Having scored 25 runs in their last two games, it's safe to say the Arizona Diamondbacks are peaking at the right time.

A few trade deadline additions could be exactly what this team needs to go to the next level. Currently, they're 54-49 and would be the last National League Wild Card team in the playoffs.

After winning a one-off game in St. Louis, the D-backs are set to play nine more games on the road. Instead of enjoying Thursday, July 23 off, Arizona had to take care of business against the St. Louis Cardinals in a makeup game. Now, they're tasked with going to Nationals Park to take on the 52-51 Washington Nationals.

Eduardo Rodriguez did not look great in his first appearance since the All-Star break. Coming off a stellar first half, he managed to record just five outs against the Cardinals on Sunday, July 19.

In one of his worst performances of the season, Rodriguez will be looking to deliver a better performance than his 2.2-inning outing, where he allowed five earned runs on seven hits.

Carson Palmquist is 0-5 in his major-league career. He's set to start his fifth game of the season in his eighth appearance of 2026. The 25-year-old lefty signals a bullpen game is likely in the series opener for Washington as the deepest he's gone this season is 3.1 innings.

Mitch Bratt is set to make his fourth appearance of his young career. The rookie gives the Nationals a lefty to deal with, but it'll be interesting to see if Bratt can build off his start on Monday, July 20, where he went the deepest he's gone (4.2 innings) but allowed a pair of solo homers.

Foster Griffin is nowhere near the type of pitcher the D-backs will have seen in the opener. Griffin, 30, is 7-0 in his last 12 starts. He sports a tremendous 1.42 ERA in the month of July and hasn't given up more than one earned run in a game since Saturday, May 30.

Kohl Drake is yet another young, relatively inexperienced left-handed pitcher. This'll be just his second start in the majors, but he pitched a delightful five innings where he struck out five and allowed just one earned run on four hits.

Miles Mikolas has seemingly been around forever. In his first year with the Nationals, he's a -0.5 WAR player, but his 1.34 WHIP echoes what he's done each of the last four seasons. At 37 years old, it's worth monitoring that he's gone 4.0 innings or fewer in three of his last five starts.

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