On Deck: Colorado Rockies

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 Rockies are one of the worst teams in baseball at 12 games below .500, but they've actually split their last 10 games, which is more than the Rangers can say.

Past Meetings: The Rangers went 1-3 against the Rockies a year ago, losing two games in Denver and then splitting two games at home.

Pitching Matchups: Monday — Nick Martinez (5-5, 3.43 ERA) vs. Chris Rusin (3-3, 3.98); Tuesday — Matt Harrison (0-1, 13.50) vs. Kyle Kendrick (3-10, 5.94); Wednesday — Martin Perez (0-1, 5.40) vs. TBD.

What's Hot: Rougned Odor is still scorching. Ever since his return to the bigs last month, he's been on fire and the all-star break didn't break his stride. The young second baseman is hitting .429 in his three games since the break, including two triples and a home run, not to mention a dust-up with the suddenly hated rival Astros. Josh Hamilton also found his stroke over the weekend, with the exception of Sunday's game against ace Dallas Keuchel. He's batting .333 with two doubles and a homer in his last three games. Bullpen hand Sam Freeman continues to get more work in high-leverage situations and continues to shut the door on opponents.

The Rockies were rained out on Sunday so have played just two games since the second half of the season began. Troy Tulowitzki has three hits and three walks in those two games, including one home run.

What's Not: Tanner Scheppers has been pretty awful as of late. He's been inconsistent all year, but lately he's been consistently bad and unable to get outs. He nearly blew Saturday night's Rangers win in Houston after his bats gave him a comfortable lead. Matt Harrison needs to have a better outing on Tuesday than he did in his return from spinal fusion surgery before the all-star break. To do that, he'll need better command of his stuff given his significant drop in velocity.