Diamondbacks 5, Rangers 3

The battle of young pitching prospects went decisively to the Diamondbacks this afternoon, as Tyler Skaggs out-pitched the Rangers' Martin Perez. Skaggs held a potent Rangers line-up to three hits over six scoreless innings, and Arizona scored one in the first and two in the second - easily enough to make a winner of Tyler in his 2013 debut. After he left, Will Harris and David Hernandez pitched scoreless innings, but Tony Sipp struggled in the ninth, letting three of four batter reach base. While Heath Bell then allowed all of those to score, with the tying run on base and one out, he closed things out for the save. We struck out a total of 15 Texas batters, a season-high for our hurlers.

On offense, Martin Prado got Arizona on the board in the first, and there were RBI hits from A.J. Pollock and Paul Goldschmidt in the second. Cody Ross got his second home-run of the year in the fifth, to make it 4-0, and Eric Hinske came off the bench to deliver an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth. The Diamondbacks outhit the Rangers 12-9 in total, with two hits apiece for Goldschmidt, Ross and Gerardo Parra. The victory gives the D-backs sole possession of first in the NL West, pending the final score in the Giants-Athletics game (though it's looking promising). .

Full recap to follow, but I'm about to enjoy the fruits of the barbecue, so don't hold your breath. :) And don't forget the nightcap, in which Trevor Cahill goes up against Yu Darvish, which starts at 6:40pm.