In the next-to-last game of the season, Joe Torre has turned over the managerial reins tonight to Jamey Carroll, who was acting bench coach under acting manager Brad Ausmus. Ausmus will be the bench coach tonight. Mike Borzello will resume his duties as acting pitching coach, while Jonathan Broxton takes over for Jeff Weaver as acting bullpen coach. John Lindsey, who had his cup of coffee interrupted by a broken left hand, will be the active hitting coach tonight, and Russell Martin will be "special assistant to the bench coach," per Carroll.
Carroll's brother, Wesley, is in his third season as the head baseball coach at the University of Evansville, in their hometown of Evansville, Indiana. Jamey Carroll said he would draw inspiration from him on how to manage tonight's game.
Rafael Furcal is perfectly healthy for the Dodgers, which is always a pleasant sight, but Torre is holding him out of the lineup this weekend because he wants Furcal to have a .300 season. Torre said he and Mattingly spoke with Furcal about their plan to rest him this final weekend, and Furcal was fine with it. Furcal might get one pinch hit at-bat tonight or tomorrow, as he is hitting .301, and adding an 0-for-1 would put him at .3003 on the season. Furcal's career-high in batting average was .300 (really, .2997) for the 2006 Dodgers.
Jay Gibbons might be available to pinch hit tonight. He has been nursing a back injury and a sore right calf, and hasn't batted in a game since September 24.
Adam LaRoche last night became the first first baseman in the 13-year history of the Diamondbacks to drive in 100 runs. He is also the sixth player overall in Arizona franchise history to knock in 100 runs, joining Luis Gonzalez (five times), Matt Williams, Jay Bell, Steve Finley, and Mark Reynolds.
Here are tonight's lineups, from Dodger Stadium:
Diamondbacks
Drew SS
Abreu 3B
Johnson 2B
Young CF
LaRoche 1B
Montero C
Allen LF
Parra RF
Saunders P
Dodgers
Theriot 2B
Ethier RF
Kemp CF
Loney 1B
Blake 3B
Barajas C
Johnson LF
Hu SS
Billingsley P