Two National League West rivals will go head-to-head at Oracle Park on Thursday as the Arizona Diamondbacks (9-10, 3rd in NL West) make the trip to face the San Francisco Giants (8-11, 4th in NL West).
Logan Webb (1-1) will toe the rubber for the hosts, whilst right-hander Ryne Nelson (1-2) is set to start for the Diamondbacks. The first pitch will be at 9:45 p.m. ET, and BetMGM has the Giants listed as 1.5-point run line favorites (+120), being priced at -165 on the moneyline.
Bettors can also opt to place a wager on the game total which is currently set at O/U 8. Be sure to take a look at our full game breakdown before we provide you with our best bet for the matchup. Let’s find a winner!
Last Time Out
Arizona is coming off a series loss to the Chicago Cubs, dropping two games in their three-match series. Yesterday saw the Diamondbacks lose 5-3 at Chase Field to the Cubs as Cody Bellinger hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth innings. In what was an extremely close series between the two teams, the first two games needed extra innings to decide them.
With a 2-4 road record on the season, Arizona’s only victories away from Phoenix have come against the 4-15 Colorado Rockies. Nevertheless, that was their two most recent away games, and the Diamondbacks are 5-3 over their last eight overall.
Meanwhile, the Giants are struggling to find a winning streak this season, and have won two in a row just once thus far. They have been alternating wins and losses of late, but they did manage to claim a recent road series victory over the Miami Marlins (2-1) - their first of the season.
San Francisco came away with a 3-1 win on the road to the Marlins yesterday, with Thairo Estrada hitting the go-ahead run in the seventh innings. Rookie pitcher Keaton Winn (1-3) managed to claim his first triumph of the campaign, getting hit for just one run off of six innings. His ERA now stands at 4.09 on the season.
Probable Pitchers
Visiting starting pitcher Nelson will look to improve upon his 1-2 record and 5.27 ERA so far this season when he goes up against the Giants tonight. He managed to help Arizona pick up a solid 4-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals last weekend, allowing just one earned run and striking out four off of six innings pitched. His career record reads 10-11 with an ERA of 4.91 and a WHIP of 1.38. The Diamondbacks overall pitching staff has an ERA of 4.06 and a WHIP of 1.28. Their bullpen has been mediocre with an ERA of 4.08 (15th in MLB).
As for Webb, who will be commanding the hill for San Francisco, he is coming off of an 11-2 win against the Tampa Bay Rays last Saturday. He allowed just one run over seven innings, managing to lower his ERA from 4.86 to 3.80. He has a WHIP of 1.39 and a total of 17 strikeouts this season. The righty has a career record of 43-33 with a 3.42 ERA and a WHIP of 1.18. San Francisco’s pitching staff has an overall ERA of 4.75, and a WHIP of 1.29, with their bullpen sporting a 5.05 ERA (seventh-worst in MLB).
Betting Trends & Stats
The Diamondbacks have been one of the hottest teams on offense this season, scoring the third-most runs in the MLB (106). They rank fifth in terms of RBI (97), whilst they rank eighth in terms of batting average (.253), sixth in OBP (.334), tenth in SLG (.406) and eighth in OPS (.740). Webb may have a tough task at slowing down this hot hitting team.
It’s been a fairly quiet start with the bats for the Giants who have scored just 79 runs this season (19th in the league). They are hitting at a fairly decent rate of .246 (13th in MLB), ranking in a similar position of 14th in OBP (.315), 18th in SLG (.381) and 17th in OPS (.696). The Giants have failed to score more than four runs in each of their last four successive games.
The road team has also been above average against the run line this season and have the 11th-best run line record in the league (10-9-0). However, they have covered in only 50% of games on the road, going 3-3-0 against the run line. Nevertheless, they are 2-1-0 as road underdogs.
San Francisco have been one of the worst teams against the run line this season, ranking down in 24th with a record of 8-11-0. They are just 1-5-0 against the run line at home too for which they have been listed as favorites for every matchup.
Key Players
Leading the hot streak with the bats this season for the D-backs is Ketel Marte who has hit five home runs, batting at a team-high .325. He also leads the team in runs this season (20), which is the second-most in the majors. Meanwhile, Lourdes Gurriel ranks third across the MLB in terms of RBI (20), whilst Christian Walker is sporting a .391 OBP (24th in MLB).
Michael Conforto and Matt Chapman have been the best hitters for the Giants this term, hitting four homers each. The former has 11 runs, just one run behind the team-best of 12 by Chapman. Conforto leads the team in batting average as he is hitting at .292 and is on a four-game hitting streak entering this matchup, also boasting a team-high 14 RBI.
Best Bet
Arizona has been a lot better with their bats than the Giants, and despite Webb having the upper hand over Nelson, San Francisco’s poor bullpen will likely let them down late on. Equally, Webb will face a much more difficult task against this Diamondbacks batting lineup compared to the Rays in his last outing.
The visitors should be able to get plenty of people on base, and the likes of Walker and Marte should be able to prosper, especially as Webb has been struggling to strike out batters so far. Nelson has a tougher challenge against a better batting lineup in the Giants compared to his last outing against the Cardinals, but San Francisco has been far from affluent on offense.
The value of the D-backs moneyline looks too good to pass up at plus-money so we are backing them in this one straight up.
Arizona Diamondbacks (+140 with BetMGM)
