Game: Arizona Diamondbacks @ San Diego Padres
Time: 9:40 p.m. ET
Odds: Diamondbacks +160, Padres -180
Total: 7.5
Both Arizona and San Diego enter their weekend series coming off losses to NL West Division opponents in their previous series. The Diamondbacks dropped the last two of three games against San Francisco losing those two games by a combined score of 17-3. The Padres dropped the final three of a four-game set with Colorado giving up 28 runs across the four games.
Tonight, the two teams will send two of the better pitchers in their starting rotations to face each other. The two starters have faced each other previously this season. Arizona will start Madison Bumgarner who beat the Padres way back in the season opener. Bumgarner is 5-8 this season with a 3.65 ERA, but he had a disastrous month of June. For the month, Bumgarner lost five of his starts ending June with back-to-back losses to San Diego.
Yu Darvish will go for the Padres and he lost that season opener to Arizona. He got his revenge though last month in a start against the D-Backs in which he pitched seven innings and allowed just a single run. For the season, Darvish is 7-4 with a 3.38 ERA. The Padres have lost each of Darvish’s last three starts, but he gives them a chance to win every time he takes the mound. In his last start, Darvish pitched seven innings against San Francisco and allowed one earned run. The Padres couldn’t take advantage and lost 3-1.
Arizona sits in last place in the NL West, 1.5 games behind Colorado who recently took three of four games from the D-Backs. Arizona has lost six of its last eight games and seven of its last eight against San Diego. The D-Backs are also just 1-4 SU in their last five games on the road. Arizona is 0-5 in its last five trips to San Diego
Bumgarner has won his last two starts beating the Giants on July 4 and Colorado on July 9. He pitched a total of 12 innings and allowed five earned runs, but the key was the Arizona offense. It’s not a great offense – the D-Backs rank 21st in runs per game with 4.20 – but they beat San Francisco 8-3 and Colorado 9-2.
San Diego is trying to chase the Dodgers in the NL West race. The Padres are 9.5 games behind the first-place Dodgers and haven’t had much to cheer about recently. San Diego is 1-5 SU in its last six games and they are just 2-6 in their last eight home games. The one thing in their favor is the five straight home wins over Arizona.
Petco Park in San Diego is a more pitcher-friendly ballpark. Darvish can attest to that. His last start against Arizona was at home and San Diego won 4-1. That game came in the middle of a stretch where six straight Darvish starts ended with seven or fewer runs. Seven of Darvish’s last nine starts have gone Under the total.