Diamondbacks Game Preview #152: 9/23 vs Giants

Sep 24, 2022 - 12:00 AM

Last night was heartbreaking. There are excuses for losing games like that, but none that offer much solace. For now, what I’m holding onto is that we took on the Dodgers for 5 games in 4 days - in LA! - and fought them to a standstill. As we’ve all probably thought to ourselves in the last month, if we had even a mediocre bullpen, we’d have done much better. But to nearly win a 5-game series against a team constantly in the postseason is impressive in my book. It’ll have to do for now. (I am willfully ignoring that many of their regular players received rest days - regardless of who is playing, LAD is a tough cookie)

In much happier news, we have the San Francisco Giants coming to our house for a set of three this weekend. We’re 3.5 game behind them for third place going into this series. To get closer, we’re going to need Tommy Henry (recently recalled to make this start) to keep us in a game against Carlos Rodon (pitching well enough to exercise his player opt-out to seek a bigger payday this winter). That’s a tall task. But one Henry has shown he can handle in the past. It’s time to see if he has used his time in Reno to make those necessary adjustments. Few teams better to test that against than the Giants.

They are a team having an abysmal year if you believed 2021 was real. Or a team overachieving if you believe they are past their prime and in the process of replacing franchise faces. The truth is obvious somewhere in between. The roster is filled with aging legends (Belt & Crawford - 4 combined World Series victories) and fresh-faced newbies looking to make their own legends (Bart & L Gonzalez).

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 1889

Nintendo Karuta is founded in Japan. Still headquartered in Kyoto, Nintendo made playing cards to start. By the 1960’s, they had branched into various markets. As I’m sure you know, they still exist. They are now best known for their video game consoles and Intellectual Properties (IPs) that are sought after all over the globe. This seemed a topical OTD shout out since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was just officially announced last week (September 13, 2022). If you know nothing of this and its importance, take this away: Zelda is one of the most popular video games franchises of all time and TotK is the sequel to Breadth of the Wild which is commonly regarded as the best entry into the storied franchise.

Other notable Nintendo games/characters: Pokémon, Donkey Kong, Mario/Luigi, Metroid, Kirby, Fire Emblem and Super Smash Brothers. To find a Millennial who has not played at least of these games might be harder than finding a baseball player who has hit 4 home runs in a single game!