Remember earlier in the season when playing at home was a hard thing to do for the Arizona Diamondbacks? That has disappeared. Once over .500 on the road and under .500 at home, things have changed. They now are 20-17 at home and will play their final seven games before the All-Star Break at Chase Field to play the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Next are the Padres, who have won two straight and six of 10, but are sitting at 30-50 on the season. They are dead last in the National League in batting average and runs scored. Their pitching, though has been average. Their team ERA is one spot ahead of Arizona in the NL at 3.88. Arizona's is 4.01.
Arizona's offense has been deadly the past month at home, though. They scored 88 runs in 12 home games in June. Over the entire month, they batted .279, good for second in the NL and were third in scoring runs.
Five regular position players (Aaron Hill, Paul Goldschmidt, Miguel Montero, Justin Upton and Willie Bloomquist) all batted over .300 for the month. Jason Kubel batted .289, but led the league with 27 RBI in June.
However, San Diego seems to give the D-backs trouble every season. This season, though, Arizona has won four of the six games they have played.
Arizona will send Trevor Cahill, Trevor Bauer and Ian Kennedy to the mound. Bauer will be making his second career major league start and will be seeking a better out than his debut, which only lasted four innings.
Here are the game schedules and pitching probables:
Monday, July 2 6:40 PM: Clayton Richard (5-8, 3.77) vs. Trevor Cahill (6-6, 3.67)
Tuesday, July 3 6:40 PM: Andrew Cashner (3-3, 3.63) vs. Trevor Bauer (0-0, 4.50)
Wednesday, July 4 6:40 PM: Jason Marquis (1-4, 3.06) vs, Ian Kennedy (6-7, 4.20)
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