San Diego vs Arizona

Team matchup: I already wrote about Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday. They are one of the best teams in NL. They lost only one game this season and that was yesterday against San Diego. In very close one, they lost late in the game. This is my personal opinion, that they underestimated them a little bit yesterday. “Oh man, how many guys did we leave on base today, 11?” Montero said. “You’ve got to give credit to their pitcher Luebke. The first inning we should have gotten more than one run. We should have been able to get at least two runs in that inning. We didn’t execute the little things to get the job done and that’s the difference.” Arizona scores 5.2 runs/game this season, on the other side Padres is one of the weakest team in NL. They score only 3.6 runs. The difference against righties is even bigger. Arizona scores 5.5 runs/game against righties and San Diego scores only 3.3 runs/game against righties. Big offensive edge on Arizona’s side.

 

Pitching matchup: Arizona will start with Ian Kennedy, who never lost to San Diego Padres. In fact he has perfect record against them. 5-0, ERA 2.01 and whip 0.918. On other side San Diego will not start with their regular SP, but they will use reliever Bass. With Padres pitcher Dustin Moseley landing on the disabled list and possibly needing surgery, Anthony Bass will get a shot to step up for San Diego. He’ll get the start on Thursday versus Arizona, taking Moseley’s start. Bass made three starts last season and was 1-0 with a 1.20 ERA. All three lasted exactly five innings. Bass is solid pitcher, but I don’t see him pitch deep in the game. He will probably go 5 innings or so. And that is only half of the game.

 

Key trends: Diamondbacks are 10-1 in Kennedys last 11 starts vs. a team with a losing record. Padres are 0-4 in their last 4 games following a win. Diamondbacks are 5-0 in Kennedys last 5 starts vs. Padres.Diamondbacks are 11-5 in the last 16 meetings. Padres are 1-6 in their last 7 games with Foster behind home plate.

 

Reason for pick: We have one of the best offensive teams in NL, who lost yesterday, where they had a couple of chances to win. They are way better offensively, than San Diego Padres, who will play with Bass, who started last year only three games. On other side Arizona will start with one of the best pitchers in NL, who will try to bounce back after bad start to the season. He has perfect record against Padres. The question is only if is smart to take Arizona Diamondbacks with run line or we just play regular money line. I think, that we have to take run line, because Arizona’s offense has a lot of potential and they can score and make that 2 run difference. After two games, where they didn’t score much, they will attack today.