NL WILD CARD GAME – 5 THINGS TO WATCH FROM REMARKABLE!

1. J.D. Martinez was a huge addition at the trade deadline. Martinez is slugging .894 (110 total bases in 123 ABs) on fastballs since the All-Star Break (Rank: 1st of 160 full-time hitters in MLB; League Avg: .468). The Rockies starting pitcher, Jon Gray, has struggled with his fastball this season, to the tune of a .524 SLG against.

2. Carlos Gonzalez is back. At least against righties that is. He started hitting right-handed pitchers hard in the second half of the season. Zack Greinke is a tough matchup for anybody, but Gonzalez has an OPS of 1.040 (175 PAs) versus RHP since the All-Star Break (Rank: 5th of 160 full-time hitters in MLB; League Avg: .750).

3. Everyone knows Colorado batters hit better at home. Did you know how bad they struggle on the road? They will have to buck that road trend tonight. Rockies hitters have an OPS of just .702 on the road this season (Rank: 23rd of 30 in MLB; League Avg: .415). The league average road OPS is .733 — let’s look at how tonight’s batting order compares road to home:

Batter	Road OPS	Home OPS
Blackmon	.784	1.239
LeMahieu	.753	.813
Gonzalez	.604	.923
Arenado	.886	1.036
Story	.723	.805
Parra	.708	.872
Reynolds	.703	.978
Lucroy	.673	1.016

4. Jon Gray and Zack Greinke could work deep into the game, but we all saw what happened in New York last night. Here’s a look at each bullpen:

Team vs. Hitter side	AVG	OBP	SLG	K%
ARI vs. LHB	.225	.288	.339	23.8%
ARI vs. RHB	.249	.326	.417	22.9%
COL vs. LHB	.249	.325	.399	24.3%
COL vs. RHB	.253	.323	.407	22.5%

5. Charlie Blackmon kills breaking balls and Zack Grienke throws a lot of them.

Grienke throws his curveball and slider a combined 26 percent of the time. Blackmon is slugging .655 (72 total bases in 110 ABs) against right-handed curves and sliders. On the road, Blackmon is slugging .542 against right-handed curves and .389 against sliders.