Fans watch the action from the left field lawn as the Arizona Diamondbacks play the Colorado Rockies during the first spring training game at Salt River Fields on Feb. 23, 2024. / Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
The Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies will open Cactus League play with a game at 1:10 p.m. MST on Friday at Salt River Fields. The game will be webcast on Dbacks.com.
The D-backs will be the home team for this matchup in the facility the two teams share. They will meet again at the same time on Saturday, with the Rockies being the home team.
Corbin Burnes gets the ball to start for Arizona. The superstar right-hander signed a six year, $210 million dollar contract with the Diamondbacks this offseason.
Torey Lovullo insists not to read too much into the fact that Burnes got the ball for this first game. He has not yet made his decision on the opening day starter for March 27.
Pitchers coming in behind him that fans might get to see are Jeff Brigham, Conor Grammes, Philip Abner, Juan Morillo, Jake Rice, Jhosmer Alvarez, Roman Angelo, and Taylor Rashi, among others.
On the position player side, the team is going with essentially their projected opening day lineup, with two exceptions; Corbin Carroll and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. are not playing. The outfield configuration is Randal Grichuk in left, Alek Thomas in center, and Jake McCarthy in right.
There are no indications of any injuries as of this writing, and manager Torey Lovullo said he would rotate groups in and out of the starting lineups, keeping the infield together one day, and the outfield the next.
We'll ask Lovullo about Carroll and Gurriel when we see him later, but this is likely a non-issue.
Some notable reserves we might see in this game are backup catcher Rene Pinto and NRI hopefuls Garrett Hampson and Cristian Pache. Minor leaguers Tim Tawa, A.J. Vukovich, Kristian Robinson, Tristin English, and Christian Cerda might also see some time.
It should be noted that other than 40-man roster players and Non Roster Invitees to Major League Camp, the team will often call upon minor league players to play in Cactus League games, especially early on.
Expect the starting position players to all get at least two at-bats before removal from the lineup.
This will be the first game for both clubs with the ABS (Automated Balls and Strikes) challenge system in place, although many of the players have experience with it in Triple-A.
Each team will have two challenges and will retain successful challenges (i.e., those that overturn the umpire's call). There is no limit to the amount of successful challenges a team may receive, but once they have two overturned, they are out of challenges.
Only the batter, pitcher, or catcher can challenge - assistance from the dugout or elsewhere is not permitted and will result in the umpire denying the challenge.
Challenges must be made immediately after the umpire's call. The umpire has discretion, but this is expected to be enforced to within one to two seconds following the call.
For a detailed explanation of everything you need to know about the system, see related content linked below: