Diamondbacks at Giants
A pair of teams struggling to stay in wild card contention in the National League face off when the Arizona Diamondbacks visit the San Francisco Giants on Monday in the opener of a two-game series. The National League West rivals are in a six-team battle for the second NL wild card spot and are lagging behind teams from the NL East and NL Central.
The Diamondbacks had a chance to move up at the expense of another team in the race over the weekend but dropped two of three at Milwaukee, avoiding a sweep with a 5-2 victory in Sunday's finale. "We're still in it, for sure. We just have to string some games together and get on a roll," Arizona left-hander Robbie Ray told reporters. "We're playing the teams we need to play. The teams ahead of us, those are the teams we're going after. We just have to take it one day at a time." The Giants are a half-game ahead of the Diamondbacks in the standings and four games behind the Chicago Cubs after going into Oakland over the weekend and sweeping a two-game set from their interleague rivals. San Francisco will send right-hander Tyler Beede to the mound on Monday while Arizona counters with rookie lefty Alex Young.
TV: 9:45 p.m. ET, FS Arizona, NBCS Bay Area (San Francisco)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Diamondbacks LH Alex Young (5-3, 4.04 ERA) vs. Giants RH Tyler Beede (3-7, 5.82)
Young snapped a three-start losing streak on Tuesday by holding Colorado to three runs and seven hits over six innings. The 25-year-old was on the wrong end of shutout losses in each of his previous three turns before the offense stepped up and provided eight runs of support against the Rockies. Young made his major league debut at San Francisco on June 27 and earned a win while allowing one run and three hits over five innings.
Beede is winless in his last seven outings and failed to complete six innings in any of his last six turns, posting an 8.23 ERA in that span. The 26-year-old rookie served up 11 home runs over 27 1/3 innings over those last six starts, including three at the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday. Beede made back-to-back starts against Arizona in June and went 0-1 while yielding a total of six runs and 10 hits - one homer - across 9 1/3 innings.
WALK-OFFS
1. Giants 3B Evan Longoria reached 1,000 career RBIs with a third-inning home run on Sunday.
2. Arizona SS Nick Ahmed is 1-for-19 over his last six games.
3. San Francisco RHP Johnny Cueto (elbow) is scheduled to make a rehab start for Triple-A Sacramento on Monday.