Saturday's middle game at 4:10 PM ET pits two .500-adjacent NL clubs that have spent the last week tripping over their own shoelaces. Arizona limps into Cincinnati at 34-34 after getting swept in Miami, and the Reds are 32-35 and trying to crawl out of a brutal stretch that has Terry Francona doing his best motivational-poster impression. The Diamondbacks aren't just losing — they aren't hitting at all. Over the last 12 games they're batting .186 with 28 total runs, capped by back-to-back shutouts in Miami and a 16-inning scoreless streak that ended the trip. Jordan Lawlar is finally back off the 60-day IL ahead of the series opener, which gives the lineup a jolt the offense desperately needs, even if expecting an immediate rescue out of a 23-year-old returning from a fractured wrist is a stretch. Cincinnati has its own list of problems, and most of them start with the names that aren't in the lineup. Elly De La Cruz is still on the 10-day IL with a hamstring strain Francona pegged at 2-4 weeks, and Hunter Greene won't be back from the elbow injury until somewhere around the All-Star break at the earliest. Jose Trevino was slated to come off the IL for the series opener, which at least restores some normalcy behind the plate, but this is not a healthy roster. Great American Ball Park is the kind of place where slumping lineups can find a heartbeat in a hurry — short porch, ball flies, the Reds' bullpen has been leaking late. Arizona has dropped 4 of 5 and the Reds have lost 4 of 5, so somebody's getting off the mat Saturday afternoon. With De La Cruz out, the spotlight falls on TJ Friedl and Spencer Steer to carry the home lineup against an Arizona rotation that's been the better half of the operation lately. The Saturday matinee is also a stylistic test for the D-backs' freshly reinforced lineup. If Lawlar slots in and they still can't push runs across against a Reds staff missing Greene, that's a bigger problem than a five-game cold spell. If the bats wake up in this park, the road trip resets in a hurry.