The San Francisco Giants and the Arizona Diamondbacks ended their respective series against other National League hopefuls this Wednesday. Now they’re set to face one another this Thursday night for the first meeting of a four-game divisional series in the Valley of the Sun.
Will San Fran go over the .500 mark by the end of the night, or will the D-Backs stay on-par with the Giants and Dodgers in the crowded NL West’s standings with a win? Let’s find out more about this thrilling matchup below.
For more MLB coverage from Thursday’s slate, check out our previews for Astros vs. Red Sox and Royals vs. Yankees right after this.
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San Francisco Giants vs. Arizona Diamondbacks Preview
Where: Chase Field, Phoenix
When: Thursday, May 12, 9:40 PM ET
Line: San Francisco Giants (+103) at Arizona Diamondbacks (-113); total: 7.5 – view all MLB lines
TV Broadcast: TBA
Betting on the San Francisco Giants (18-18)
This even-year season has been quite a rollercoaster for the Giants, who have not broken away from the rest of the gutsy NL West pack in the division standings. Now comes the second season-series versus the Diamondbacks, who swept them in all four games in their mid-April encounters.
Luckily for San Francisco, prized free-agent signing Johnny Cueto (4-1, 3.02 ERA) will take the mound in Thursday’s series opener, as the team is 6-1 this season in games started by the Dominican righty. Cueto has pitched at least seven innings of work in six of his last seven starts, allowing no more than two walks in each of those contests and just a total of two homers during that same span.
Furthermore, the former Cincinnati ace has gone a solid 6-2 with a 2.70 ERA in nine career starts against Arizona. A superb night from Cueto on Wednesday is what the Giants certainly need, because they have not been able to produce a lot runs of late. They were shutout in two games and mustered up one measly run during their entire three-game skid before that rather fortunate extra-innings victory on Wednesday.
Star catcher Buster Posey, in particular, has gone ice cold in his last six games with just one hit in 24 plate appearances. Perhaps the former NL MVP will regain his mojo facing Arizona’s Zack Greinke on Thursday, as he has a decent .278 lifetime batting average against the D-Backs’ stud.
Another promising sign that the Giants can get back on track is that they’ve played well away from the Bay Area. They’re 3-1 on the road this month of May, and have also gone 5-2 in their last seven games held at Chase Field.
Betting on the Arizona Diamondbacks (17-19)
Whereas the Giants ended their losing streak on Wednesday, the Arizona Diamondbacks, on the other hand, saw their own five-game winning streak come to an end that same day after falling 8-7 to the Colorado Rockies.
And again, much like San Francisco, the Diamondbacks have been wildly inconsistent this season. They suffered a six-game slide before reeling off that five-game run, and they had another five-game win streak shortly before that dismal stretch. During that earlier five-game win streak from April 17 to 21, it was the Giants that were bludgeoned in four-straight contests by Arizona.
Another prized free-agency acquisition will make his start this Thursday night in Zack Greinke (3-2, 5.15 ERA). Although Greinke’s earned-run average this 2016 is alarming to say the least, he has still shown his best stuff when facing the Giants across the mound. The former Cy Young Award-winner has a fantastic 8-0 record and a sound 2.12 ERA in 11 career starts against San Francisco.
Here’s another statistic on Greike’s dominance: Amongst Giants batters with more than 20 at-bats against Arizona’s ace, not one batter has hit over .300 against him. Hunter Pence leads all Giants hitters with just two home runs and three RBIs lifetime against Greinke, and is posting a mere .143 batting average versus the crafty righty at that.
The D-Backs’ offense, meanwhile, has been on fire of late by scoring an average of 6.3 runs over their last six contests. San Francisco’s Cueto is one mighty adversary across the mound this Thursday night, all right, but look for Paul Goldschmidt to deliver the goods for Arizona. Goldschmidt has four RBIs on .417 hitting in 12 career at-bats against the Dominican ace.
Furthermore, the Diamondbacks have won their last four games and eight of the last 10 against their NL West rivals from The Bay. They better not take that brutal one-run, high-scoring affair of a loss to the Rockies on Wednesday at heart, though, if they really want to pull dead-even with San Francisco in the win/loss columns by tomorrow evening.
Writer’s Prediction
The Giants (+103) win a close one on the road, 3-2.
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