Hudson (7-5, 3.53)
Vargas (3-5, 6.44)
Atlanta have finally reeled in the over-achieving Nationals, to take their traditional place atop the NL East (albeit currently tied). This series prefaces a meeting between those two teams starting on Tuesday; this might be a double-edged sword. Will the Braves' thoughts already be on that crucial trio of contests, or will they be looking to go into it with momentum?
Could work either way, but regardless, this does not look like an easy series for the D'backs. Then again, which series ever does? We've only won four of the last sixteen in the past two months, which for a team in second place is almost inexcusable.
Hudson was on the disabled list in the second half of June, but came back strong last time out. Tony Clark is the only D'back with a decent record against Hudson: Cruz (3-for-30) and Glaus (9-for-51) have particularly poor histories, so that may factor into tonight's lineup.
We send up Vargas: while I'm still not totally convinced he's the saviour portrayed by the media, he has been okay his last couple of starts. But this has the horrible look of a sweep about it, though as the White Sox series showed, we have an odd tendency to play at the level of the opposition.