On Deck will be here all season to provide you with everything you need to know (and a few things you don't) about every Rangers series during the 2015 season.
The Opponent: The Diamondbacks aren't great, but they're looking better than the Rangers at the moment by way of at least being above .500, even if it is just by one game.
Past Meetings: The teams met four times in 2013 and split the season series, including a day-night doubleheader sweep by the Diamondbacks in Arizona.
Pitching Matchups: Tuesday — Nick Martinez (2-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Chase Anderson (0-0, 4.09); Wednesday — Yovani Gallardo (2-1, 3.45) vs. Archie Bradley (1-0, 1.42).
What's Hot: Prince Fielder has continued his hot start to the season, even though he hasn't hit a homer yet. He's batting .391 over his last six games and has a double and three RBIs. Leonys Martin has turned things around after an awful start, and is hitting .348 with a .400 on-base percentage over that same six games. Martinez has been the Rangers' best starter, as he's yet to allow an earned run in his two starts.
Center fielder A.J. Pollock has been carrying the Arizona offense, batting .417 over his last seven games, and young slugger Paul Goldschmidt has three homers and nine RBIs over that same amount of time. Both Anderson and Bradley are coming off quality starts in their previous outings.
What's Not: Tanner Scheppers struggled horribly on Sunday, walking his way out of the game and forcing manager Jeff Banister to bring in closer Neftali Feliz way too soon. He now has a 27.00 ERA with three walks and four runs in his last 1 1/3 innings. Now just 2-for-21 over the last six games, Adrian Beltre has stumbled badly out of the gate. The good sign? He's a notorious slow starter. The bad sign? It hasn't been this bad since he joined the Rangers in 2011.
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Arizona shortstop Nick Ahmed is batting the same .095 as Adrian Beltre over the last week, but Nick Ahmed is Nick Ahmed and Adrian Beltre is Adrian Beltre, so it's hard to knock a light-hitting shortstop too much for that.
