FanHouse

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Texas Rangers (19-21) vs. Seattle Mariners (15-25) - 8:05PM Est.

Let's start today's On Deck by taking a trip in the FanHouse Time Machine. We're going to go all the way back to May 8th, 2008. The world was a different place back then. Ok, so the world was really any different as all, as it was just five days ago, but it was sort of exciting!

That was the day when Richie Sexson threw his helmet and charged Kason Gabbard after taking exception to a pitch. Sexson thought that Gabbard's eye-high fastball was meant for his face even though it was over the heart of the plate, and he took umbrage. Of course, had Felix Hernandez not plunked Ian Kinsler earlier in the game after Kinsler homered, none of this would have happened.

Now, here we are five days later, and Gabbard and Hernandez are set to face each other one more time. Will we have an encore?

Probably not.

The latest incident is too fresh in the minds of baseball and the umpires, so if the Rangers feel like retaliating, they'd probably be better served to wait until later this season, and save themselves a possible suspension. Still, there's plenty of reason to watch this game as the Rangers might not be that smart, and they've been playing pretty well lately.

Gabbard had to leave that last game with a leg problem, but he'd been dealing before the scrum. He was making his first start since coming off of the disabled list. Felix struggled during the game, and let his frustration show when he had to be restrained by Eddie Guardado during the fight. The Mariners are hoping Felix can channel his frustration from his slow start, and the team's poor play, into a strong outing tonight. They'd also like to get the sour taste out of their mouth from last night's game.

After Seattle scored four runs in the 9th inning to tie the game at 12 and send it to extras, Ramon Vazquez hit a walk-off in the 10th to win the game 13-12 for Texas. If I'm Ramon, I might wear an elbow guard today.

Cincinnati Reds (16-23) vs. Florida Marlins (23-15) - 7:05PM Est.

The Reds were able to put an end to the Marlins 7-game win streak yesterday (there must be an On Deck curse), and today they'll look to get one of their own started. As surprising as the Marlins start to the season has been, Reds starter Edinson Volquez has been just as big a surprise in Cincinnati.

The Reds must have thought they were getting something good when they decided to give up Josh Hamilton for him, but I don't think they were expecting this. Volquez is 5-1 and leads the National League with an ERA of 1.06. All this after going 3-11 with a 7.20 ERA in his career as a Ranger.

The Marlins will counter with Mark Hendrickson, who has been a pleasant surprise as well. Hendrickson is 5-1 on the season as well, and goes for his sixth straight win tonight. He's 0-1 with an 8.84 ERA in four career starts against Florida.

Arizona Diamondbacks (23-15) vs. Colorado Rockies (15-23) - 9:40PM Est.

The Diamondbacks are probably very happy to be back home, and facing a division opponent once again. Arizona is fresh off of a three-game sweep by the Cubs in Chicago, and have lost seven of their last ten games. The key stat being that all ten of those games were against teams outside the division.

While everybody has been impressed by Arizona's start to the season, and rightly so, it's important to point out that the majority of the damage they've done is against NL West opponents. While they're 17-5 against the West, they're only 6-10 against everybody else.

They're also 5-1 against the Rockies this season, and look to continue that dominance. Randy Johnson gets the start tonight, and he's 8-2 with a 1.11 ERA lifetime against Colorado at Chase Field. Jeff Francis goes for the Rox, and he'd just like to pick up that first win of the season. Francis has lost his last three starts against Arizona, including two this season.

Everybody Else

• Orioles vs. Red Sox 7:05PM
• Indians vs. A's 7:05PM
• Phillies vs. Braves 7:05PM
• Mets vs. Nationals 7:10PM
• Rays vs. Yankees 7:10PM
• Brewers vs. Dodgers 8:05PM
• Cubs vs. Padres 8:05PM
• Royals vs. Tigers 8:10PM
• Twins vs. Blue Jays 8:10PM
• Cardinals vs. Pirates 8:15PM
• Angels vs. White Sox 10:05PM
• Giants vs. Astros 10:15PM