Diamondbacks series preview: The Yanks come to Arizona

Players to Watch

Welington Castillo has had the season of his life so far. He leads all major league catchers in home runs (7) and in OPS (.881), and he’s second in RBI (19). He’s done that in just 29 games. On top of that, he’s hitting a cool .333 with 5 RBI over his last seven. While his power has cooled off since the beginning of the season, “Beefmode” is still a force to be reckoned with. Yasmany Tomas will also be a key player during this series. The Cuban right fielder has five homers through 31 games played–only four fewer than he had all last season. He’s also hitting to the tune of a .297/.349/.500 triple slash, as well as a .333/.379/.407 line in his last seven games.

Despite an incredibly slow start, Chase Headley is hitting a solid .333 over his last nine games with two homers and seven runs scored. Before that stretch, he didn’t even have an extra base hit. So while his production has increased recently, there’s no guarantee he can keep it up, which will make him an interesting factor in this series.

Michael Pineda will also be a player to watch, scheduled to pitch on Monday. He’s been absolutely devastated early in games, with batters hitting .425 against him over his first 30 pitches of a game. However, he becomes more dominant as games progress. The Diamondbacks will need to take advantage of this and attack him early and often.