The San Diego Padres are starting to regress to their normal offensive levels after being hot for quite a while, but they do have a hot starting pitcher on the mound in Clayton Richard. Go ‘under’ when they visit Arizona on Thursday.
Do not expect the game to get out of the single-digits in a battle of southpaws Thursday when Clayton Richard and the San Diego Padres (71-78 overall, 31-43 away) take on Tyler Skaggs and the Arizona Diamondbacks (74-74 overall, 38-36 home) in the final game of a three-game series from Chase Field in Phoenix, AZ at 3:40 ET.
The posted total at Bookmaker Sportsbook is 9½ for this contest with the current odds on the ‘under’ set at -110.
The defending National League West Champions Diamondbacks will most likely miss out on post-season play this year, as they trail the St. Louis Cardinals by 4½ games for the final wild card spot with four other teams between them and the Cardinals. The Padres are partly to blame for Arizona being in this position.
You see, before this series began, San Diego had beaten Arizona six straight times. The Padres have been a pleasant surprise this year, and they had moved to within five games of the .500 mark after beating the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, thanks to some uncharacteristically hot hitting since the All-Star break.
However, that offense may be starting to come back to earth as the Padres have scored two runs in each of the first two games of this series, both of them losses marking the probable ending of their domination over the Diamondbacks. San Diego does have a hot pitcher on the mound however in Richard, whose dominance over Arizona may not end so easily.
Richard is undefeated in his last five starts while allowing three runs or less in all of them, putting him over .500 for the year at 13-12 with a nice 3.74 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. Furthermore, he is 5-0 lifetime vs. the Diamondbacks including posting a 2.31 ERA and 1.11 WHIP over 23.1 innings in three starts against them this season. Richard has now posted five straight Quality Starts vs. Arizona, all within the last two years.
Richard is not a big strikeout guy but he is a pronounced groundball pitcher, so the fact that he has already logged 202 innings this year is not that concerning since sinkerballers usually get more sink as they get more work. His recent performances bear this out as does his very good 2.37 groundball-to-flyball ratio over the entire year.
The Diamondbacks will probably fall short in their playoff quest, but at least they have not thrown in the towel as they have won three straight games and eight of their last 12, putting them in position to get back over the .500 mark today for the first time in about a month.
Now granted, Skaggs has not been part of that success as he is winless since his first start vs. the Miami Marlins on August 22nd, but the bullpen has been red-hot, and that is a key reason why the ‘under’ is 4-1 in his five starts despite his bloated 5.55 ERA.
So just how hot has the Arizona bullpen been you ask? Well, that contingent has a minuscule 0.67 ERA and 0.74 WHIP over 22 innings in the last 10 games! The D-Backs figure to continue to play to win as long as they are still mathematically alive, so expect Skaggs to be pulled at the first hint of trouble with a reliable pen supporting him. Then again, that knowledge could also spur Skaggs on to an improved performance, especially with the Padres’ bats regressing.
Add this all up and the ‘under’ looks like the play in the desert on Thursday.
The posted total at Bookmaker Sportsbook is 9½ for this contest with the current odds on the ‘under’ set at -110.
The defending National League West Champions Diamondbacks will most likely miss out on post-season play this year, as they trail the St. Louis Cardinals by 4½ games for the final wild card spot with four other teams between them and the Cardinals. The Padres are partly to blame for Arizona being in this position.You see, before this series began, San Diego had beaten Arizona six straight times. The Padres have been a pleasant surprise this year, and they had moved to within five games of the .500 mark after beating the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, thanks to some uncharacteristically hot hitting since the All-Star break.
However, that offense may be starting to come back to earth as the Padres have scored two runs in each of the first two games of this series, both of them losses marking the probable ending of their domination over the Diamondbacks. San Diego does have a hot pitcher on the mound however in Richard, whose dominance over Arizona may not end so easily.
Richard is undefeated in his last five starts while allowing three runs or less in all of them, putting him over .500 for the year at 13-12 with a nice 3.74 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. Furthermore, he is 5-0 lifetime vs. the Diamondbacks including posting a 2.31 ERA and 1.11 WHIP over 23.1 innings in three starts against them this season. Richard has now posted five straight Quality Starts vs. Arizona, all within the last two years.
Richard is not a big strikeout guy but he is a pronounced groundball pitcher, so the fact that he has already logged 202 innings this year is not that concerning since sinkerballers usually get more sink as they get more work. His recent performances bear this out as does his very good 2.37 groundball-to-flyball ratio over the entire year.
The Diamondbacks will probably fall short in their playoff quest, but at least they have not thrown in the towel as they have won three straight games and eight of their last 12, putting them in position to get back over the .500 mark today for the first time in about a month.
Now granted, Skaggs has not been part of that success as he is winless since his first start vs. the Miami Marlins on August 22nd, but the bullpen has been red-hot, and that is a key reason why the ‘under’ is 4-1 in his five starts despite his bloated 5.55 ERA.
So just how hot has the Arizona bullpen been you ask? Well, that contingent has a minuscule 0.67 ERA and 0.74 WHIP over 22 innings in the last 10 games! The D-Backs figure to continue to play to win as long as they are still mathematically alive, so expect Skaggs to be pulled at the first hint of trouble with a reliable pen supporting him. Then again, that knowledge could also spur Skaggs on to an improved performance, especially with the Padres’ bats regressing.
Add this all up and the ‘under’ looks like the play in the desert on Thursday.
MLB Pick: Padres, Diamondbacks ‘under’ 9½ (-110) ---
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