Fresh off a four-game sweep of the National League Central-leading Pittsburgh Pirates the Phillies welcome the Arizona Diamondbacks to Philadelphia for a three-game set starting Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Arizona enters Tuesday with the best record in the National League at 15-6 despite ranking 10th in the league in runs scored (95) and 12th in batting average (.225). Their success has instead come from solid pitching and a particularly strong bullpen posting a major league-best 1.88 ERA.

Arizona left-hander Robbie Ray will face the Phillies' Vince Velasquez in the series opener.

Ray, an All-Star last season, is coming off a no-decision in his last start where he tossed six innings surrendering two runs on five hits. He struck out five.

The Phillies counter in the opener with Vince Velasquez who enters play Tuesday ranked 8th among major league starters with a 2.24 FIP and 10.13 strikeouts per nine innings. He's tossed six innings and allowed three runs or fewer in each of his last three outings.

Weather may become an issue Tuesday in the later innings as rain is expected to move through the area around 9 PM.

With a win tonight the Phillies will have won 14 games in a 17-game span for the first time since 2011 (7/30-8/18).

Impressive Company
Rhys Hoskins has collected 45 RBIs over his first 70 major league games, the fifth most in history through that time frame. The four names in front of him? Rudy York, Jose Abreu, Walt Dropo, and
Cody Bellinger.

Hot at Home
The Phillies are 9-1 at Citizens Bank Park this season marking their best start at home to open a season since 1964. The Phillies went on to finish that year 11 games over .500 at home en route to 92 total wins before arguably the most infamous late-season collapse in baseball history.

Do You Remember?
Fifteen years ago today (4/24/2003) Chase Utley collected his first major league hit, a grand slam against the Colorado Rockies in a 9-1 victory at Veterans Stadium. Utley would go on to hit 233 homers over 13 seasons while with the Phillies.

Tonight's Lineup
1. Cesar Hernandez 4
2. Carlos Santana 3
3. Scott Kingery 9
4. Rhys Hoskins 7
5. Aaron Altherr 8
6. Maikel Franco 5
7. Pedro Florimon 6
8. Jorge Alfaro 2
9. Vince Velasquez 1
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Follow Patrick on Twitter: @PGordonPBR

BY PATRICK GORDON
Managing Editor
pgordon@philadelphiabaseballreview.com

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