Arizona Diamondbacks (77-69, third in NL West) vs. Colorado Rockies (80-65, first in NL West)
Denver; Thursday, 3:10 p.m. Eastern
PROBABLE PITCHERS: Diamondbacks: Clay Buchholz (7-2, 2.01 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 81 strikeouts) Rockies: Kyle Freeland (14-7, 2.91 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 153 strikeouts)
BOTTOM LINE: Colorado has enjoyed an offensive surge from Trevor Story as of late. He’s batting .250 with six hits and four home runs in the past week. The Rockies enter the matchup with a one and a half-game lead over the Dodgers in the NL West. Colorado’s lineup is slugging .435 on the season. Nolan Arenado leads the team with a mark of .563. The Diamondbacks have struggled lately, going 3-7 over their last 10 outings. Arizona gives up 1.6 runs per game when Buchholz takes the hill. In Wednesday’s game, the Rockies defeated the Diamondbacks 5-4. Wade Davis got the win for Colorado, his third on the season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Paul Goldschmidt has 33 home runs and 83 RBIs on the season for the Diamondbacks. Eduardo Escobar has eight hits over his past 10 games for Arizona. Charlie Blackmon is second on the Rockies with 160 hits on the season. He’s batting .286 on the year. DJ LeMahieu has two home runs and eight RBIs while slugging .707 over his past 10 games for Colorado.
LAST 10 GAMES: Diamondbacks: 3-7, .228 batting average, 5.22 ERA, outscored by 12 runs. Rockies: 7-3, .297 batting average, 3.90 ERA, outscored opponents by 17 runs.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.
