Heavily Favored Diamondbacks Open Last Divisional Series with Giants
Who: San Francisco Giants v. Arizona Diamondbacks
When: Monday September 25th, 2017 9:40PM EST
Where: Chase Field—Phoenix, Arizona
The Diamondbacks are officially guaranteed to be in the playoffs by way of one of two NL Wild Card positions. In fact, their win on Sunday over the Marlins solidified that they would have home field advantage in the NL Wild Card game, to be played in the middle of next week. At this point, it is looking more and more like the Diamondbacks will meet divisional rival Colorado in that game. Having home field advantage for such a game is huge, but perhaps even bigger when you are playing a team from your own division.
Before they can worry about who will visit them in Phoenix for the Wild Card game, the D-Backs need to first worry about the last week of the season. On Monday, the Diamondbacks will welcome the Giants to their field for their final divisional series and second to last series of the regular season. The D-Backs are 7-3 so far against the Giants in the second half of the season and, like most teams in the NL West, have gotten to that record without breaking too much of a sweat. Arizona manager Torey Lovullo plans on taking his team’s last games seriously and entering the playoffs on a roll.
As for the Giants, this is their last chance to earn some divisional respect. To be honest, San Francisco has been not only one of the worst teams in the NL West, but also one of the worst teams in all of baseball. They are currently a whopping 38 games off the NL West leading Dodgers’ pace and have widely been considered to have no chance at the post-season since prior to the All-Star Break. Though they cannot prevent Arizona from making the playoffs at this point, the Giants can salvage perhaps some respect.
Game Overview and Analysis
This may be difficult to believe, but the Giants (+103) will enter their final divisional series opener as just slight underdogs. They will be sending the well-traveled Johnny Cueto (7-8 4.49 ERA) to the mound and the 9-year veteran will be looking to even up his record in what is more than likely his final start of the 2017 campaign. Cueto has become a well-known name around the league, and he can be as dominant as he can be abysmal. This year has seen Cueto do ok, especially when you consider who he is playing for. His last 10 starts have yielded a 2-3 record, but he has managed to keep earned run tallies to a relative minimum.
As has been the case for most every Giants’ pitcher this season, the lack of run production makes it incredibly difficult to win games. Putting this in perspective is the Giants’ last 5 games, during which they have gone 3-2. Though their record is above .500 in this small sample, San Francisco did not score more than 4 runs in any one of those games, and were held to 2 or fewer runs on 3 occasions. As you could have probably guessed, this near complete absence of offense is one of many things that are going to be addressed during the off-season.
As for the hosting Diamondbacks (-113), they will be sending Zack Godley (8-8 3.20 ERA) to the mound. Godley, a 2-year veteran, has been as inconsistent as you would expect someone with his little experience to be. Though he is prone to giving up a few big hits every now and then, he is perhaps even more well-known for being able to strikeout opposing batters. Against the Giants, I think Godley will be able to sit opposing hitters down and prove that he is going to be an asset during what will hopefully be an extended post-season run.
As for the Diamondbacks hitting, it really just has to remain as consistent this series as it has been all year long. They have an overwhelmingly positive record against the Giants for a reason, and I fully expect that to be on display during this early week series.
Being that this is the first of a 3-game series, BetOnline is offering moneyline odds on which team will win at least 2 of the 3 games. The Giants (+245) are heavy underdogs while the D-Backs (-290) are heavy favorites. The odds are not very great, but I have to think the Diamondbacks are going to win the series.
Betting Prediction
As for the moneyline on the game itself, I think you have to go with the Diamondbacks (-113). I think Godley is going to have a solid performance to close out the season, and the odds are too close to even money against the Giants for this bet to not be taken.
The over/under for this game is 9 runs (-110/-110) and I think the under (-110) is the safer of the two wagers. As was mentioned above, the Giants do not exactly score a lot of runs, and I think that will help the under prove to be a successful wager.