boondockdrunk
Resident Drunkard
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Allen update; Drew leaves
Update:, 3:30 p.m.: Allen quotes, as promised. He seems like a quiet kid.
On how he took the news last night that he was coming to the big leagues: "I was real excited, nervous, but it’s all for the better."
Was it good to hear yourself called the first baseman of the future? "Yeah it was but I’m still a minor league player. I’ve got a lot of work to do. Hopefully I can stay in the big leagues but I’ve got to keep working my butt off."
He said Montgomery is about 45 minutes north of here and he's expecting to have about 10 friends/family members in attendance. Allen has been battling some kind of sickness the past few days and he said he's hoping the flight over doesn't have any effect on him.
***
First baseman Brandon Allen arrived in the clubhouse about a half hour before batting practice to find his name in the lineup, batting fifth against Houston right-hander Brian Moehler. (Might the club have timed his promotion so he didn’t have to make his big league debut against Roy Oswalt?)
Allen had teammates to shake hands with and preparations to make, so we’re expecting to talk to him at the end of batting practice, sometime in the next hour or so.
Big league debuts are exciting enough in their own right, but it must be even more surreal for Allen considering he is from the Houston area. He was born in Conroe and went to high school in Montgomery, about an hour north of Minute Maid Park.
We’ll pass along some comments from Allen once we talk to him.
***
SS Stephen Drew returned to Phoenix for a family emergency and might be gone for the next couple of days, manager A.J. Hinch said. Hinch guessed that Drew would rejoin the team in San Francisco on Tuesday.
***
A note on the walkless streak, which stands at a franchise record 132 plate appearances (last walk: Monday afternoon, ninth inning, Mark Reynolds vs. Braves LHP Mike Gonzalez): Per the Diamondbacks media notes, it is the ninth-longest streak in baseball since 1998. In that time, Detroit has the longest streak at 183 plate appearances from Sept. 4-9, 2002.
***
Here are the lineups:
Diamondbacks
Romero, RF
Roberts, LF
Parra, CF
Reynolds, 3B
Allen, 1B
Snyder, C
Ryal, 2B
Ojeda, SS,
Scherzer, P
Astros
Bourn, CF
Tejada, SS
Berkman, 1B
Lee, LF
Blum, 3B
Pence, RF
Matsui, 2B
Coste, C
Moehler, P
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/NickPiecoro/
Looks like Whitesell's time playing first for this team is over.
