Painstaking Preview: Hot D-backs head to Hotlanta

They lost four of six on that onerous road trip to
Arlington and Anaheim, but you wouldn’t know it by the way
the Diamondbacks kablooeyed their visiting competition
during their recent six-game homestand.

With the Mariners and Cubs in town, the team continued
their recent home surge by scoring 51 runs during the
stand to win both series, sweeping the Cubs and improving
to 10-1 in their last 11 home games.

And while the Diamondbacks’ last six games may have been
against a couple of last place teams, some encouraging
things took place, no less. Aaron Hill hit for the cycle,
Jason Kubel and Wade Miley perpetuated their season-long
prowess, and the sort-of-maligned Justin Upton had a
noteworthy breakout.

The Diamondbacks are now two games over .500 for the first
time since May 1 and they wrapped their interleague
schedule with a 9-6 record in the matchups. Now, they head
to Atlanta to play a tough but tepid Braves team in a mid-
week series.

Probables

Tuesday, June 26, 4:10 PM MST: RHP Daniel Hudson (3-1;
6.60 ERA) vs. RHP Tim Hudson (5-3; 3.88)

This is a ‘Tale of Two Hudsons.’ While both spent part of
the earlier part of the season on the disabled list, one
(Tim) is trending upward and the other (Daniel) is
trending downward. Tim Hudson’s last three starts have
been solid, logging a 2-1 record — which included a
complete game shutout — to go along with a 2.25 ERA. In
addition, in eight career starts, he has never lost to the
Diamondbacks, going 6-0 with a 1.36 ERA against them.
Daniel Hudson, meanwhile, has managed to accrue an 11.37
ERA in his last three starts, somehow escaping a decision
in two of them.

Wednesday, June 27, 4:10 PM MST: RHP Trevor Cahill (6-5;
3.47) vs. RHP Tommy Hanson (8-4; 3.54)

Neither of Wednesday’s starters have lost a game in the
month of June and both have managed to keep their
respective monthly ERAs under 3.00. That aside, Cahill and
Hanson are close to polar-opposite pitchers. Cahill is
your prototypical groundball pitcher — inducing
groundballs in 63% of balls put in play against him.
Hanson, on the other hand, is a classic strikeout pitcher,
meaning he gets a lot of fly balls and racks up high pitch
counts. Resultantly, Hanson has the fourth-highest fly
ball percentage in the National League, at 43.1%, and he
has given up the fifth-most home runs (14).

Thursday, June 28, 4:10 PM MST: TBA vs. RHP Jair Jurrjens
(1-2; 6.75)

Thursday’s starter for the Diamondbacks is probably going
to be Trevor Bauer. Although the Diamondbacks haven’t made
an official announcement, several reports have surfaced
saying Bauer’s debut will, indeed, be Thursday versus the
Braves. Between Double-A Mobile and Triple-A Reno, Bauer
has an 11-1 record in 16 minor league starts this season,
complemented by a 2.23 ERA and a minor-league leading 116
strikeouts. If reports hold true and Bauer gets the mound
for the Diamondbacks at Turner Field on Thursday night,
you really, really won’t want to miss it. The Braves will
run out Jair Jurrjens who held the Red Sox to three hits
and one run over 7.2 innings in his first start since
returning from a two-month minor league stint.

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