The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers kick off a three game set tonight in Los Angeles. The D-Backs come into the game hot as they are winners of seven of their last ten games. They hope to carry over that momentum against the struggling Dodgers. Los Angeles came into this season with high hopes but have really struggled this year as they sit at 4-7 on the year.
These two teams are surely going to be in the running for the National League West crown and their performance early on may not be quite indicative of their final standings at the end of the year. Nevertheless, Arizona is playing really solid baseball on the road taking both of their road series thus far this season while the Dodgers have a 3-3 record at home. Los Angeles comes into the game a -145 favorite over Arizona.
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The Diamondbacks Come in Throwing Heat
The Diamondbacks have scored 58 runs this year, which is eighth best in Major League Baseball this year. They have done this damage all while hitting just 10 home runs on the season, the eighth worst in baseball. Chris Owings leads the team with a .316 batting average and looks to continue his hot start well into the season, much like last year.
Where the DBacks separate themselves is on the mound. Thus far, in the early going of the season they own as a pitching staff a 2.72 earned run average, good for third in baseball. Their starters have been knocked around a little bit as two of them hold ERA’s over 5.06 runs a game but their bullpen has been unbelievably. Taking the mound for Arizona will be Zach Greinke. A former Dodger, he is struggling a bit in this debut season with Arizona. He is 0-2 with a 5.06 ERA but has ran into a bit of bad luck with a .311 average against him.
Something has to Give for the Dodgers
Coming into this game, the Dodgers are struggling mightily at the plate. They own just a .233 batting average this year and have only hit nine balls out of the park. They aren’t putting across enough runs to consistently win but that will change at some point this year as the bats warms up. This lineup is very solid and even though they are struggling, cannot be taken lightly. Yasmani Grandal and Matt Kemp have paced the Dodgers this year both batting over .355 on the year. The bad part about that? The third leading batting average on the team is Clayton Kershaw, who has struggled on the mound thus far this year.
The starter for the Dodgers in this one with be Kenta Maeda, who with a start and a relief appearance on the year has not allowed a score through 6.0 innings of work. The Dodgers are having a tough time closing down games as Kenley Jansen has allowed four runs in 4.2 innings of work and has one loss to his name in three appearances.
Maeda saves the day
Maeda has actually looked really good this year and since he takes the mound, I have to think that the Dodgers are favored to win since Greinke is struggling as well. The Dodgers lineup needs a guy to hit and if Greinke isn’t hitting his spots, it could be a short outing. I think this will be a close one but the Dodgers should right the ship and do well this series. Take the Dodgers to beat the DBacks as the favorite -145.
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