Diamondbacks lookahead. Rockies at home, road trip to Atlanta

The Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, Aug. 9, wrap up seven straight home games with the series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chase Field.

Left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez is looking to right himself after a disastrous first two innings in a 9-4 loss to the San Diego Padres in his previous start on Aug. 4. Rodriguez went 5⅔-innings in that game.

Then the Diamondbacks have three more games at home, all against the Colorado Rockies from Monday, Aug. 10 to Wednesday, Aug. 12, before hitting the road to Atlanta for the weekend Aug. 14-16.

As August rolls on, the Diamondbacks find themselves in the thick of the race for the postseason. They were 61-54 going into their game on Thursday, Aug. 6, against the Padres, sitting in a National League wild-card position.

Manager Torey Lovullo likes to refer to August as "moving month."

"My favorite month of the baseball season," Lovullo said on Aug. 1 in Cleveland. "The season takes shape. The contenders and pretenders start to separate. The real teams and the ones that are capable of carrying on for the next two months start to separate themselves. It's the purest form of baseball.

"August is just the best month, and heads up, big things start to happen."

The Rockies are led by All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman, who as of Aug. 6 had 33 home runs. They have several players who have put together solid seasons of offense playing in the Denver altitude, but their pitching staff was last in all of Major League Baseball in team earned run average on Aug. 6.

Colorado is in last place in the NL West. The Diamondbacks are 5-2 against them this season with six games to go head-to-head.

The Braves are running away with the National League East lead and had a seven-game winning streak going into Aug. 6. Atlanta didn't make a big splash at the trade deadline but got better with the acquisitions of pitchers Brent Suter and Tyler Mahle and outfielder Lane Thomas.

All-Stars Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies and catcher Drake Baldwin have had big years with the bat and a solid starting rotation is led by veteran Chris Sale, who also made the NL All-Star team.

The Braves and Diamondbacks split a four-game series in Phoenix in April.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks lookahead. Rockies at home, road trip to Atlanta

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