitting, then the D-backs are preferred.But it’s just a game and the Wild Card Game of the AL has shown how fast pitching can go down the drain.In this respect, we should not jump to conclusions.Both have deep lineups with power, so there’s a shootout in them.But nobody seems to be as hot as Martinez, who seems predestined to make the difference.Therefore, the Arizona Diamondbacks prevail.

This article was published without prior view by the Major League Baseball.