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Rockies at Diamondbacks Preview: Oswalt takes on Corbin

The Rockies need a win on Sunday to avoid a sweep and fall 5.5 games out of first place in the NL West. They face a tall task in D-Backs ace and All-Star, Patrick Corbin.

By Kyle Domingos
USA TODAY Sports

The first two games of a 10 day 10 game road trip have not gone well for the Colorado Rockies. Arizona starters have limited the Rockies offense just one run and nine hits in two games and four of those hits have come from Carlos Gonzalez. In other words, the offense is struggling.

Unfortunately, even if the offense was playing well the Rockies still would have been hard to pressed to find themselves in the win column as the pitching hasn't fared much better. Stretches like this happen in baseball, but the Rockies seem to have chosen a particularly bad time to be playing poor baseball.

One game can change momentum though and a win against Patrick Corbin could certainly get the Rockies headed in the right direction. Corbin has been brilliant this year and his a legitimate case to start be the All-Star game starter in the National League. Corbin is 9-1 with a 2.49 ERA and his best of the year came against Colorado May 20th. On that day Corbin twirled a complete game, one run, 10 strikeout performance. On the bright side, Corbin's lone loss came in his last start in which he surrendered five runs in six innings against a weak New York Mets offense.

Regardless of how the Rockies do against Corbin, they need Roy Oswalt to step up in a big way. Oswalt was brought in with hopes that he could recapture his former dominant form and help the Rockies make a playoff push. Instead, Oswalt has gone 0-3 with a 7.88 ERA in three starts. It's been a bit hard to decipher what is wrong with Oswalt as his stuff hasn't looked all that bad. Location is key for any starting pitcher and hopefully Oswalt can find his location today in a game that the Rockies really need.

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