Diamondbacks vs Rays starts this weekend at Tropicana Field after Thursday’s series finale in St. Louis was rained out, and Arizona arrives with a 41-39 record. Zac Gallen is the most pressing subplot after a June 20 start against the Twins in which he allowed nine runs on 12 hits in four innings.
Gallen and the Diamondbacks
Gallen’s four-seam fastball has produced a 6.4% whiff rate, the lowest in MLB among pitchers with at least 100 pitches. His curveball has also lost bite, dropping from a 39% whiff rate in 2025 to 23% in 2026.
That downturn lands on a Diamondbacks team that won two of three games in St. Louis and followed Wednesday’s 9-4 win with LuJames Groover’s first career MLB home run. Arizona is 6-4 in its last 10 games and sits 2.0 games out of the third NL Wild Card position.
Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field
Tampa Bay enters at 45-33 and holds the first AL Wild Card spot by 7.5 games. The Rays also bring a 28-12 home record, while Arizona is 17-22 on the road, so the series opens in a setting that leans heavily toward the home team.
The Rays added more force on Thursday with a 13-2 win against the Royals, nearly finishing a combined no-hitter before Craig Kimbrel allowed the homer that broke it up in the ninth inning. Junior Caminero supplied three home runs and six RBI in that game.
Rays and Diamondbacks
The matchup also carries recent history. The Rays swept a three-game series with the Diamondbacks at Tropicana Field in August of 2024 and took two of three games from Arizona at Chase Field last year.
For Arizona, the immediate test is simple: keep the road trip from slipping and get a steadier start from Gallen after the Twins outing. If he sharpens the fastball and gets the curveball back toward its earlier miss rate, the Diamondbacks can make a tougher game of a park where the Rays have already punished them.
