One Night Only!

This edition of One Night Only is like watching paint dry — on the canvas of one of Picasso’s masterworks, that is.

(NERD scores in parentheses.)

Colorado (6) at Arizona (9) | 9:40pm ET
Starting Pitchers
Rockies: Ubaldo Jimenez (8)
202.2 IP, 8.53 K/9, 3.64 BB/9, .276 BABIP, 49.0% GB, 4.4% HR/FB, 3.73 xFIP, 5.9 WAR

Diamondbacks: Rodrigo Lopez (3)
184.1 IP, 5.13 K/9, 2.49 BB/9, .300 BABIP, 37.6% GB, 12.9% HR/FB, 4.71 xFIP, 0.8 WAR

Notes
This is surprising to me: Rodrigo Lopez has made 30 starts for Arizona this season. That’s only the second time he’s reached the 30-start threshold in his career, with the only other time coming in 2005. The difference between the early- and mid-decade version of Lopez and this one is about a strikeout per inning and three to five percentage points in groundball rate (with the present iteration coming out worse in both). That’s also the difference, it turns out, between a league-average and replacement-level innings eater. Lopez is the latter now.

A Decisive Decision
How bout we never talk about Rodrigo Lopez in this space again, okay? I realize it’s my fault this time, and I’m sorry. Nor do I intend to disrespect Lopez himself, who I’m sure wants really badly to be good at baseball. It’s just, generally speaking, Rodrigo Lopez represents a Type of player — capital-T, per my main man Carl to the Jung — of little interest to the baseballing enthusiast: he’s older (but not old-old), borderline replacement-level, and plays for a team that’s way out of contention.

In short, there are a lot of things I’d rather think about than Rodrigo Lopez.

Things I’d Rather Think About Than Rodrigo Lopez
• Juice
• Appellate Law
• Mexico, Entire History Of
• All the People I Know Named Tim
• Frank Tanana

Consolation Prize
As a consolation prize, I offer you these true facts:

• While currently the second-youngest team in the league (average batter age of 26.8), the D’Backs are also one of the most powerful (currently fourth in park-adjusted HR/FB). The Diamondbacks are like the child king of the majors.
• Nor does that really even count Brandon Allen, who’s also young (24) and powerful (25 homers in 469 PA at Triple-A this season). This game will be markedly more interesting with him in left field.
• Troy Tulowitzki.

Other Notes
Atlanta (5) at Philadelphia (4), 7:05pm ET
• Tommy Hanson (7) and Roy Oswalt (9) are your pitchers.
• Philly’s postseason odds, per Cool Standings: 88.5% (Division), 11.4% (Wild Card), 99.9% (Postseason).
• Atlanta’s postseason odds, per Cool Standings: 11.5% (Division), 74.2% (Wild Card), 85.7% (Postseason).

Seattle (1) at Toronto (7), 7:07pm ET
• Blue Jay prospect Kyle Drabek was pretty good in his major league debut last week. Line: 6.0 IP, 26 TBF, 5 K, 3 BB, 11 GB on 18 BIP (61.1%).
• Unfortunately, the Mariners are one of the teams in this game.

Also Playing
These games are very likely playing at some kind of sporty channel near you.

pNERD = Pitcher NERD
tNERD = Team NERD
Game = Time and Average NERD for Game
* = Estimated NERD