St. Louis @ Arizona preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 8, 2018 ) Arizona 4, St. Louis 1

The National League West is becoming a four-team race, with the Arizona Diamondbacks leading the pack but struggling to pull away. The Diamondbacks will try to bounce back at the expense of another struggling team when they host the St. Louis Cardinals in the opener of a three-game series on Monday.

Arizona managed one run in the first two games against the San Francisco Giants over the weekend and watched the bats catch fire on Sunday only to fall 9-6 while being swept at home. "Just an unfortunate series," Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told reporters. "We couldn't put everything together in one game. The first couple of nights we ... couldn't get that big hit, and today we get some big hits and got some runners on base and cashed them in (but) unfortunately the pitching didn't execute the way they had been the first couple of nights." The Cardinals were swept at home over the weekend as well, dropping three in a row to Atlanta to run their losing streak to four straight. St. Louis will try to bounce back behind ace Carlos Martinez on Monday while Arizona counters with left-hander Robbie Ray.

TV: 9:40 p.m. ET, FS Midwest (St. Louis), FS Arizona

PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Carlos Martinez (4-4, 3.22 ERA) vs. Diamondbacks LH Robbie Ray (3-0, 4.01)

Martinez snapped a five-start winless streak by holding Cleveland to two runs on six hits and one walk over six innings on Tuesday. The Dominican Republic native struck out eight in that outing - his highest total since punching out a season-high 11 at Cincinnati on April 15. Martinez is 2-1 with a 2.88 ERA in eight career games - five starts - against Arizona.

Ray returned from an absence of nearly two months on Wednesday at Miami and showed no rust while scattering two hits over six scoreless frames to earn the win. The Tennessee native, who was out with a strained oblique, struck out six and walked a pair in victory. Ray started at St. Louis on April 5 and issued five walks but struck out nine and limited the damage to one run while earning the win.

WALK-OFFS

1. Diamondbacks INF Ketel Marte (hamstring) sat out Sunday and is day-to-day.

2. St. Louis CF Tommy Pham went 2-for-4 with a three-run homer on Sunday after going 0-for-28 over his last nine games.

3. Arizona 3B Jake Lamb is batting .342 over the last 10 games.

PREDICTION: Diamondbacks 4, Cardinals 2