Slumps happen in baseball. The inevitability of a 162+ game season is that at some point, nothing will go right and everything will go wrong. This sport has a way of balancing itself out: for every Randy Johnson perfect game there's a 111 loss season, for every 21-8 April a 4-13+ May, for every 13-game win streak- you get the idea.

This works conversely as well. A bad situation won't stay bad forever. Paul Goldschmidt isn't going to strattle the Mendoza Line all season, our bullpen isn't going to blow games every night, and none of the team's key contributers are going to be injured past the All-Star Break. So please, please, PLEASE calm down. Put down those pitchforks and torches, refasten the cap on that 40 and look for the light at the end of the tunnel. It's close. Like, really close. In fact, I'd argue that we've already reached it.

Allow me to explain.

This past series against the Mets, Goldschmidt passed the least quantifiable of baseball's advanced stats: the eye test. He has been putting up competitive at-bat after competitive at-bat, and while he has strucken out in most of them, they're much easier K's to digest than the “Three Called Strikes Right Down Broadway” special we've seen from Goldy so many times this season. When he isn't striking out, he's making excellent contact. Straight to defenders, but hey, excellent contact nonetheless, which is much more than we were seeing early on. Heck, he even hit a homer. A true, honest-to-goodness home run that may or may not have made me scream like a little girl when I saw it live.

The rest of our hitters have looked nice as well. Maybe a little unspectacular, but they're consistently getting on base. The main issue has been driving in runners in scoring position, which I truly believe will change this series. This offense is too talented and too hungry to embarrass itself for much longer.

MovingonbeforeIjinxtheteamandruineverything so how about them Brewers? Short answer: they've been really good this season. Long answer: you saw our series against them in Phoenix last week. What more is there to say?

Oh yeah: expletive Ryan Braun.

Starting Pitching Matchups

Game 1: RHP Zack Greinke (3-2, 3.46 ERA) vs. RHP Chase Anderson (3-3, 3.97 ERA)

Advantage: D-backs

Game 2: RHP Matt Koch (2-2, 4.06 ERA) vs. Jhoulys Chacin (3-1, 3.63 ERA)

Advantage: Brewers

Game 3: RHP Zack Godley (4-3, 3.78 ERA) vs TBD

Advantage: TBD

Prediction

The fate of this series lies entirely on the D-backs' offense. If it can wake up and start performing at levels even somewhat close to those of April's offense, the Snakes will take a relatively easy 2 out of 3. If not, well, just look at any loss in the last two weeks and expect three more of those in a sweep by the Brewers.