After a disastrous weekend in Seattle, Max Scherzer stopped the bleeding on Tuesday night for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The young power pitcher shut down the slugging Texas Rangers, and the top of the D-Backs' batting order poured on the offense in an 8-2 win at Chase Field. Everything that could go wrong for the D-Backs did in the Emerald City, but they made up for it upon their return home as Felipe Lopez, Justin Upton, and Stephen Drew went 8-for-13 and drove in seven runs.
Meanwhile, the cornerstone of the D-Backs' offense, Justin Upton, keeps on punishing opposing pitchers. He hit his 14th homer in the first inning and drove in his 43rd, 44th, and 45th runs of season, raised his batting average to .324, and further made his case as the best right fielder in the National League. Now that he's on pace for a 30-homer, 100-RBI season, the sting of trading Carlos Quentin to the White Sox has all but gone away. Upton looks determined and hungry, rarely giving away at-bats, and looking nothing like the kid who struggled to hit major-league pitching in the first weeks of the season.