With the regular season still stretching out nearly 15 weeks, the 37-36 Diamondbacks are in the thick of the playoff picture and need to protect home ground against the 30-44 Angels, who have little margin for error as they try to climb back into relevance.

These two teams have played five times recently and the results have been anything but predictable — Arizona took the middle game of this current series 4-3, but the Angels answered with a dominant 7-0 shutout the very next afternoon. The Diamondbacks come in a bit uneven, having dropped two lopsided contests to Miami before steadying themselves, while Los Angeles has shown flashes of punch, including a big win over Houston, mixed with a blowout loss to Tampa Bay. Back-to-back fatigue applies equally to both clubs tonight.

Whether Arizona can generate consistent offense after being shut out completely in the last meeting will likely shape how this game unfolds — the Diamondbacks' ability to bounce back in short order, something they demonstrated once already in this series, will be the thing worth watching most closely.