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Arizona Diamondbacks at San Francisco Giants

Written April 18, 2009 by Jordan Haimowitz

Giants Diamondbacks The D-Backs have started the season 3-7 and have looked just terrible. As each day goes by, Arizona misses Adam Dunn more and more. They lack power in a desperate way and with Brandon Webb on the DL they will need to right this ship, QUICK! Chris Young, their young center fielder has started the season very slow. He is a potential 30-30 guy who is expected to perform nicely this year. Conor Jackson is another one of their prime bats who has struggled (with the exception of his three run go ahead home run the other night). Shortstop Stephen Drew has been non existent at the plate. Felipe Lopez and Chad Tracy have been their only consistent hitters, wow, isn’t that just frightening. Tonight, they send Doug Davis to the mound who is seeking his first victory of the year. Davis last season went 6-8 with a 4.32 ERA. He went 0-1 in three starts against San Francisco last year posting a 4.15 ERA. This is a big game for Arizona as a loss here would drop them to 3-8 and with the Padres and Dodgers rolling, we may already start to talk about a near impossible up hill climb. Davis has started the year 0-2 but has pitched fairly well and is coming off a start where he went 8 innings against St. Louis giving up only two runs but got no run support. He does not want to go 0-3 and I don’t think that he will. The x-factor today will be Stephen Drew who I believe will get his bat going. Arizona is a pretty solid defensive team but will need to display some offense if they intend on winning this game. Bet this game at Sportsbook.com, where you can get dime lines all season long!

The San Francisco Giants have started the year with the same 3-7 record as the Diamondbacks. They have went 1-6 in their first seven games against the teams in their division. Their pitching staff has been abysmal with Zito being his usual self, a human batting practice machine along side Randy Johnson who looks every bit of his old age. Their pitcher today will be Tim Lincecum, the young phenom who bursted onto the scene last year when he led the Majors in strikeouts with 265. He went 18-5 with an unbelievable 2.62 ERA. This year has not started how he would have hoped. He is 0-1 with a 7.56 ERA in his first two starts. Lincecum went 2-1 in four starts last year while posting a 2.64 ERA. He will need to be much better today as his team has not hit much and they are facing a desperate D-Backs team who looks to get their season going in the right direction. In reference to the Giants lineup, their isn’t much of one. Bengie Molina and Aaron Rowand are their two biggest power threats with Randy Winn and Fred Lewis being their speed threats. Free Agent acquisition Edgar Renteria is not his old self and is no threat in any way. This will be a tough game for San Francisco to win as they usually win their games when their better pitchers face the other teams bottom part of the rotation. Today, with Doug Davis on the mound, The Giants will look to capitalize. Just don’t put to much stock into that happening.

Haimo’s Hot Notes: The trends here are meaningless. Arizona is 3-14 in their last 17 road games while also going 2-6 in their last eight games as an Underdog. The line is currently Giants -160 with the D-Backs +148 on the flip side. As this game could go either way, I am going to advise something today I usually do not do. The O/U is at 8. Read Carefully below and lets get ready to rock and roll as today we look to break the bank, yet again.

Jordan’s Picks: Diamondbacks +1.5 (-150) & UNDER 8 Runs (The -150 is a very respectable run line when you consider the team that is favored. Do not fear the high odds.)

Another night, another big hit as the UNDER 8 runs in the Astros/Reds game went just as predicted. Cueto pitched well and Oswalt was great, the bullpens came to play overall as the bats did not show for either team. We are officially on a hot streak and now is no time to slow down. I’m ready for yet another big day, who’s with me?