Apr. 28, 2013; Phoenix AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Patrick Corbin (46) throws a pitch during the first inning against Colorado Rockies at Chase Field. Image Credit: Jennifer Hilderbrand-USA TODAY Sports Images

The Colorado Rockies (24-20) just played a great series this past weekend against the San Francisco Giants, and now find themselves just one game back from leading the NL West division. They took advantage of a struggling Giants team that was playing sloppy defense and their pitching was below average at best.

Arizona (25-19) just finished a series with the Miami Marlins where they won two out of three games, and the starting pitching is the main reason they have been playing some of their best baseball this season. The starters for the Diamondbacks have the 4th best ERA in the NL at 3.47.

This is the third time that Arizona will face Rockies this season. Arizona is 4-3 against Colorado this season.

Game 1 (Monday): Patrick Corbin (6-0, 1.52 ERA) vs. Jon Garland (3-4, 4.89 ERA)

The best story this season has been the performance of young lefty Patrick Corbin. He has been the model of consistency in each start this season, as he has thrown at least six innings and has not allowed more than two runs in any of his eight starts this season. He also has the 3rd best ERA in all of baseball behind only Matt Harvey and Clayton Kershaw.

Garland has thrown the ball great in his last three starts, but has only one win to show for it. He has the most experience of any starter in the Rockies rotation, and this has helped the younger members of their rotation. Though, he has had success in his past three starts he has only went five innings in those starts.

Game 2 (Tuesday): Ian Kennedy (2-3, 4.88 ERA) vs. Jhoulys Chacin (3-3, 4.07 ERA)

Kennedy earned a win in his last start against the Atlanta Braves, and this was first victory since Opening Day. Kennedy is 0-1, with 4.50 ERA against the Rockies this year. Kennedy has had success this season when he has been able to pound the strike zone with his fastball. The troubles for him occur when his command is less than stellar.

Chacin will hope to rebound after his last start, where he squandered a six-run lead given to him by Colorado. The biggest reason why he struggled was that he lost his aggressiveness and command of all his pitches.

Game 3 (Wednesday): Trevor Cahill ( 3-4, 2.48 ERA) vs. Jorge De La Rosa (5-3, 3.58 ERA)

Cahill has been great over his past five starts, compiling a  1.36 ERA to go with a 3-1 record. The only concern is that command has been inconsistent as he’s walked 16 batters in that span.

De La Rosa has at times pitched terrific for Colorado this year, and then there are other times where he has had problems locating his pitches.

May 3, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Wade Miley (36) throws during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Image Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

The Braves (21-16) just lost three out of four games to the San Francisco Giants over the weekend, and will now start a three-game series with Arizona. One of the reasons why they struggled against the Giants is that their offense was non-existent and their pitching gave up too many runs.

Arizona (21-17) had a chance to earn a series victory against the Philadelphia Phillies, but a mistake by manager Kirk Gibson cost them a victory. The starter for the Diamondbacks Brandon McCarthy pitched a great game, and had only thrown 88 pitches going into the ninth inning.

Gibson opted to use the bullpen, and they blew another save opportunity for the team, this is the 11th save the bullpen has blown this season.

This was a bad loss for Arizona, but now they will face a very good Braves team and they also will see their former franchise player Justin Upton return to Chase Field.

This is the first time that Arizona will face the Braves this season. Arizona went 2-5 against the Braves last season.

Game 1 (Monday): Mike Minor (4-2, 2.96 ERA) vs. Wade Miley (3-1, 2.93 ERA)

Mike Minor has pitched great this season for Atlanta, and looks to continue his success against Arizona. Minor in his last start against the Cincinnati Reds gave up one run, walked three, struck out seven batters in seven innings. Arizona will struggle on offense once again because Minor is another left-handed starter they have to face.

Wade Miley rebounded from his last two starts where he had issues with his command. He went seven innings did not issue a walk, and threw more strikes against the opposition. Miley has been one our most dependable starters this season and needs to have great command in this start against the Braves.

Game 2 (Tuesday): Julio Teheran (2-0, 4.84 ERA) vs. Patrick Corbin (5-0, 1.75 ERA)

Julio Teheran has been pitching better in recent starts for Atlanta, and one of the reasons is that he has changed the grip on his change up. He has just allowed two runs or less in each of past three starts.

Patrick Corbin has pitched excellent in each start he has made this season. He has pitched at least six innings, and has given two earned runs or less in each start. He will need to have his best stuff once again against a Braves team that can score runs in bunches, though they are struggling to hit. Corbin has faced the Braves only once in his career, he threw three shut-out innings in relief last June.

Game 3 (Wednesday): Tim Hudson (4-2, 4.70 ERA) vs. Ian Kennedy (1-3, 4.83 ERA)

Tim Hudson has not pitched great this season for the Braves, as he has thrown fewer than five innings in three of his eight starts this season. The positive for Hudson is that  he is 4-0 in his career against Arizona with a 0.94 ERA in five starts.

Ian Kennedy did not have have a good beginning to his last start, but managed to pitch better as the game went on. The key for him was that he was able to throw more strikes, and he used his fastball more than he used his breaking pitches.

The D’backs (20-15) got off to a strong start in the four-game set with the Phils (16-20), taking the opener 2-1 in a pitcher’s duel. Patrick Corbin was once again stellar for the D’backs and Heath Bell made his first appearance as the announced closer, shutting down the Phils in the ninth for his fourth save of the season.

The Phillies are 25th in the league in runs per game, 3.66, on offense and even worse on the road, 3.18. This is the first series between the two teams this season. In 2012, the Phillies were on the right end of a six-game set, winning four of the six games.

With three games still ahead, the D’backs would like nothing more to continue their four-game win streak. Here’s how it sets up.

Game 1 (Friday): Ian Kennedy (1-3, 5.19 ERA) vs. Tyler Cloyd (0-0, —-)

In his last time out, Kennedy had such a “IPK” outing that it was almost cliche. He went seven innings, fighting through three walks and seven hits given up. But he also gave up for runs in those seven innings. That seems to be the norm for Kennedy the past 12 months. He doesn’t have an out pitch, leaving him with very few options when trying to run through a lineup three times. He has three quality starts this season, two outings where he gave up four runs and another where he gave up six. He also only has one “stellar” start, which I define as seven innings or longer, giving up two runs or less. Cloyd, taking DL’d Roy Halladay‘s spot on the rotation, will be making his 2013 debut. He started six games for the Phillies in 2012, going 2-2 with a 4.91 ERA. With the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs of the International League this season, he’s gone 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA; however, he has an 8.2 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 35 innings.

Game 2 (Saturday): Trevor Cahill (2-3, 2.80) vs Cliff Lee (3-2, 3.26)

Quietly, Cahill has been absolutely dominant after his first two starts of the season. He’s thrown 27.1 innings since then, and has only allowed five runs in those outings. Though, his most strike outs came in those first two games of the season where he allowed seven runs in 10.2 innings. Somebody let @cantpredictball know on Twitter. Lee has been the Phillies’ best pitcher this year out of the big three (Lee, Halladay and Cole Hamels), which would be okay if he was his usual dominant self. Instead, he’s been good, even great, but not exceptional. In his previous three outings combined, he’s thrown 19 innings and allowed 10 runs. His control of the strike zone has remained stellar, though, only walking five the entire season.

Game 3 (Sunday): Brandon McCarthy (0-3, 6.75) vs. Kyle Kendrick (4-1, 2.45)

McCarthy threw his first quality start of the season his last time out, a 5-3 win over the Dodgers on May 7. But it was the quality start that I believe shouldn’t count. He lasted only 6.1 innings and allowed three earned. It was his best outing of the season with a doubt, though. He’s been incredibly unlucky with BABIP against so far, with a unsustainable .385 mark against him. League average is .300 and most pitchers will be fairly close to that, some above, some below, but nothing even close to that high. That bad luck continued in his previous outing. He struck out three, walked one and still gave up eight hits in 27 batters faced, giving him a .348 BABIP in the game. That’s obviously a tiny sample size and any one game can be much higher and much lower for pitchers, but at some point, McCarthy’s going to start getting a tad luckier. That being said, his other peripheral numbers aren’t stellar right now. I’ll have a more detailed post up on Sunday. If Lee has been the best Phils’ starter of the big three, Kendrick has been the best pitcher of the entire staff. He’s on a streak of five straight starts of at least six innings and two runs or less, including a complete-game shut out on April 26 against the Mets. In his last outing, he went seven innings, allowed two runs on six hits and struck out six.