D-backs Preview #84: 7/2 vs. Giants
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Today s Lineups
Zac Gallen - RHP
Tonight’s starting pitchers, Alex Wood and Zac Gallen, have only 17 characters between them in their names. I wonder how many shorter match-ups there have been in D-backs history? At nine letters, Zac is among the shorter names among our starting pitchers. But not quite the shortest. Going by the names listed on
Baseball Reference, one letter less would be Dan Haren, Omar Daal, Juan Cruz, and Zach Duke, each only eight letters long. A little light Googling was not able to shed any further light on the matter. There were a number of position players with shorter names: Ty Cobb and Mel Ott were the first to come to mind. But it would take a good combo of starters to come in below tonight’s number.
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David J. Phillip/AP HOUSTON A combined 4,703 major-league wins had been pocketed by 76-year-old Tony La Russa and 72-year-old Dusty Baker when two of the best teams in the American League, run by baseball’s oldest managers, opened a four-game series at Minute Maid Park. In head-to-head tilts between them, Baker easily closed the gap to 102-100 with his Astros’ 10-2 rout of the White Sox. It was just the second time all season the Sox allowed double-digit runs. Sparks did not fly. But they have in the past between La Russa who surpassed John McGraw this season to become the second-winningest manager of all time with 2,771 victories and Baker (1,932), who ranks 12th. Most notably in 2003, when La Russa was with the Cardinals and Baker with the Cubs. Both managers acknowledged the testy history.
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Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
The Dodgers put everything together to finish off a sweep of the Giants, and Julio Urías was at the center of all of Sunday’s 11-5 romp in San Francisco, the seventh straight win for Los Angeles.
Urías has always been something of a unicorn, a bonafide prospect at age 16 and the youngest player at multiple levels in his climb up the ladder. The challenge has always been balancing Urías’ uncommon ability to hold his own against players several years his elder and to not try to push too hard during his formative years.
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