Darvish Should Destroy Diamondbacks

Padres vs. Diamondbacks, 4:10 ET

I went a pedestrian 1-1-1 in yesterday's games. The Cease vs. McClanahan showdown wasn't as exciting as I had hoped for, but we did end up pushing in that game as the final score was 4-3. I suppose that could be considered a bit lucky with the 10th-inning rule that encourages more/faster scoring. Now we shift from Florida to another warm weather spot, Arizona.

San Diego is going to get their manager fired if they are not careful. I am joking (mostly) but they have all the talent they could need, basically fielding All-Stars at four to six spots on a nightly basis. So far out of the gate that has translated to pretty average results though. I assume at some point they will turn it on. Maybe today is the day that they start a big run. It doesn't get much better for them than having their ace Yu Darvish take the ball. Darvish has been good outside of one start against the Mets. When he faced the Mets he allowed five earned runs in 6.1 innings. The other two starts, he has gone a combined 13 innings and allowed just two earned runs. He has handled Arizona pretty well over his career and only Ketel Marte gives me concern in their lineup today.

On the other side, the Diamondbacks are looking to run out their nice beginning as long as they can. Push winning streaks, do little things well, and accumulate enough wins to be relevant into June and they can make some decisions on if they want to make a push at the Wild Card or potentially even the division if the Dodgers and Padres remain mediocre. I doubt they will be able to, but hey, the Sacramento Kings turned it around this year, why can't the Diamondbacks? This game will essentially be a bullpen game for them. They have Drey Jameson pitching for them today and he is classified as a relief pitcher. He has started, or opened, whatever term you want to use, two games for them. He's been fine in his five appearances and could turn in another good one today, but I doubt it.

The line seems pretty short in this one to me. Darvish is just -145 over Jameson for this game? I don't ever advocate taking lines like this, but I do think there is some value in it. I'll play the run line in this game at +115. I think the Padres should win this game with relative ease. They have the edge in basically every facet for this game.

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