Don’t look now, but things are going well out in the desert. The Arizona Diamondbacks are 8-5 after winning back-to-back series against the Dodgers and the Brewers.
Their schedule was loaded with National League contenders to start the season, eight games against LA (5-3) two against San Diego (1-1) and three facing Milwaukee (2-1).
Now, they get some relief by trading in the desert sand for the sandy beaches of Florida with a three-game series against the Miami Marlins.
The Marlins are 6-7, so not a bad start, but nothing like Arizona. They’ll look to get to .500 on Friday night in Game 1 with Trevor Rogers making his third start of the season.
Rogers is 0-2 with a 6.00 ERA. Madison Bumgarner will go for the Diamondbacks, and it might be tough for Bumgarner to throw with a 7.27 ERA weighing him down. He is 0-1 through to starts.
Let’s check out the odds for the snakes and the fish in Miami.
Diamondbacks vs. Marlins odds, run line and total
Diamondbacks vs. Marlins prediction and pick
Madison Bumgarner is flat out terrible. I literally cannot understand how he has completely regressed to the point where he doesn’t belong in Major League Baseball by the age of 33.
He was the most dominant force on the mound for a while, but that feels like ancient history. He has a 7.27 ERA, but his FIP is north of 10 through to starts and he hasn’t made it past the fifth. He’s already given up three home runs and has 10 walks to just seven strikeouts.
He is in the third percentile of fastball velocity and the first percentile of chase percentage. His stuff gets almost zero swing and miss and he couldn’t overpower Double-A hitters.
The good news for Arizona is that he only has one more year after this on his contract, the bad news is that he’s one of the most durable pitchers in the game and will probably make at least 28 more starts this season.
Trevor Rogers hasn’t been great this year either, and Arizona is 8th in the MLB in OPS vs. left-handed pitching. They are also a top 10 run producing offense and I expect them to do some damage to Rogers as well. The clear bet in this one is the over, with the number at 8.5 this could cash in the fourth inning.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change