The Arizona Diamondbacks have been the best team in the National League for the last two months, and they will look to keep rolling when they bid for a series sweep at Kansas City on Wednesday.
The D-backs are 33-21 since July 9, one game better than Atlanta and Milwaukee (both 32-22), and with their second straight extra-inning win against the Royals on Tuesday are 10 games above .500 for the first time since September 2024.
Arizona will activate Zac Gallen (3-9, 6.34 ERA) from the injured list to start the series finale, and fellow right-hander Michael Soroka (8-4, 3.40) also will be activated from the injured list to serve in a piggy-back role, manager Torey Lovullo said.
Left-hander Daniel Lynch IV (4-5, 3.51) is scheduled to start for the Royals, who have lost seven of their last nine games.
The D-backs (78-68) have won four in a row and are focused on the stretch drive while fighting for one of three NL wild-card spots.
“Driving towards a playoff spot only intensifies it,” Nolan Arenado said in a television interview when asked about September baseball.
“It’s what the game is all about. You got to love it. I think these guys are embracing what’s happening. They are fighting every single inning.”
Philadelphia (81-64) and the Chicago Cubs (81-65) lead the wild-card race, with Arizona and San Diego (77-68) challenging.
The D-backs used seven pitchers in each of the first two games of the Kansas City series and are looking for Gallen and Soroka to provide length. Corbin Burnes, activated Tuesday for his first start since June 1, threw three scoreless innings.
Gallen is to make his first appearance since July 7 after going on the injured list with right elbow inflammation.
“We’re going to guard both guys,” Lovullo said. “They can get anywhere from 55 to 70 pitches. We just were trying to figure out how it would be best for them to be most comfortable.
“Soroka knows that role and jogging in from the outfield is a little bit less of a surprise for either guy.”
Gallen is 1-0 with a 3.06 ERA in three starts against the Royals, the most recent in 2023. One-time Diamondback Josh Rojas is 2 or 4 with a homer against him.
Lynch is to make his seventh start of the season after joining the rotation following 46 appearances out of the bullpen. He was moved partly because of injuries and partly to evaluate his 2027 role.
His ERA was 1.96 out of the bullpen, but he is 0-3 with a 6.97 ERA in the rotation. The Royals have split his six starts. He gave up five runs in five innings of a 9-2 loss to Toronto on Friday, the first time he pitched into the fifth.
Lynch’s bugaboo? The first inning. He gave up four runs in the first frame to Toronto and has given up six runs in the first in his six starts.
“The move forward is going to be figuring out how to fully let it rip there, from pitch one,” Lynch told MLB.com. “I thought I did a really good job against Chicago and L.A. (his first two starts), where I was still kind of in that reliever mindset.
“So trying to stick with that and just put it together.”
Lynch, a first-round pick in the 2018 draft, has not allowed a run or a hit in two relief appearances against the D-backs. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is 3-for-7 against him.
-Field Level Media
